Picking up on the discussion between Charlie and Will this morning regarding ‘free speech’, you can do a lot worse than get a hold of Jacob Mchangama’s well-researched and entertaining new release titled ‘Free Speech’. It is worth your time as it traces the history of free speech, dating back circa 3000 years, contending how a society that supports free speech is considerably wealthier and more harmonious than closed societies. It is the perfect sequel to Jonathan Rauch’s ‘Constitution of Knowledge’ and Jacob should be one of Charlie’s next guests.
As to KJB...the GOP has no reason whatsoever to oppose her nomination. I'm still frustrated by the fact that McConnell essentially STOLE two nomination opportunities by refusing to even hear Obama's nominee because it was within a year of an election and then rammed through Barrett within weeks to the next election. As if only the GOP is allowed to appoint the judiciary. And as to activist judges...just look at the six GOP nominees on the bench. Their personal ideology is on display with every single decision. KJB is not just a black women, but an extremely qualified candidate with nothing but GOP fairy tales to use as an excuse to not vote for her. She should have a 100-0 vote in her favor.
Is it just me, but I see similarities between: 1) The GOP's hypocrisy about not nominating a SCOTUS in the last year of a Presidency 2) Putin saying that he wants to negotiate peace
Actions speak louder than words and in both cases...the words are solely intended to fill the air with nonsense while they go ahead do whatever the hell they want and/or were planning to do anyway.
The Left, while sometimes misguided in their zeal, at least seek to make the lives of Americans better, particularly those who have been left behind, attempt to level opportunities, and lift up the middle class. What exactly does the current Right wing stand for??? Contrary, obstructive, determine to "count coup" on liberals no matter how ridiculous their point making, glorification of TFG and autocrats in general, and a scary attempt to pursue some kind of theological agenda with very anti-Christian - ACTUAL Christian values. I find them frightening and crazy, conspiracy laden and anti-factual. And my fear is, with the media seeming to exist only to criticize with venom whoever is in the White House...that people are completely missing the positive direction Joe Biden is pushing the country towards in their impatience for whoever POTUS is to magically cater to their personal needs.
Can someone explain what aspect of Putin's behavior or philosophy is in the least bit "Christian"? The perversion of the meaning of those words intended to describe a person's religious beliefs and presumptive behavior based on a particular Scripture is, in some ways, worse than the obliteration of "liberal" and "conservative" as meaningful political terms.
Besides a simple tribal identitarianism, it seems to come down mostly to promoting the Russian Orthodox Church officially, and being anti-LGBTQ. The natcons and tradcons who've held Putin to be a defender of Christianity don't seem to give a lot of weight to Christian charity and kindness, or honesty and integrity. And the tradcons who portrayed Trump as a stalwart champion of Christian values and family values are evidently comfortable with hypocrisy and double standards.
Yeah, it’s like the refrain of that song we all learned in Catholic school back in the day: “They’ll know we are Christians by our guns, by our guns, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our guns.”
What was PizzaGate, 2 months after Dennis Hastert went to jail? Then the doctor Jim Jordan worked with. Then the bipartisan but trumpy list of Epstein friends. Then Matt Gaetz. Not to mention the Christian camp in Missouri and a dozen other little scandals. Q-anon did a pretty good job of projecting attention towards the Democrats, easy to see why someone like Hawley would jump on it.
