Observations

[bourbon n blues]

I regularly read powerlineblog.com for their conservative views on politics and other areas. John Hinderaker is one of their founding partners and has been a loyal Republican for many years.

Check out his blast about Trump.

* Donald Trump. I thought the Democrats’ endless yammering about “our democracy” and “fascism” was incredibly stupid, born of desperation, and would be ignored by voters. I was partly right: those themes were stupid, and they were born of desperation. But it turned out that they were not ineffective. To cite just one example, a young woman I know posted a photo of herself at the polls on Instagram, with the text, “I’m voting against fascism.”

Contrary to what you might assume, she isn’t an idiot. “Our democracy” and “fascism” were code for Donald Trump. At this point, Trump is a giant anvil around the neck of the Republican Party. In many areas, likely most, he is absolute poison. To be associated with Trump is to lose. Pretty much everything he has done in the last two years has been not just ill-advised but massively destructive to the Republican Party and to the United States. He has teased a “big announcement” in the next few days. I hope he announces that he is moving to Bulgaria.

An off-year election is normally a referendum on the president, which is why the out-party nearly always gains. When the Democrats tried to make this year’s election a referendum on Donald Trump, I thought they were crazy. Trump is not an office-holder, nor was he on the ballot. How could that possibly work? Well, it did work, and Trump, with his inimitable bad judgment, collaborated fully with the Democrats in putting himself front and center, with disastrous results.

The major exception to last night’s gloom was Florida, where Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio both won crushing victories. Why was that? At least part of the explanation is that Florida was one state where the Democrats couldn’t pretend Trump was on the ballot. Ron DeSantis was on the ballot.

Here's the link to his full piece, which is worth reading.

It Could Have Been Worse

Just kidding. Out of the range of possible outcomes, what we saw last night was about as bad as it could be. The GOP's failure to make progress stunned everyone, not least the Democrats. What happened? * Fantasy vs. Reality. It turns out that there are a great many voters who don't care much...

www.powerlineblog.com

Incorrect, Florida has a much

DeSantis made his State successful and was a leader. People like that. All these tools who have nothing going for them but a Trump endorsement and election denial are empty hats.

Incorrect, Florida has a much better voting system that would never be put in place by a Democrat lead state. And he is a great leader. Pa. voting in a dead guy and a man with brain damage using mail in balloting, heavy on the harvesting.

 

[LafayetteBear]

No, Laf, Steve started the ball rolling a few months ago when, after being made to look foolish in a discussion with me regarding the historic crisis of corruption within the Catholic Church, he suddenly injected himself in a separate, unrelated thread to launch a vile, bigoted, slanderous attack on my daughter, a young woman he doesn't know, who gave up everything, including the family she loved and all creature comforts in the world, to enter a cloistered life of prayer and sacrifice in service to God.

There are some lines of decency that no man crosses. If he's a man. Which Steve clearly isn't. Furthermore, there's no statute of limitations on scumbaggery of that dimension.

Jerry: I was just reacting to what I saw in THIS particular thread. I don't recall the thread from a few months ago to which you refer, and I don't want to get into the middle of your conflict with Steve. I WILL say that I understand your objection to seeing your daughter being brought into a debate like that. (I trust you understand that Matt merits no similar pass, because he has willingly injected himself into the political arena as a partisan of the first order.)

I would add that you are very forthright here about your conservative Catholic values. I have no issue with that whatsoever, and I trust most of the other posters here feel the same way. But that does not mean that I, or they, necessarily agree with your views. Your daughter has quite clearly made a sacrifice to serve as a nun, particularly a cloistered nun. I sense your pride concerning that sacrifice. However, others here (particularly non-Catholics and atheists) are not likely to regard the value or wisdom of that sacrifice in the same way you do. No one likes to see their family members criticized or attacked. I think that explains why some (many?) posters are reluctant to say much about their personal lives or family when they post here.

 

[Lesgo_Brandon]

Jerry: I was just reacting to what I saw in THIS particular thread. I don't recall the thread from a few months ago to which you refer, and I don't want to get into the middle of your conflict with Steve. I WILL say that I understand your objection to seeing your daughter being brought into a debate like that. (I trust you understand that Matt merits no similar pass, because he has willingly injected himself into the political arena as a partisan of the first order.)

I would add that you are very forthright here about your conservative Catholic values. I have no issue with that whatsoever, and I trust most of the other posters here feel the same way. But that does not mean that I, or they, necessarily agree with your views. Your daughter has quite clearly made a sacrifice to serve as a nun, particularly a cloistered nun. I sense your pride concerning that sacrifice. However, others here (particularly non-Catholics and atheists) are not likely to regard the value or wisdom of that sacrifice in the same way you do. No one likes to see their family members criticized or attacked. I think that explains why some (many?) posters are reluctant to say much about their personal lives or family when they post here.

This is well said.

