Anti-Vaxxers, Militarized Cops, and Wingnuts, oh my!

U.S.

Anti-Vax Mom Wouldn’t Take Her Sick Toddler to the Hospital, So Police Intervened

 Amanda Tarlton,Fatherly 7 hours ago 

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Last weekend Arizona police raided the home of an anti-vaxxer who refused to take her unvaccinated toddler, who had a fever of 105, to the emergency room.

So my first thought was "Good!"
These idiot parents can not be allowed to endanger their children's health because of whatever stupid dumbass beliefs they have.

Then I saw the accompanying picture.




Jesus Christ! We have really come to this.

They kick in the door and storm in, guns drawn, like they're expecting Al Capone to be inside, not a horribly sick child and a couple of  hare-brained parents who aren't trying to harm their child, they're just fucking morons. I'm glad the police intervened. I'm glad the child was taken to the hospital, but how did we get to the point where cops approach every situation like they were going door to door in Fallujah?

Police say that when they arrived at the house with a search warrant, they heard a child coughing inside. After Beck’s husband, Brooks Bryce, refused to let them in, the officers stormed into the home with guns drawn and forcibly removed the sick two-year-old and the couple’s other two children.

There was really no other way? You couldn't have convinced the father to open up? You couldn't have cajoled, threatened, negotiated? You had to bust in with your guns drawn?

But okay. The important thing is that the child was taken to the hospital for proper medical care. The tactics used by the cops can be debated later, at least we can all agree that the end result was a positive.

Well, not all of us apparently.

The incident is raising a lot of important questions about parental rights.

Seriously? people are "concerned" that the parent's rights might have been infringed? Not worrying about the sick toddler, worried about the idiot parents?

 Some people, like representative Kelly Townsend, believe that the authorities overstepped. “What has our country become that we can tear down the doorway of a family who has a child with a high fever that disagrees with their doctor?” she said to the Arizona Republic. “What about parents’ rights to decide what’s best for their child?”

Really?
Look, parents have a lot of choices when it comes to how to raise their children. They can choose what, if any, religion to bring them up in. They can decide how strict or permissive to be. They can even infect their kids with horrible political beliefs. But they do NOT - DO NOT - have the right to sit back and watch their child die because they think they know better than their doctor.
"What about parents' rights to decide what's best for their child?" Well, once you decide that what's best for your child is to not have his 105-degree fever treated, you have proven that you are not capable of making those decisions. You have forfeited that right.
And Kelly Townsend feels so upset about these poor parents whose only crime was "disagreeing with their doctor?"
Look, if you don't think that your doctor's advice sounds right, you should absolutely get a second opinion. FROM ANOTHER DOCTOR. You should not just decide that you don't like that advice so you're going to ignore it. I mean, if you're the patient, you're an adult, you can certainly feel free to say "no, I'd rather take my chances with chicken soup and warm thoughts than take medicine," but you do not get to make that decision for your child. You do not have the right to sacrifice your child on the altar of anti-intellectualism. (Praise Jenny McCarthy!)

Where did this idea come from in the first place that a parent automatically knows what's best for their child? There are a lot of stupid parents out there. There are parents who are insane. No matter how well you know your child, you do not know more about her medical needs than her pediatrician. It's absurd!

So, anyway, who is this Kelly Townsend?

I had no idea, so I Googled her.
And I found http://www.electkellytownsend.com/ which is her campaign website.



Top and center of the site is an endorsement:



"Kelly is a leader among leaders"
Garrett Humbertson, Convention of States Project


Convention of States Project? That sounds like it might be a bit nutty.
Let's just check the old Googlator. . .






YUP!
Pretty much what you'd think!

WHY CALL A CONVENTION OF STATES?
Simple: to bring power back to the states and the people, where it belongs. Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. shouldn’t be allowed to make sweeping decisions that impact millions of Americans. But right now, they do. So it all boils down to one question: Who do you think should decide what’s best for you and your family? You, or the feds? We’d vote for the American people every single time.

WHO’S BEHIND THIS THING?

The American people. We thought you’d never ask! The Convention of States Project is first and foremost a movement of grassroots citizens who are fed up with business as usual in D.C. We’re funded by thousands of everyday patriots who have committed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to protecting liberty for future generations.

Yeah. They have committed their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. That's a hell of a fancy-ass way to say "signed a petition."

So what are her "Top Issues?"

Protecting 

• The Constitution
• The Unborn
• Local residents
• Veterans' Rights
• Property Rights
• ​Family Values
• Parental Rights
• Religious Rights

yeah, yeah, yeah. Standard Republican boilerplate. Protecting the "unborn," protecting "family values,"  blah blah blah. Oh, wait. I missed one.

• Salt River Horses

Did not see that one coming!