The Trumpist Party wants to silence a minority of children because it hurts their sensiblities. And if thats not enough. They want to do it by smearing the rational mind. This is why we Cancel you Klowns on social media. There is collateral damage and it is not right. However, you do not get Cancel Culture without the Trumpists shooting off idiocricy every 5 seconds. Also, Bill Maher, sorry to hijack your feed here Charlie but its my only outlet, lol. Bill, wtf? Stop talking about how much you Hate Covid masking and vaccines. We all do. I've been watching you religiously for 20 years. And you sound like a rich spoiled asshole that needs to throw away his own trash. This is a dynamic ever changing pandemic with no magic bullet. And you have been on the front line of it zero. My job furloughed a ton of managers then ordered a skeleton crew into a warehouse that was poorly ventilated and built in the 60's. They flouted masking and had Trumpist views on everything. And its rhetoric like yours that compounds the issue. The issue is not getting people to want to take the masks off. Its ALWAYS been getting them to wear it in concert. You are orchestrating stupidity. The same people that think the virus was invented in a Chinese lab are the same people that think their natural body's immunities should fight the virus. That is what Aaron Rodgers did! He wasn't a super supreme athlete that was worried about his body. He was a rich asshole that flouted masking and vaccines because it matched his political ideology and his own narcissism. Because if he was weighing the effects of the vaccine on his body in some rational sense. He would have also weighted the idea he pontificated on Joe Rogan's podcast that the virus came form a lab. The fact that he was had 2 opposing viewpoints in his head at the same time, 1. that the virus was born in a lab, 2. vaccines were born in a lab and therefore vaccines are bad for my super athletic body, is stupidity in motion along with a dash of ametur political ideals. And I'm not just saying this because I'm a Bears fan, lol. Seriously tho, it's exactly as Sarah Longwell describes the problem. The ability of adult americans to hold two opposing viewpoints is the reason for the cultural backlash that is tired of their mouth. You want to abuse a child that has 2 mothers and think that somehow this is going to raise a happy and kind adult in your own children by silencing the minority with government powers? As if you and your heterosexual partner are not going to be divorced inside of 10 years anyway. If you want America to be first in foreign policy. Why don't you worry about your home life first in the education of your children.
Quick History lesson: The GOP have always been the party of isolationism, at least as far back as the early 20th Century. FDR didn't stay out of WWII from '39-41 because the Dems didn't want him to get involved. The Republican party went so far as to say Hilter was good for the German economy. So their newfound isolationism is just a return to type.
I read George Will's questions for KBJ and wasn't all that impressed. They pretty much boiled down to "will you please protect white fragility?" and "will you please rule against government public-health related mandates?"
Clearly you only read the first few paragraphs. Will's questions were all along the lines of what a "traditional" conservative would ask: Are you for equality under the law (and not giving certain classes, ie, races, preferential treatment)? Do you believe in the rule of law, where just because someone is a police officer, doesn't give them the right to commit obvious crimes? Do you believe that the separation of powers is real and should be maintained? Are you for limited government (reducing the intrusion into private decisions)?
These used to be things that conservatives actually cared about - not scoring points on Twitter or owning the libs.
It's inreresting to watch all these would be's who think they can be President and sadly one of them might make it, God help us. It appears Hawley is in charge of trying to screw up the court hearings. Cruise is dealing with the truckers, riding around in circles with them. DeSantis appears to be doing everything he can to screw up his state to the point it may never recover or at least be a clone of Texas. Then there is Abbott of Texas building the wall that won't stop anyone and trying to run gay folks out of the state. Pompeo is losing weight so you can't recognize who he used to be.
I don't believe the Dumper will run again once he harvests all the possible dollars from his MAGA bunch "the great unwashed" who still think he is President. I'm sure glad my years are running down because the future looks bleak!
Dan McLaughlin is out of his cotton pickin mind, this Ohio GOP moron cage match over their nomination is improving Tim Ryan’s odds every day… he’s a quality guy too, and I i’ll be voting for him (expat absentee)
Was a Republican for many years until Trump came around, and often wonder when I’ll be able -if ever- to wander back to voting GOP again. Races like this putrid Senate contest make it easy to put that off indefinitely
"There is no clear dividing line between the right and the far right in the 2020s".
Precisely. And this is the reason why that as a non-partisan, unaffiliated voter who had, up until 2016, voted a split ticket more often than not, I cannot and will not vote for a Republican candidate for any office, at any level of government, anytime, ever again, unless there's a radical change in the behavior of the GOP as a whole. For those who say "But what about Cheney, Kinzinger..." and the other handful of Republicans in DC and the states who have actually stood up squarely and unequivocally on the side of liberal democracy and who clearly stand against the forces seeking to undermine and destroy it, I say that that is not a line. It's a small fox hole on the front of an ongoing battle in a war that will determine the fate of our country either as a nation of laws or a nation of men.
