Donald Trump 2019

[Underdog 28457]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Big surprise.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/senior-trump-official-embellished-resume-had-face-fake-time-cover-n1080356

That's a man, baby! 

/mullet

[Guest Lobo]

those lips are only good for two things..,sucking lies and telling dicks.  

[JimmyJames 12271]

1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

This administration is a hive of frauds, grifters, con artists, snake oil salesmen, narcissists, compulsive liars, imposters, and opportunists.  What’s insane is 40% of Americans are so fucking delusional, partisan, and/or stupid that they look at the writhing, scaly pile of human fraud that is the Trump Administration and think “Swamp, drained.”  
 

We’re so fucked.  Even if Trump is ousted in 2020, how does the country recover when a huge chunk of the population are brainwashed cultists?

Nah. 25-35 percent of the country has always been hopeless idiots. The difference nowadays is that they have all managed to coalesce into one particular political party, a somewhat unintended consequence of the top .01 percents plan to control the Republican Party to enrich themselves by getting morons to vote against their own interest. 

[Brisketexan 104628]

In the Ray of Hope Department:
https://www.wacotrib.com/opinion/columns/board_of_contributors/blake-burleson-in-an-abyss-of-lies-i-must-finally/article_7636d664-7aa1-5eb6-91ff-b6b87795b438.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR1zhycuhWZl3WqwQQSd2QKE6DvdGa0O3IWltFTFGf5BGUG1Hwm5nVKKEPs
 
Spoiler

IN THE AGE OF TRUMP

Blake Burleson: In an abyss of lies, I must finally depart from enablers of madness among us

• BLAKE BURLESON Board of Contributors
  • Nov 9, 2019

 

A few weeks ago as I was leaving church after the Sunday morning service, I spoke with one of my friends about the unraveling of our democracy. The conversation turned to his father — in his 90s and a Trump supporter. My friend told me that his father only watches Fox News to get information and has no tolerance for information factual or otherwise that counters the narrative he hears on Fox. When my friend confronts his father about blatant and deliberately misleading statements from what has essentially become Trump News, his father declares unequivocally that the mainstream media is the one putting out lies.

And so a family rift has developed between my friend and the father he loves.

Except for those in isolation, most Americans are experiencing such tensions in some of their closest relationships. Bonds are fraying in families, neighborhoods, businesses, civic organizations, schools and faith communities to a degree not witnessed since the Civil War. As we know, that horrific conflict pitted families against one another in national bloodshed. Slavery was ultimately crushed and our union was stitched back together, but not before brother fought against brother, father against son. Families went to pieces right along with the nation.

During the four-year Civil War, propagandists for slavery surfaced at every level of society, from statehouses to courthouses, from newspaper offices to college lecture halls, from bars to pulpits, from kitchen tables to bedrooms. And like Republican Party leadership today, these propagandists drank deeply from a well of maniacal, self-serving, us-against-them ideology: Slavery was God-ordained! While the propagandists then had no Fox News to indoctrinate the fold, the media of the mid-1800s in the South were dominated by voices of oppressors who had enslaved an entire population of Americans. Non-slave-owning whites were — with notable exceptions — the enablers of the slave owners. Voices of liberation were mostly silenced in the forests and cotton fields from South Carolina to Texas.

Unfortunately, many of my ancestors in Texas were part of this oppressive regime. Some Burlesons owned slaves; most Burlesons may not have owned slaves but nonetheless plowed blood and treasure into supporting the South’s fight to perpetuate slavery. In fact, Burlesons were willing to die to preserve a way of life propped up by one of the vilest evils in history. All benefited by oppression of African Americans both before and after the War Between the States.

While some members of my family such Gen. Edward Burleson, once vice president of the Republic of Texas, led in advocating white supremacy over African Americans and Native Americans, others such as Rev. Rufus Burleson, president of Baylor University, eventually became advocates for the rights of blacks. The change of heart did not happen overnight for this preacher-educator. When the Civil War began, Rufus Burleson was a chaplain on the side of the South, enabling their cause. Years later, after the North had won the war, he traveled all over Texas giving speeches to encourage towns to support free public education that included schooling the children of freed slaves. He also helped raise money for the establishment of Bishop College for African Americans.

Since Judge R.E.B. Baylor, for whom the university is named, was a slave owner, Rev. Burleson’s early advocacy for civil rights is remarkable, perhaps even singular among Burlesons at the time. Most of my ancestors (unlike Uncle Rufus) proudly bolstered the Jim Crow South once the war was over and Reconstruction collapsed. This legacy of discrimination lasted a long, long time. In fact, the Lost Cause narrative that gave rise to it defined several generations.

As a child growing up in Texas in the 1950s and ’60s, I found the racial prejudice in my extended family and neighborhoods was deep and pervasive. I was taught in school that the Civil War was not fought over slavery but over states’ rights — an example of revisionist history if it ever existed. The propaganda machinery went unchecked in the South for at least 100 years after the Civil War. In some quarters it continues today and has, in fact, been given new life through white supremacists emboldened by President Trump. Growing up, I learned from extended family members that slavery was not evil but rather a “peculiar institution” beneficial for African Americans and good for America. As a boy, I heard happy statements like, “Did you know that most slaves chose to stay with their slave owners after the Civil War ended?”