Sadly Steve G has a strange track record on here. He'll criticize the board as being full of low lifes (as if he's superior) and then make a joke about priest molestation. In what planet is that funny? He's fact checked posters by calling department stores to verify their story. Just a really bizarre guy.

 

[Jerry]

Jerry: I was just reacting to what I saw in THIS particular thread. I don't recall the thread from a few months ago to which you refer, and I don't want to get into the middle of your conflict with Steve. I WILL say that I understand your objection to seeing your daughter being brought into a debate like that. (I trust you understand that Matt merits no similar pass, because he has willingly injected himself into the political arena as a partisan of the first order.)

I would add that you are very forthright here about your conservative Catholic values. I have no issue with that whatsoever, and I trust most of the other posters here feel the same way. But that does not mean that I, or they, necessarily agree with your views. Your daughter has quite clearly made a sacrifice to serve as a nun, particularly a cloistered nun. I sense your pride concerning that sacrifice. However, others here (particularly non-Catholics and atheists) are not likely to regard the value or wisdom of that sacrifice in the same way you do. No one likes to see their family members criticized or attacked. I think that explains why some (many?) posters are reluctant to say much about their personal lives or family when they post here.

Thanks, those are all reasonable points, Laf.

I've always said Matt is fair game. He's a popular conservative figure with strongly-held views that piss off a lot of people. I've never had a problem with the shots taken at him here and honestly feel (and appreciate) that it's all stayed within the bounds of decency.

As for my daughter, at some point, in connection with one or other discussion of religious issues on this forum, I identified her as a professed sister of the Poor Clares, a Catholic women's religious order holding to a severe regime of prayer and fasting in service to God.

Yes, you're damn right I'm "proud" of her. In fact, I'm in awe of her. And I still miss her a lot. Her Mom and I can only see and talk to her twice a year behind a screen, but I write to her every single week. (No laptops or e-mail at the monastery.)

In fact, it was not I who brought up the subject of my daughter's vocation in an unrelated thread some months ago when Steve injected himself with a gratuitous, bizarre, and foul lie about her.

Moreover, I quite understand that others may not esteem or understand the "value or wisdom" of her sacrifice in the same way as do I. But that doesn't give anyone the right to tell bigoted, slanderous lies about her.

Such a thing crosses the line of decency and is unworthy of a grown-up man, whatever his beliefs, politics, or experiences. And as her Dad, it makes me pretty angry. Any guy who has a daughter understands my emotions.

 

[NJPSU]

So you went after the guy's daughter?

Come on, @Steve G how low can you go?

Jerry has done far more damage to his children than anyone on this message board could do.

Imagine growing up in Jerry’s indoctrination machine. He drove his daughter to lock herself in a room chanting at the walls for the rest of her life. Poor girl.

His son is a professional internet political troll.

Those are 2 we know about.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Jerry has done far more damage to his children than anyone on this message board could do.

Imagine growing up in Jerry’s indoctrination machine. He drove his daughter to lock herself in a room chanting at the walls for the rest of her life. Poor girl.

His son is a professional internet political troll.

Those are 2 we know about.

Ruh roh. NOW, you did it. (Maybe a little over the top, I would add.)

Incoming ...

 

[m.knox]

His son is a professional internet political troll.

Those are 2 we know about.

LOL....

NJ, you are the professional internet troll.

Matt is a millionaire with a net worth far greater than yours.

 

[NJPSU]

Ruh roh. NOW, you did it. (Maybe a little over the top, I would add.)

Incoming ...

I‘m not trying to mean I legitimately feel sorry for the girl. That’s not something a mentally stable person would do. If she grew up in a “normal” household there’s no way that’s what she would have done with her life. I mean it’s one thing to become a Pastor or something, it’s quite another to lock yourself in a prison and chant at the walls all day. Who does that even help?

 

[m.knox]

I‘m not trying to mean I legitimately feel sorry for the girl. That’s not something a mentally stable person would do. If she grew up in a “normal” household there’s no way that’s what she would have done with her life. I mean it’s one thing to become a Pastor or something, it’s quite another to lock yourself in a prison and chant at the walls all day. Who does that even help?

Matt is a millionaire.............. lol...

 

[LafayetteBear]

Matt is a millionaire.............. lol...

So am I. Big deal. You need to do better. And where's my plastics order? Get on it!

 

[The Spin Meister]

LOL....

NJ, you are the professional internet troll.

Matt is a millionaire with a net worth far greater than yours.

Correaction, he is a wanna be internet troll. Like everything else in his life he isn’t very good at it. Which is why Matt is a millionaire and he is a......well....you know.

 

[m.knox]

Correaction, he is a wanna be internet troll. Like everything else in his life he isn’t very good at it. Which is why Matt is a millionaire and he is a......well....you know.

I stand corrected.

 

[m.knox]

So am I. Big deal. You need to do better. And where's my plastics order? Get on it!

So am I. Big deal.

Your boy @NJPSU prides himself off net worth. Matt is his peer. lmfao...