I thank them for their service. But in any war, there are unintended and undeserving casualties. And while there are others in that party who may not actually be shouldering arms and firing volleys at the heart of who we are supposed to be as a nation, their failure to raise their heads from their bunkers and fire so much as a single round against the real enemies we face make them every bit as complicit as the Russian troops - however many or few there may be - who know that what they are doing in Ukraine is wrong, but march to their orders of the day nonetheless.
I'm not foolish enough to draw any parallels between the Democratic party and the good people of Ukraine. But sadly, when war comes, you must fight it with the army you've got, not the one you wish you had. In this fight, I sorely wish we had something resembling the latter rather than the former. But lacking that, until the GOP marches under a different flag, I'll stand against them with whatever means I have at my disposal, regardless of any noise some of them may be currently making about supporting and defending freedom in a foreign land. If and when they start showing the same spirit in supporting and defending freedom and liberty within our own borders and do something to prove their commitment to that enterprise, I may be persuaded to reconsider my position. But until then, me giving my vote to a Republican is about as likely as my sending a care package to a Russian soldier.
I mean, if Robert Bork wanted to be nominated, he could have not answered “Brown v. Board of Education” when asked to compare Roe v. Wade to something during his Senate hearing. Bit of an unforced error, that.
To say nothing of the fact that he was the same man, surveying the reckless abuse of power that was the Saturday Night Massacre, solemnly looked Nixon in the eye and bravely said “Sure boss, I’ll fire anyone you want! Just tell me who!”
I confess that I am often hard on you Charlie, because I expect quality from you, and I am rarely disappointed in that output. Today you've shown why; I have no doubt that you probably disagree with KBJ on many issues, but the fact that you can say that she's more than qualified for the role is why you're worth listening to.
It's clear to everyone, or it should be, that she'd be a fine judge, and certainly not deserving of what Hawley is doing. It's disgraceful, and very little seems to meet that term these days in my opinion.
My general view has always been that presidents should have latitude when nominating judges, it's why I was fine with Gorsuch despite not being particularly supportive of his politics. KBJ is more than qualified for the role, so there's no reason she shouldn't be confirmed, but I'm sure the GOP will find reasons.
Plus it will be wonderful to actually have a non corporist judge who has done lots of non corporate activities. She is far closer to the people in this country than any of the other phonies on the court.
I had never considered the aspect of using the "No" vote (knowing she would get nominated anyway) solely to continue the child pornography Dem meme. That's disingenuous in so many ways and levels.
Like I've said before....my friend of 30 years was quite convinced there was a Democratic child pornography ring based on QAnon crap. Hawley is playing to this lie...it's just so low to be almost unbelievable.
Trump did do one thing positive...he revealed the lack of moral standards by many in the GOP. It caused me to leave the party. So many are simply burying their heads in the ground hoping it will all go away.
Perhaps the time is ripe for a nickname for Josh. I suggest Josh Haw-Haw, as in Lord Haw-Haw, clearly a mental mentor for the boy.
"Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English accent.
Lord Haw-Haw broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Brits. Tucker's broadcasting Putin propaganda to the US. That's not a connection? Both traitors to democracy.
Haw-Haw did it from Germany to the UK. Josh is doing it from Magaverse to the US. Great parallel there, methinks. Tucker is doing it from the US to the US. Although his nonsense is being re-published by Russian media, that is only for Russian consumption.
Picking up on the discussion between Charlie and Will this morning regarding ‘free speech’, you can do a lot worse than get a hold of Jacob Mchangama’s well-researched and entertaining new release titled ‘Free Speech’. It is worth your time as it traces the history of free speech, dating back circa 3000 years, contending how a society that supports free speech is considerably wealthier and more harmonious than closed societies. It is the perfect sequel to Jonathan Rauch’s ‘Constitution of Knowledge’ and Jacob should be one of Charlie’s next guests.