The message was clear: Slaves once in human bondage loved their masters so much they just wanted to remain in one big happy family. These sentiments were expressed at family gatherings and celebrations in willful ignorance of the depredation caused by an institution in which the recently freed had nowhere else to go, no way to survive except to stay with former slave owners who had treated them as their property, their chattel. These Southern myths were meant to assuage any collective societal guilt for enabling the political, religious and civic powers of oppression, past and present.

Myths can last for decades, even a century or more. When renowned Civil War historian Shelby Foote, resolutely Southern author of a three-volume history, “The Civil War: A Narrative,” spoke at the Beall Russell Lecture for the Humanities at Baylor University in 2002, he made the statement that slavery was ultimately “good” for African Americans because it took them out of primitive Africa. He said this “peculiar institution” allowed them to escape the Rwandan genocide! Many of us in the audience put our heads in our hands upon hearing this tired minimizing of America’s original sin.

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 over the issue of slavery. Baptists in the South sold their souls by separating from their northern Baptist brothers and sisters in preference for that “peculiar institution.” It took 150 years for the SBC to publicly apologize for support of slavery, asking forgiveness from “all African Americans.” Yet today the SBC again stands on the wrong side of history as its leaders openly support a racist in the White House. First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. have become the grand enablers of Trump as SBC congregations large and small across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and beyond voice adoration and awe for this president.

 

A new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute indicates 98% of Republican white evangelical Protestants oppose impeachment — significantly more than any other religious group surveyed. In Waco, punch-drunk evangelicals have either kept silent or openly supported Trump and his actions. One evangelical pastor — a friend of mine — defends Trump’s inhumane border policy, writing in this very newspaper that it “offered compassion” and “that it is an honor to serve on the Board of Latinos for Trump.” This reminds me of some Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests’ tacit and not-so-tacit support of Hitler’s “compassion” camps for Jews in World War II that separated families.

Evangelicals and evil

Christians surely should ponder this much: The Trump administration deliberately inflicted trauma upon children as a deterrent, an action morally repugnant and contrary to international law and biblical tenets. This action is indefensible. Yet many evangelicals are OK with taking the evil with the good. I often hear evangelicals say they don’t like the Trump tweets but tolerate them because of Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court, placing justices who stand ready to dutifully overturn Roe v. Wade. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge in Genesis, these evangelicals claim mightily to be “pro-life,” even as they enable and endorse a government that separates vulnerable children from desperate parents at the border, that orders immigrant children in need of lifesaving health care to return to their country of origin where such care does not exist, that encourages and excuses white supremacists’ violence, that tries to dismantle health care for millions of Americans, that precipitously withdraws troops from Syria leaving Kurdish men, women and children to face potential genocide, that refuses to do anything about the epidemic of gun violence in America, that guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s role in conserving clean air, clean water and other natural resources, that ignores the climate change so obviously threatening all human and animal life on the planet. This is pro-death, not pro-life. Yet Republican support for Trump remains sky-high — at least among those still willing to identify themselves as Republican to inquiring pollsters.

While recent surveys suggest younger generations of Americans are fed up with Republicans and their right-wing misogyny, homophobia, racism, greed and xenophobia, millions of other Americans — from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers — are entrenched in an ideological swamp that supports this president and his minions (some now under indictment or in prison). My church friend’s father, now in his 90s, will not be around many more years. He is likely to continue watching Fox News and its soul-snatching, mind-numbing, truth-bending embrace of Trump and his enablers till his last breath. And what of Trump disciples in their 50s, 60s and 70s who will live among us several more decades after Trump is removed from office, resigns or is defeated in 2020? Like the neo-Nazis in Europe and America, those voting for him and thus enabling him will likely continue to believe what they believe now — that he is a great president. They’re so caught up in a vortex of misinformation, mythology and falsehoods that they will remain in his axis till their dying days.

And the rest of us? When evil is called good, there can be no common ground on which to stand. At least, for now. Some relationships will be and must be broken. It’s not “just politics.” Lives are being lost — on our borders, in our schools, in our hospitals — because of Republican and evangelical enabling of Trump. Their endorsement is inexcusable and history will show little mercy. When the propagandist machine of Fox News, right-wing radio and evangelical pastors have twisted hard facts, surrendered constitutional principles and abandoned biblical tenets so that millions remain in an abyss of lies, a point eventually arrives when there can be no further conversation. One must walk away from the enablers and the sycophants and seek faith and renewal in the truth and the light.

   
When you have lost a Baylor Department of Religion professor and minister...

Blah blah blah libtard RINO etc.

He’s one. There are few like him. We’re bound for bloodshed. There’s no stopping it.

[TwiceHorn 31283]

7 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Nah. 25-35 percent of the country has always been hopeless idiots. The difference nowadays is that they have all managed to coalesce into one particular political party, a somewhat unintended consequence of the top .01 percents plan to control the Republican Party to enrich themselves by getting morons to vote against their own interest. 

And they have a TV reality star, who harbors no thoughts above a sixth-grade level and rarely expresses one above a fourth-grade level, to vote for and support.  It's a match made in hell.

Edited November 12, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Brisketexan 104628]

And they have a TV reality star, who harbors no thoughts above a sixth grade level, to vote for and support.  It's a match made in hell.

Oh, don’t skip over the fact that the GOP is doing all it can to ensure that minority rule by that 35% (psst...it’s really 40-45%) persists forever.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

You think you know a guy, then comes along Stephen Miller.

[JimmyJames 12271]

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Oh, don’t skip over the fact that the GOP is doing all it can to ensure that minority rule by that 35% (psst...it’s really 40-45%) persists forever.

And here we get to the rub. The owners who control the GOP and have effectively mobilized a moron army to support their agenda of personal enrichment, have now come to realize that its not quite enough. Its not a majority so under fair democratic elections, they lose.

Therefore the obvious next step is to ensure non-fair non-democratic elections that ensure continued minority rule of top .01 percents backed by morons. This is what must be stopped to ensure that the American experiment continues, as opposed to disintegrating into a Trump/Putin dystopian future. 

So 2020 is kind of important. 

[Mapache 1117]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Here you go, sorry about the dude:

  Hide contents

 

She has probably done this on more than a few occasions

 

[shakahorn 1627]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Send her back!

[TexArcher 37520]

So Stephen Miller's a full-blown white nationalist.  Ya don't say.  

The next breaking news will be that Sarah Sanders really loves cake.

[Bama Chick 28596]

That piece from the Baylor professor hits close to home.

I finally had it out with my father on Sunday.

We were on the phone and he was bemoaning the result of the Bama/LSU game. I made a joke that it was Trump’s fault - we hadn’t lost a home game in four years and he shows up and boom.

He lost his shit - practically screaming about me disrespecting “the best president of his lifetime” and people who criticize him should be punished.

I pointed out that he was unhinged over a joke and he was acting like a triggered snowflake.

That elicited a good ten seconds of sputtering denial.

I told him to calm down and quit acting like an emotional toddler over a joke and he said, and I quote, “I hate liberals and we need to ‘cleanse’ them from our country!”

And I lost it. I asked him “So, you hate me and your granddaughter and your son (he’s a liberal too)? You think we should be punished and ‘cleansed’ from the population?”

He tried to backtrack and say, “I didn’t say that! I just hate your politics!”

I told him to stop lying.

I said the only reason he even came to that game was to assuage his bartered ego after getting booed at the World Series and the UFC match.

“Ah, those people aren’t real Americans! They’re just yankee New York liberals!”

At that, I literally hollered “TRUMP IS A YANKEE NEW YORKER! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT???”

I told him ever since his retirement he’s turned into someone I don’t recognize and he’s been brainwashed by watching Fox News nonstop and radicalized by Facebook.

Then I got petty and said “You’ve become like a cult member. You’re letting your emotional attachment to a con-artist criminal destroy your relationship with your family.”

He, a 69 year old man who has always been a kind and loving person, proceeded to tell me he won’t speak to me if I don’t “change my ways” and, like a petulant child, hung up on me.

I’ve ignored and tiptoed around his behavior for far too long.

After a few minutes I called my mom and she said he said he refuses to speak to me until “I apologize for disrespecting our president.”

My mom says she just ignores him when he gets like that and I told her that’s part of the problem. She said she doesn’t want to put up with the “abuse” if she engages.

I joked my sister will be happy because my brother and I will get cut from the will. (My sister isn’t a Trumpkin, she’s just totally apolitical).

My mom replied “I control the will”.

Part of me is sad because I’ve always been Daddy’s Girl and we’ve always had a great relationship. He was never like this. He’s become a different person over the last three years.

The other part of me is relieved for having finally told him how horrible he is for letting his slavish devotion to an evil man take priority over his flesh and blood.

I’m seriously concerned about what he’ll do if Trump loses. I told my mom to take his guns away - half joking, half serious.

TL;DR - my dad went off the deep end after I made a joke about Trump cursing Alabama football and he’s disowned me.

[Doc Sam Beckett 5784]

That's fucking tragic. 

[4th&Five 41461]

Sounds just like my old man. No chance we could have a civil conversation about Trump these days. 
We never talked politics in the house much growing up but Obama plus retirement and more time for Fox News shook something loose in his brain somewhere in the second term. 

Edited November 13, 2019 by 4th&Five

[Horn Dog 9674]

Someone should really file a class action lawsuit against Fox News for brainwashing an entire generation.  They are worse then big tobacco.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Horn Dog

[Brisketexan 104628]

That's fucking tragic. 

Yep.

But cheer up. It will get worse.

[Foosters 17734]

27 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

That piece from the Baylor professor hits close to home.

I finally had it out with my father on Sunday.

We were on the phone and he was bemoaning the result of the Bama/LSU game. I made a joke that it was Trump’s fault - we hadn’t lost a home game in four years and he shows up and boom.

He lost his shit - practically screaming about me disrespecting “the best president of his lifetime” and people who criticize him should be punished.

I pointed out that he was unhinged over a joke and he was acting like a triggered snowflake.

That elicited a good ten seconds of sputtering denial.

I told him to calm down and quit acting like an emotional toddler over a joke and he said, and I quote, “I hate liberals and we need to ‘cleanse’ them from our country!”

And I lost it. I asked him “So, you hate me and your granddaughter and your son (he’s a liberal too)? You think we should be punished and ‘cleansed’ from the population?”

He tried to backtrack and say, “I didn’t say that! I just hate your politics!”

I told him to stop lying.

I said the only reason he even came to that game was to assuage his bartered ego after getting booed at the World Series and the UFC match.

“Ah, those people aren’t real Americans! They’re just yankee New York liberals!”

At that, I literally hollered “TRUMP IS A YANKEE NEW YORKER! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT???”

I told him ever since his retirement he’s turned into someone I don’t recognize and he’s been brainwashed by watching Fox News nonstop and radicalized by Facebook.

Then I got petty and said “You’ve become like a cult member. You’re letting your emotional attachment to a con-artist criminal destroy your relationship with your family.”