As to KJB...the GOP has no reason whatsoever to oppose her nomination. I'm still frustrated by the fact that McConnell essentially STOLE two nomination opportunities by refusing to even hear Obama's nominee because it was within a year of an election and then rammed through Barrett within weeks to the next election. As if only the GOP is allowed to appoint the judiciary. And as to activist judges...just look at the six GOP nominees on the bench. Their personal ideology is on display with every single decision. KJB is not just a black women, but an extremely qualified candidate with nothing but GOP fairy tales to use as an excuse to not vote for her. She should have a 100-0 vote in her favor.
Is it just me, but I see similarities between: 1) The GOP's hypocrisy about not nominating a SCOTUS in the last year of a Presidency 2) Putin saying that he wants to negotiate peace
Actions speak louder than words and in both cases...the words are solely intended to fill the air with nonsense while they go ahead do whatever the hell they want and/or were planning to do anyway.
The Left, while sometimes misguided in their zeal, at least seek to make the lives of Americans better, particularly those who have been left behind, attempt to level opportunities, and lift up the middle class. What exactly does the current Right wing stand for??? Contrary, obstructive, determine to "count coup" on liberals no matter how ridiculous their point making, glorification of TFG and autocrats in general, and a scary attempt to pursue some kind of theological agenda with very anti-Christian - ACTUAL Christian values. I find them frightening and crazy, conspiracy laden and anti-factual. And my fear is, with the media seeming to exist only to criticize with venom whoever is in the White House...that people are completely missing the positive direction Joe Biden is pushing the country towards in their impatience for whoever POTUS is to magically cater to their personal needs.
I'm ex-GOP and agree with you 100% especially currently
Can someone explain what aspect of Putin's behavior or philosophy is in the least bit "Christian"? The perversion of the meaning of those words intended to describe a person's religious beliefs and presumptive behavior based on a particular Scripture is, in some ways, worse than the obliteration of "liberal" and "conservative" as meaningful political terms.
Besides a simple tribal identitarianism, it seems to come down mostly to promoting the Russian Orthodox Church officially, and being anti-LGBTQ. The natcons and tradcons who've held Putin to be a defender of Christianity don't seem to give a lot of weight to Christian charity and kindness, or honesty and integrity. And the tradcons who portrayed Trump as a stalwart champion of Christian values and family values are evidently comfortable with hypocrisy and double standards.
In other words, neither of them are Christian at all.
Yeah, it’s like the refrain of that song we all learned in Catholic school back in the day: “They’ll know we are Christians by our guns, by our guns, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our guns.”
What was PizzaGate, 2 months after Dennis Hastert went to jail? Then the doctor Jim Jordan worked with. Then the bipartisan but trumpy list of Epstein friends. Then Matt Gaetz. Not to mention the Christian camp in Missouri and a dozen other little scandals. Q-anon did a pretty good job of projecting attention towards the Democrats, easy to see why someone like Hawley would jump on it.
The Trumpist Party wants to silence a minority of children because it hurts their sensiblities. And if thats not enough. They want to do it by smearing the rational mind. This is why we Cancel you Klowns on social media. There is collateral damage and it is not right. However, you do not get Cancel Culture without the Trumpists shooting off idiocricy every 5 seconds. Also, Bill Maher, sorry to hijack your feed here Charlie but its my only outlet, lol. Bill, wtf? Stop talking about how much you Hate Covid masking and vaccines. We all do. I've been watching you religiously for 20 years. And you sound like a rich spoiled asshole that needs to throw away his own trash. This is a dynamic ever changing pandemic with no magic bullet. And you have been on the front line of it zero. My job furloughed a ton of managers then ordered a skeleton crew into a warehouse that was poorly ventilated and built in the 60's. They flouted masking and had Trumpist views on everything. And its rhetoric like yours that compounds the issue. The issue is not getting people to want to take the masks off. Its ALWAYS been getting them to wear it in concert. You are orchestrating stupidity. The same people that think the virus was invented in a Chinese lab are the same people that think their natural body's immunities should fight the virus. That is what Aaron Rodgers did! He wasn't a super supreme athlete that was worried about his body. He was a rich asshole that flouted masking and vaccines because it matched his political ideology and his own narcissism. Because if he was weighing the effects of the vaccine on his body in some rational sense. He would have also weighted the idea he pontificated on Joe Rogan's podcast that the virus came form a lab. The fact that he was had 2 opposing viewpoints in his head at the same time, 1. that the virus was born in a lab, 2. vaccines were born in a lab and therefore vaccines are bad for my super athletic body, is stupidity in motion along with a dash of ametur political ideals. And I'm not just saying this because I'm a Bears fan, lol. Seriously tho, it's exactly as Sarah Longwell describes the problem. The ability of adult americans to hold two opposing viewpoints is the reason for the cultural backlash that is tired of their mouth. You want to abuse a child that has 2 mothers and think that somehow this is going to raise a happy and kind adult in your own children by silencing the minority with government powers? As if you and your heterosexual partner are not going to be divorced inside of 10 years anyway. If you want America to be first in foreign policy. Why don't you worry about your home life first in the education of your children.