He, a 69 year old man who has always been a kind and loving person, proceeded to tell me he won’t speak to me if I don’t “change my ways” and, like a petulant child, hung up on me.

I’ve ignored and tiptoed around his behavior for far too long.

After a few minutes I called my mom and she said he said he refuses to speak to me until “I apologize for disrespecting our president.”

My mom says she just ignores him when he gets like that and I told her that’s part of the problem. She said she doesn’t want to put up with the “abuse” if she engages.

I joked my sister will be happy because my brother and I will get cut from the will. (My sister isn’t a Trumpkin, she’s just totally apolitical).

My mom replied “I control the will”.

Part of me is sad because I’ve always been Daddy’s Girl and we’ve always had a great relationship. He was never like this. He’s become a different person over the last three years.

The other part of me is relieved for having finally told him how horrible he is for letting his slavish devotion to an evil man take priority over his flesh and blood.

I’m seriously concerned about what he’ll do if Trump loses. I told my mom to take his guns away - half joking, half serious.

TL;DR - my dad went off the deep end after I made a joke about Trump cursing Alabama football and he’s disowned me.

Apologies. I had no idea you were the son of a meth-intrigued Iranian immigrant.

[WgnBrnr 17]

Family or not, they need to be called out, my mother was a 60's era hippy and very liberal. Over a 6 or 7 year period of overdosing on Fox News she turned into a person that I felt like I never knew. She was on her deathbed with stage 4 lung cancer,  and was still watching that shit. I told her I was ashamed of her and she died a couple of weeks later. I don't know if it was from the cancer or just being rotten from that shit. Sometimes you have to stand up to the people you love. No regrets.

[bolverk 29405]

30 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

TL;DR - my dad went off the deep end after I made a joke about Trump cursing Alabama football and he’s disowned me.

I haven't yet gone that far with own dad, partly, because he's already 82. There's still time though.

Thanksgiving is coming.

[Anastasis 23394]

Maybe we need a cloak room version of the holidays with your family thread.  Sounds like you guys got some real choice dysfunction to share. 

[4th&Five 41461]

The last time my dad brought up anything political to me was thanksgiving 2016 because he was so excited for Trump to get in there and slash spending. Maybe we’ll revisit that in a couple of weeks. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

I got lucky, I’m still more conservative than both my parents. I have some trumpkin uncles but I never talk to them anyway.  

[pyrohornIII 4809]

 

[Horn Dog 9674]

Reminds me of one of my  uncles, who I always thought of as a nice laidback guy growing up.  My immediate family is 100% UT grads and most of my cousins, including this uncle, are ATM grads.  Thanksgiving  dinner was always a lighthearted rivalry, then suddenly one thanksgiving I notice this uncle is not there.  I ask my mom about it and she tells me this uncle was upset cause my siblings and I pissed him off by cheering too gleefully when UT kicked ATMs ass in that last game.   Snowflake hasn’t attended family thanksgiving dinner since.

[Goredho 17349]

1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

That piece from the Baylor professor hits close to home.

I finally had it out with my father on Sunday.

We were on the phone and he was bemoaning the result of the Bama/LSU game. I made a joke that it was Trump’s fault - we hadn’t lost a home game in four years and he shows up and boom.

He lost his shit - practically screaming about me disrespecting “the best president of his lifetime” and people who criticize him should be punished.

I pointed out that he was unhinged over a joke and he was acting like a triggered snowflake.

That elicited a good ten seconds of sputtering denial.

I told him to calm down and quit acting like an emotional toddler over a joke and he said, and I quote, “I hate liberals and we need to ‘cleanse’ them from our country!”

And I lost it. I asked him “So, you hate me and your granddaughter and your son (he’s a liberal too)? You think we should be punished and ‘cleansed’ from the population?”

He tried to backtrack and say, “I didn’t say that! I just hate your politics!”

I told him to stop lying.

I said the only reason he even came to that game was to assuage his bartered ego after getting booed at the World Series and the UFC match.

“Ah, those people aren’t real Americans! They’re just yankee New York liberals!”

At that, I literally hollered “TRUMP IS A YANKEE NEW YORKER! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT???”

I told him ever since his retirement he’s turned into someone I don’t recognize and he’s been brainwashed by watching Fox News nonstop and radicalized by Facebook.

Then I got petty and said “You’ve become like a cult member. You’re letting your emotional attachment to a con-artist criminal destroy your relationship with your family.”

He, a 69 year old man who has always been a kind and loving person, proceeded to tell me he won’t speak to me if I don’t “change my ways” and, like a petulant child, hung up on me.

I’ve ignored and tiptoed around his behavior for far too long.

After a few minutes I called my mom and she said he said he refuses to speak to me until “I apologize for disrespecting our president.”

My mom says she just ignores him when he gets like that and I told her that’s part of the problem. She said she doesn’t want to put up with the “abuse” if she engages.

I joked my sister will be happy because my brother and I will get cut from the will. (My sister isn’t a Trumpkin, she’s just totally apolitical).

My mom replied “I control the will”.

Part of me is sad because I’ve always been Daddy’s Girl and we’ve always had a great relationship. He was never like this. He’s become a different person over the last three years.

The other part of me is relieved for having finally told him how horrible he is for letting his slavish devotion to an evil man take priority over his flesh and blood.

I’m seriously concerned about what he’ll do if Trump loses. I told my mom to take his guns away - half joking, half serious.

TL;DR - my dad went off the deep end after I made a joke about Trump cursing Alabama football and he’s disowned me.

Sorry, BC.  My dad died in 2005 with us at odds over a drug addicted family member he was enabling.  I was totally right and he was totally wrong, and yet I still regret that I let it affect our relationship in what turned out to be the last bit of time we had left together.  I hope you two are able to reconcile soon.

[JimmyJames 12271]

41 minutes ago, WgnBrnr said:

Family or not, they need to be called out, my mother was a 60's era hippy and very liberal. Over a 6 or 7 year period of overdosing on Fox News she turned into a person that I felt like I never knew. She was on her deathbed with stage 4 lung cancer,  and was still watching that shit. I told her I was ashamed of her and she died a couple of weeks later. I don't know if it was from the cancer or just being rotten from that shit. Sometimes you have to stand up to the people you love. No regrets.

Fuck off troll. 

[Goredho 17349]

And now for a more Surly response....

1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

Part of me is sad because I’ve always been Daddy’s Girl and we’ve always had a great relationship...

If adult onset Daddy issues are a thing, we're here for you.

[WgnBrnr 17]

3 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Fuck off troll. 

Not trolling....how bout you fuck off..little bitch.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

 

On 11/11/2019 at 1:46 PM, Fozzz said:

libs may hate his tweets, but most will like his support of the Bolivian coup. 

 

At least he's standing up for someone's constitution while shredding ours

 

10 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Yes, and you can’t tell me that the Russians aren’t slightly worried that their chance with trump could be coming to an end soon. They expected more assistance from him, and congress hasn’t allowed it. Russia is under the gun to make something happen or they could be facing a hostile president for the foreseeable future.

If we survive Trump and come out better for it, the Russian people might see that as a sign that they can also make a difference in their corrupt government.

 

8 hours ago, lemonlime said:

If there's four more years of Trump, no way there's a free and fair election in 2024, and if there somehow is, whoever is VP over the increasing craziness couldn't possibly win.

If I still had tin foil left, and to be clear I'm fully out on Brisket's ledge, and don't think anything's happening, but I would go more in on Pence resigning now, and Trump nominating Haley to be VP to be confirmed by Congress, before the impeachment trial to avoid a President Pelosi.   

The US will be a completely different country if Trump is re-elected to another 4 years. 

[Biff Tannen 45499]

1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

Then I got petty and said “You’ve become like a cult member. You’re letting your emotional attachment to a con-artist criminal destroy your relationship with your family.”

This was not petty.

[Message Board User 12389]

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

This was not petty.

You know, you’re right.

I was feebly attempting to keep a level head and not get into an incoherent yelling match and try to be respectful even though I wasn’t getting it in return.

But it didn’t really matter.

It’s the sad reality that his fealty to evil is more important to him than his relationship with his family.

And it all blew up because I made a joke at Trump’s expense - I didn’t even bring the real heat about the racism and child imprisonments and criminality etc.

A fucking joke about an ultimately meaningless football game.

And, yeah, I’m sad my relationship with my dad may be damaged but I’m proud for saying “No more”. The state of this country right now is dangerous and staying quiet about it - even for family peace - is enabling it.

The dad I used to have would have been proud of me for standing up for what’s right.

And thank god for my mom.

Ugh, I know this isn’t my personal blog so sorry for unloading here. I appreciate y’all.

[tantric superman 4667]

Whenever you guys talk about your family gatherings I always picture your relatives as looking like the Nebraska cousins.

[Biff Tannen 45499]

1 hour ago, Message Board User said:

 

The first chick hasn’t been paying attention. The second one is hilarious. 

[SimonBolivar 10932]

6 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

In the Ray of Hope Department:

https://www.wacotrib.com/opinion/columns/board_of_contributors/blake-burleson-in-an-abyss-of-lies-i-must-finally/article_7636d664-7aa1-5eb6-91ff-b6b87795b438.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR1zhycuhWZl3WqwQQSd2QKE6DvdGa0O3IWltFTFGf5BGUG1Hwm5nVKKEPs

 

  Reveal hidden contents

IN THE AGE OF TRUMP

Blake Burleson: In an abyss of lies, I must finally depart from enablers of madness among us

• BLAKE BURLESON Board of Contributors
  • Nov 9, 2019

 

A few weeks ago as I was leaving church after the Sunday morning service, I spoke with one of my friends about the unraveling of our democracy. The conversation turned to his father — in his 90s and a Trump supporter. My friend told me that his father only watches Fox News to get information and has no tolerance for information factual or otherwise that counters the narrative he hears on Fox. When my friend confronts his father about blatant and deliberately misleading statements from what has essentially become Trump News, his father declares unequivocally that the mainstream media is the one putting out lies.

And so a family rift has developed between my friend and the father he loves.

Except for those in isolation, most Americans are experiencing such tensions in some of their closest relationships. Bonds are fraying in families, neighborhoods, businesses, civic organizations, schools and faith communities to a degree not witnessed since the Civil War. As we know, that horrific conflict pitted families against one another in national bloodshed. Slavery was ultimately crushed and our union was stitched back together, but not before brother fought against brother, father against son. Families went to pieces right along with the nation.