Quick History lesson: The GOP have always been the party of isolationism, at least as far back as the early 20th Century. FDR didn't stay out of WWII from '39-41 because the Dems didn't want him to get involved. The Republican party went so far as to say Hilter was good for the German economy. So their newfound isolationism is just a return to type.
I think they are both slimey enough to stand on the same podium. Well, one of them will be standing anyway.
Why do I suspect that Baseball Crunch dude doesn't believe in advanced analytics and championship the idea of being "clutch?"
I read George Will's questions for KBJ and wasn't all that impressed. They pretty much boiled down to "will you please protect white fragility?" and "will you please rule against government public-health related mandates?"
Clearly you only read the first few paragraphs. Will's questions were all along the lines of what a "traditional" conservative would ask: Are you for equality under the law (and not giving certain classes, ie, races, preferential treatment)? Do you believe in the rule of law, where just because someone is a police officer, doesn't give them the right to commit obvious crimes? Do you believe that the separation of powers is real and should be maintained? Are you for limited government (reducing the intrusion into private decisions)?
These used to be things that conservatives actually cared about - not scoring points on Twitter or owning the libs.
Then why do conservatives and fascists want to rule over women’s bodies if they believe in “ reducing the intrusion into private decisions”?
No, I read the whole thing.
But the man knows his Thesaurus!
But he's a Red Sox fan so not all bad. ;)
It's inreresting to watch all these would be's who think they can be President and sadly one of them might make it, God help us. It appears Hawley is in charge of trying to screw up the court hearings. Cruise is dealing with the truckers, riding around in circles with them. DeSantis appears to be doing everything he can to screw up his state to the point it may never recover or at least be a clone of Texas. Then there is Abbott of Texas building the wall that won't stop anyone and trying to run gay folks out of the state. Pompeo is losing weight so you can't recognize who he used to be.
I don't believe the Dumper will run again once he harvests all the possible dollars from his MAGA bunch "the great unwashed" who still think he is President. I'm sure glad my years are running down because the future looks bleak!
Did they buy him a new plane yet?
I too am glad my years are running down. If I had foreseen all this, I’d never have had children; their bleak future pains me.
Dan McLaughlin is out of his cotton pickin mind, this Ohio GOP moron cage match over their nomination is improving Tim Ryan’s odds every day… he’s a quality guy too, and I i’ll be voting for him (expat absentee)
Was a Republican for many years until Trump came around, and often wonder when I’ll be able -if ever- to wander back to voting GOP again. Races like this putrid Senate contest make it easy to put that off indefinitely
"There is no clear dividing line between the right and the far right in the 2020s".
Precisely. And this is the reason why that as a non-partisan, unaffiliated voter who had, up until 2016, voted a split ticket more often than not, I cannot and will not vote for a Republican candidate for any office, at any level of government, anytime, ever again, unless there's a radical change in the behavior of the GOP as a whole. For those who say "But what about Cheney, Kinzinger..." and the other handful of Republicans in DC and the states who have actually stood up squarely and unequivocally on the side of liberal democracy and who clearly stand against the forces seeking to undermine and destroy it, I say that that is not a line. It's a small fox hole on the front of an ongoing battle in a war that will determine the fate of our country either as a nation of laws or a nation of men.