During the four-year Civil War, propagandists for slavery surfaced at every level of society, from statehouses to courthouses, from newspaper offices to college lecture halls, from bars to pulpits, from kitchen tables to bedrooms. And like Republican Party leadership today, these propagandists drank deeply from a well of maniacal, self-serving, us-against-them ideology: Slavery was God-ordained! While the propagandists then had no Fox News to indoctrinate the fold, the media of the mid-1800s in the South were dominated by voices of oppressors who had enslaved an entire population of Americans. Non-slave-owning whites were — with notable exceptions — the enablers of the slave owners. Voices of liberation were mostly silenced in the forests and cotton fields from South Carolina to Texas.

Unfortunately, many of my ancestors in Texas were part of this oppressive regime. Some Burlesons owned slaves; most Burlesons may not have owned slaves but nonetheless plowed blood and treasure into supporting the South’s fight to perpetuate slavery. In fact, Burlesons were willing to die to preserve a way of life propped up by one of the vilest evils in history. All benefited by oppression of African Americans both before and after the War Between the States.

While some members of my family such Gen. Edward Burleson, once vice president of the Republic of Texas, led in advocating white supremacy over African Americans and Native Americans, others such as Rev. Rufus Burleson, president of Baylor University, eventually became advocates for the rights of blacks. The change of heart did not happen overnight for this preacher-educator. When the Civil War began, Rufus Burleson was a chaplain on the side of the South, enabling their cause. Years later, after the North had won the war, he traveled all over Texas giving speeches to encourage towns to support free public education that included schooling the children of freed slaves. He also helped raise money for the establishment of Bishop College for African Americans.

Since Judge R.E.B. Baylor, for whom the university is named, was a slave owner, Rev. Burleson’s early advocacy for civil rights is remarkable, perhaps even singular among Burlesons at the time. Most of my ancestors (unlike Uncle Rufus) proudly bolstered the Jim Crow South once the war was over and Reconstruction collapsed. This legacy of discrimination lasted a long, long time. In fact, the Lost Cause narrative that gave rise to it defined several generations.

As a child growing up in Texas in the 1950s and ’60s, I found the racial prejudice in my extended family and neighborhoods was deep and pervasive. I was taught in school that the Civil War was not fought over slavery but over states’ rights — an example of revisionist history if it ever existed. The propaganda machinery went unchecked in the South for at least 100 years after the Civil War. In some quarters it continues today and has, in fact, been given new life through white supremacists emboldened by President Trump. Growing up, I learned from extended family members that slavery was not evil but rather a “peculiar institution” beneficial for African Americans and good for America. As a boy, I heard happy statements like, “Did you know that most slaves chose to stay with their slave owners after the Civil War ended?”

The message was clear: Slaves once in human bondage loved their masters so much they just wanted to remain in one big happy family. These sentiments were expressed at family gatherings and celebrations in willful ignorance of the depredation caused by an institution in which the recently freed had nowhere else to go, no way to survive except to stay with former slave owners who had treated them as their property, their chattel. These Southern myths were meant to assuage any collective societal guilt for enabling the political, religious and civic powers of oppression, past and present.

Myths can last for decades, even a century or more. When renowned Civil War historian Shelby Foote, resolutely Southern author of a three-volume history, “The Civil War: A Narrative,” spoke at the Beall Russell Lecture for the Humanities at Baylor University in 2002, he made the statement that slavery was ultimately “good” for African Americans because it took them out of primitive Africa. He said this “peculiar institution” allowed them to escape the Rwandan genocide! Many of us in the audience put our heads in our hands upon hearing this tired minimizing of America’s original sin.

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 over the issue of slavery. Baptists in the South sold their souls by separating from their northern Baptist brothers and sisters in preference for that “peculiar institution.” It took 150 years for the SBC to publicly apologize for support of slavery, asking forgiveness from “all African Americans.” Yet today the SBC again stands on the wrong side of history as its leaders openly support a racist in the White House. First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. have become the grand enablers of Trump as SBC congregations large and small across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and beyond voice adoration and awe for this president.

 

A new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute indicates 98% of Republican white evangelical Protestants oppose impeachment — significantly more than any other religious group surveyed. In Waco, punch-drunk evangelicals have either kept silent or openly supported Trump and his actions. One evangelical pastor — a friend of mine — defends Trump’s inhumane border policy, writing in this very newspaper that it “offered compassion” and “that it is an honor to serve on the Board of Latinos for Trump.” This reminds me of some Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests’ tacit and not-so-tacit support of Hitler’s “compassion” camps for Jews in World War II that separated families.

Evangelicals and evil

Christians surely should ponder this much: The Trump administration deliberately inflicted trauma upon children as a deterrent, an action morally repugnant and contrary to international law and biblical tenets. This action is indefensible. Yet many evangelicals are OK with taking the evil with the good. I often hear evangelicals say they don’t like the Trump tweets but tolerate them because of Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court, placing justices who stand ready to dutifully overturn Roe v. Wade. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge in Genesis, these evangelicals claim mightily to be “pro-life,” even as they enable and endorse a government that separates vulnerable children from desperate parents at the border, that orders immigrant children in need of lifesaving health care to return to their country of origin where such care does not exist, that encourages and excuses white supremacists’ violence, that tries to dismantle health care for millions of Americans, that precipitously withdraws troops from Syria leaving Kurdish men, women and children to face potential genocide, that refuses to do anything about the epidemic of gun violence in America, that guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s role in conserving clean air, clean water and other natural resources, that ignores the climate change so obviously threatening all human and animal life on the planet. This is pro-death, not pro-life. Yet Republican support for Trump remains sky-high — at least among those still willing to identify themselves as Republican to inquiring pollsters.

While recent surveys suggest younger generations of Americans are fed up with Republicans and their right-wing misogyny, homophobia, racism, greed and xenophobia, millions of other Americans — from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers — are entrenched in an ideological swamp that supports this president and his minions (some now under indictment or in prison). My church friend’s father, now in his 90s, will not be around many more years. He is likely to continue watching Fox News and its soul-snatching, mind-numbing, truth-bending embrace of Trump and his enablers till his last breath. And what of Trump disciples in their 50s, 60s and 70s who will live among us several more decades after Trump is removed from office, resigns or is defeated in 2020? Like the neo-Nazis in Europe and America, those voting for him and thus enabling him will likely continue to believe what they believe now — that he is a great president. They’re so caught up in a vortex of misinformation, mythology and falsehoods that they will remain in his axis till their dying days.

And the rest of us? When evil is called good, there can be no common ground on which to stand. At least, for now. Some relationships will be and must be broken. It’s not “just politics.” Lives are being lost — on our borders, in our schools, in our hospitals — because of Republican and evangelical enabling of Trump. Their endorsement is inexcusable and history will show little mercy. When the propagandist machine of Fox News, right-wing radio and evangelical pastors have twisted hard facts, surrendered constitutional principles and abandoned biblical tenets so that millions remain in an abyss of lies, a point eventually arrives when there can be no further conversation. One must walk away from the enablers and the sycophants and seek faith and renewal in the truth and the light.

 

 

When you have lost a Baylor Department of Religion professor and minister...

The Baylor Religion Department profs were known as bookfag libs when I was there 10 years ago. The true believers know you don't have to read the book you can just wait on the movie.

[UpperWestside 6136]

5 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

That piece from the Baylor professor hits close to home.

I finally had it out with my father on Sunday.

We were on the phone and he was bemoaning the result of the Bama/LSU game. I made a joke that it was Trump’s fault - we hadn’t lost a home game in four years and he shows up and boom.

He lost his shit - practically screaming about me disrespecting “the best president of his lifetime” and people who criticize him should be punished.

I pointed out that he was unhinged over a joke and he was acting like a triggered snowflake.

That elicited a good ten seconds of sputtering denial.

I told him to calm down and quit acting like an emotional toddler over a joke and he said, and I quote, “I hate liberals and we need to ‘cleanse’ them from our country!”

And I lost it. I asked him “So, you hate me and your granddaughter and your son (he’s a liberal too)? You think we should be punished and ‘cleansed’ from the population?”

He tried to backtrack and say, “I didn’t say that! I just hate your politics!”

I told him to stop lying.

I said the only reason he even came to that game was to assuage his bartered ego after getting booed at the World Series and the UFC match.

“Ah, those people aren’t real Americans! They’re just yankee New York liberals!”

At that, I literally hollered “TRUMP IS A YANKEE NEW YORKER! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT???”

I told him ever since his retirement he’s turned into someone I don’t recognize and he’s been brainwashed by watching Fox News nonstop and radicalized by Facebook.

Then I got petty and said “You’ve become like a cult member. You’re letting your emotional attachment to a con-artist criminal destroy your relationship with your family.”

He, a 69 year old man who has always been a kind and loving person, proceeded to tell me he won’t speak to me if I don’t “change my ways” and, like a petulant child, hung up on me.

I’ve ignored and tiptoed around his behavior for far too long.

After a few minutes I called my mom and she said he said he refuses to speak to me until “I apologize for disrespecting our president.”

My mom says she just ignores him when he gets like that and I told her that’s part of the problem. She said she doesn’t want to put up with the “abuse” if she engages.

I joked my sister will be happy because my brother and I will get cut from the will. (My sister isn’t a Trumpkin, she’s just totally apolitical).

My mom replied “I control the will”.

Part of me is sad because I’ve always been Daddy’s Girl and we’ve always had a great relationship. He was never like this. He’s become a different person over the last three years.

The other part of me is relieved for having finally told him how horrible he is for letting his slavish devotion to an evil man take priority over his flesh and blood.

I’m seriously concerned about what he’ll do if Trump loses. I told my mom to take his guns away - half joking, half serious.

TL;DR - my dad went off the deep end after I made a joke about Trump cursing Alabama football and he’s disowned me.

Look your father is old. I hope you do not take offense, but the olds are easily manipulated. Your father has been brainwashed. 

I am thankful to have had parents who were never under the control of what a con-artist says, but your situation is different. Cut him out of the family and let him realize what egregious thing he has done. 

[Celery Man 20886]

Whenever you guys talk about your family gatherings I always picture your relatives as looking like the Nebraska cousins.

[ChiTownDoc 21102]

2 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

 

You know, you’re right.

I was feebly attempting to keep a level head and not get into an incoherent yelling match and try to be respectful even though I wasn’t getting it in return.

But it didn’t really matter.

It’s the sad reality that his fealty to evil is more important to him than his relationship with his family.

And it all blew up because I made a joke at Trump’s expense - I didn’t even bring the real heat about the racism and child imprisonments and criminality etc.

A fucking joke about an ultimately meaningless football game.

And, yeah, I’m sad my relationship with my dad may be damaged but I’m proud for saying “No more”. The state of this country right now is dangerous and staying quiet about it - even for family peace - is enabling it.

The dad I used to have would have been proud of me for standing up for what’s right.

And thank god for my mom.

Ugh, I know this isn’t my personal blog so sorry for unloading here. I appreciate y’all.