I thank them for their service. But in any war, there are unintended and undeserving casualties. And while there are others in that party who may not actually be shouldering arms and firing volleys at the heart of who we are supposed to be as a nation, their failure to raise their heads from their bunkers and fire so much as a single round against the real enemies we face make them every bit as complicit as the Russian troops - however many or few there may be - who know that what they are doing in Ukraine is wrong, but march to their orders of the day nonetheless.
I'm not foolish enough to draw any parallels between the Democratic party and the good people of Ukraine. But sadly, when war comes, you must fight it with the army you've got, not the one you wish you had. In this fight, I sorely wish we had something resembling the latter rather than the former. But lacking that, until the GOP marches under a different flag, I'll stand against them with whatever means I have at my disposal, regardless of any noise some of them may be currently making about supporting and defending freedom in a foreign land. If and when they start showing the same spirit in supporting and defending freedom and liberty within our own borders and do something to prove their commitment to that enterprise, I may be persuaded to reconsider my position. But until then, me giving my vote to a Republican is about as likely as my sending a care package to a Russian soldier.
I mean, if Robert Bork wanted to be nominated, he could have not answered “Brown v. Board of Education” when asked to compare Roe v. Wade to something during his Senate hearing. Bit of an unforced error, that.
To say nothing of the fact that he was the same man, surveying the reckless abuse of power that was the Saturday Night Massacre, solemnly looked Nixon in the eye and bravely said “Sure boss, I’ll fire anyone you want! Just tell me who!”
I confess that I am often hard on you Charlie, because I expect quality from you, and I am rarely disappointed in that output. Today you've shown why; I have no doubt that you probably disagree with KBJ on many issues, but the fact that you can say that she's more than qualified for the role is why you're worth listening to.
It's clear to everyone, or it should be, that she'd be a fine judge, and certainly not deserving of what Hawley is doing. It's disgraceful, and very little seems to meet that term these days in my opinion.
My general view has always been that presidents should have latitude when nominating judges, it's why I was fine with Gorsuch despite not being particularly supportive of his politics. KBJ is more than qualified for the role, so there's no reason she shouldn't be confirmed, but I'm sure the GOP will find reasons.
Plus it will be wonderful to actually have a non corporist judge who has done lots of non corporate activities. She is far closer to the people in this country than any of the other phonies on the court.
I had never considered the aspect of using the "No" vote (knowing she would get nominated anyway) solely to continue the child pornography Dem meme. That's disingenuous in so many ways and levels.
Like I've said before....my friend of 30 years was quite convinced there was a Democratic child pornography ring based on QAnon crap. Hawley is playing to this lie...it's just so low to be almost unbelievable.
Trump did do one thing positive...he revealed the lack of moral standards by many in the GOP. It caused me to leave the party. So many are simply burying their heads in the ground hoping it will all go away.
Perhaps the time is ripe for a nickname for Josh. I suggest Josh Haw-Haw, as in Lord Haw-Haw, clearly a mental mentor for the boy.
"Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English accent.
Lord Haw-Haw - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw"
I've sent more than one email to Senator Hawley since January 6. Always polite, and always start: Dear Senator Vichy Hawley.
Naw, Tucker's already got that Lord Haw-Haw title sewed up. Need a new name - John Birch?
Sorry, but Tucker has no "connection" to Lord Haw-Haw. Give your idea to TC, as in TC Birch?
Lord Haw-Haw broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Brits. Tucker's broadcasting Putin propaganda to the US. That's not a connection? Both traitors to democracy.
Haw-Haw did it from Germany to the UK. Josh is doing it from Magaverse to the US. Great parallel there, methinks. Tucker is doing it from the US to the US. Although his nonsense is being re-published by Russian media, that is only for Russian consumption.