 

No offense, but fuck your dad.  He needs to grow the fuck up, not you.  Hold your ground.  
 

If he keeps this shit up put him in a one star nursing home.  Bye, asshole.  

[Longhorn_Fan68 33843]

Reminder to self: don't get sick in Chicago

[RPM 26230]

Jeez. Bad day, Doc? Best served cold protocol?

Don't know if I'd call myself fortunate, but my parents are dead and I don't have to deal with the FOX brainwashing. But I have a sister and BIL that I used to be really close to and we've hardly talked since Trump won. They're also big into "the cowboy church." We don't fight, but it's a civil discussion where I call bullshit on all their bullshit. Like I said, we don't talk much anymore, but I wouldn't say we don't still love each other. 

[Underdog 28457]

5 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Reminder to self: don't get sick in Chicago

Or shot. 

[Longhorn94 2427]

11 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

 

At least he's standing up for someone's constitution while shredding ours

 

If we survive Trump and come out better for it, the Russian people might see that as a sign that they can also make a difference in their corrupt government.

 

The US will be a completely different country if Trump is re-elected to another 4 years. 

Correct. If Trump is reelected, it most likely means that the Retards have taken back the House and kept the Senate. There will be mass imprisonments of political opponents. There will be no more hiding anything. Trump will be a King and will do whatever he wants with zero resistance.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

Talking politics with family shouldn’t be at the level of a message board where we can call out strangers for being stupid or whatever.

If a family members start calling out librul commies or far right nazis, steer the conversation back to an issue and not name calling. You can’t force them to act mature but you can try.

and when the comments are outrageous like lining up people to be shot, ask them calmly if they really want to see friends and family members killed for their beliefs? Or is that what America is about.

finally sometimes you have to drop people that have problems they refuse to address. And mom saying she ignores dad, when he goes off on rants, is part of the enablement. She’s in the best position to get him to stop.

[HenryJames 65890]

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

6 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

 

In the words of John boehner, elections have consequences. Trump failed to keep the House in a landslide 2018 election, and now he has to face the wrath of the nation.  Crying about something being unfair is another part of his childish attitude.

 

[Homercles 10205]

12 hours ago, Horn Dog said:

Someone should really file a class action lawsuit against Fox News for brainwashing an entire generation.  They are worse then big tobacco.

Indeed.  Because I needed to piss myself off to wake up this morning I read FN and saw this:  https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-popeyes-customer-attacked-by-six-juveniles-police-say

No corroboration with police, no video, nothing but a guy making a claim regarding a busted lip. 75% of the comments are unveiled racism and hate towards liberals/democrats.  This is on the front page.  
 

Fox knows exactly what it’s doing. 

[ChiTownDoc 21102]

6 hours ago, RPM said:

Jeez. Bad day, Doc? Best served cold protocol?

Don't know if I'd call myself fortunate, but my parents are dead and I don't have to deal with the FOX brainwashing. But I have a sister and BIL that I used to be really close to and we've hardly talked since Trump won. They're also big into "the cowboy church." We don't fight, but it's a civil discussion where I call bullshit on all their bullshit. Like I said, we don't talk much anymore, but I wouldn't say we don't still love each other. 

Not a bad day at all.  Just zero respect for anyone who won’t talk to their family over politics.  He’s a grown ass man freezing his daughter out mainly because of his mancrush on the Donald.  That’s pathetic and she should hold his feet to the fire.  

[burntorangebongos 10681]

9 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

 

You know, you’re right.

I was feebly attempting to keep a level head and not get into an incoherent yelling match and try to be respectful even though I wasn’t getting it in return.

But it didn’t really matter.

It’s the sad reality that his fealty to evil is more important to him than his relationship with his family.

And it all blew up because I made a joke at Trump’s expense - I didn’t even bring the real heat about the racism and child imprisonments and criminality etc.

A fucking joke about an ultimately meaningless football game.

And, yeah, I’m sad my relationship with my dad may be damaged but I’m proud for saying “No more”. The state of this country right now is dangerous and staying quiet about it - even for family peace - is enabling it.

The dad I used to have would have been proud of me for standing up for what’s right.

And thank god for my mom.

Ugh, I know this isn’t my personal blog so sorry for unloading here. I appreciate y’all.

 

You mention that your Dad has changed a lot. This could be a sign of the beginnings of some medical condition, like dementia. I'm not saying he isn't being affected by what Fox News feeds him but be aware that there might be a medical reason that is the true underlying reason for his change.  Old age is such a bitch. Hang in there. 

[ChiTownDoc 21102]

1 minute ago, burntorangebongos said:

You mention that your Dad has changed a lot. This could be a sign of the beginnings of some medical condition, like dementia. I'm not saying he isn't being affected by what Fox News feeds him but be aware that there might be a medical reason that is the true underlying reason for his change.  Old age is such a bitch. Hang in there. 

^^^
Thanks to bongos for posting my disclaimer.  If your old man has dementia or the early signs just do your best to redirect the conversation.  

Pretty sure BamaGirl did something in the medical field?

Anyways, a neuropsych evaluation is what you’d need...

[Fudge Nuggets 19151]

Thankfully my parents are hardcore libs so we don’t have any problems like this. Now work is a different deal all together.
 

There’s a group of us that meet up for lunch once a week and most of them are olds within a year or two of retirement.  A couple of weeks ago when we were out, AOC popped up on the restaurant TV. One of these dudes literally started shaking and had spittle flying out of his mouth. It was like he became possessed and was pretty unnerving.