And there's this handy illustration of her educational priorities:







I don't know when it became an article of faith amongst the right-wing nutjobs that public schools are teaching kids about "Democratic Socialism."  Has any kid ever come answered the "what did you learn at school today" question with "oh, mommy. Teacher told us all about the pitfalls of unfettered capitalism and how important trade unionism has been historically to the building of a strong working-class identity!"?


Oh. I also found this when I Googled Ms Townsend:


‘Something is in those vaccines’: Lawmaker says mandatory measles shots are ‘Communist’

 . . . Republican State Rep. Kelly Townsend, a five-term state representative who is no stranger to making controversial and befuddling statements on social media, took to Facebook on Thursday to bemoan that Arizona was “prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles.”

Okay, quick aside here. Kelly Townsend is a Five-term Representative in the state of Arizona. According to her website, these are some of the things she "promotes."

Promoting 

• ​Improved Education
• More Jobs & a Better Economy
• A Secure Border
• An Article V Convention of States
  • Balanced Budget
  • Term Limits
  • Restore a balance of power

I don't know to how many terms she wants office-holders to be limited, but apparently it's more than five!
Remember when Newt Gingrich and his gaggle of goons brought out that stupid "contract with America?" And one of the things they were going to implement would be term limits? And then it turned out that term limits would only apply to officials elected after the "contract" went into effect? Anyone already in office would be grandfathered in? It's almost as if the people who promote things like term limits actually don't give a single damn about limiting terms. At least not for themselves. Funny that!

Anyway, back to the unhinged rantings of Rep. Townsend.

Townsend demanded that instead of continuing to push for widespread vaccination against the disease, the government and the pharmaceutical industry instead invest money into “discovering what in these vaccines is causing so much injury.”
“The problem is something is in those vaccines,” Townsend said.

Oy. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. The Communists are not putting harmful things in your child's vaccines. That's crazy. Everyone knows they cause all the harm they need to by putting flouride in the water! It's been proven, wake up, sheeple!

Townsend says her opposition is rooted in her experience. The legislator’s 22-year-old daughter has significant medical problems that she blames on a vaccine she received when she was 10 months old. She says no scientific evidence will convince her otherwise.

Okay, there is something wrong with you, Kelly Townsend. And unfortunately, this something is wrong with a whole lot of Americans these days. You believe that your child's problems were caused by a vaccine. Doctors, scientists, the AMA, the CDC, and the WHO all say that you are incorrect. On their side, they have voluminous research, studies, experiments, knowledge, and education. On the other hand, you have a "gut feeling." And you somehow can't understand that your gut feeling means nothing, while scientific research actually means a whole hell of a lot. See, this is why parents can't be allowed to have complete control over their children's medical decisions. Because too many parents are like Kelly Townsend. And if we let them make important decisions like whether or not to vaccinate their children, or whether or not to take them to the hospital when they are in need of medical care, children will die as a result.

I mean, how irresponsible is it to allow life-or-death decisions to be made by someone who writes something like this?

app-facebook

Representative Kelly Townsend

about a month ago

Our country is sovereign, our State is sovereign, our family is sovereign, our God is sovereign and the most holy and sacred last frontier of sovereignty is our own body.

Dearest friends and people of Arizona, it seems we are prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles. I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to. The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist.

I have sworn an oath to the Constitution five times, now, and I take that oath very seriously. It was not just something I repeated in order to get sworn in to an office. I do not make my decisions based on my next election or what the populace demands if it violates that oath.

Folks, I am going to ask you to educate your children, educate your family, educate those around you about the fundamentals of liberty and what that means. It seems we have lost those fundamentals along the way and are chasing our fears.

And finally, I am going to demand, as a mother of an injured child from her vaccines, that we insist that we spend the time and money on discovering what in these vaccines is causing so much injury, instead of insisting on taking your liberty in the name of the collective.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Live free or die,
Rep. Kelly Townsend

Live free or die? Christ, she didn't even get the state right!

Flashback Friday -- Penelope Houston

Penelope Houston first came to prominence as the lead singer of San Franciscos's Avengers.




This is the part where I'm tempted to pretend I was cool enough to have known of the Avengers at the time, but sadly. . .

Anyway, I first stumbled into her when I saw her opening for American Music Club at a little dive called the Full Moon Saloon (I think) on Haight Street, and I was smitten. Both musically, and yes, I admit to having had a bit of a crush on Ms Houston. So sue me. I saw her several times with her folk music group Birdboys after that in various venues around the city. I once ran into Steven Strauss, her bass player in the men's room of the Great American Music Hall and I'm proud to say that I played it totally cool, giving him the little up-nod as if to say "howzit goin'?" instead of geeking out all over. Anyway, please enjoy, on this last Flashback Friday of Women's History Month, the great Penelope Houston.

How is this being published?

So I was taking some old newspapers to the recycling bin when I saw a headline that frankly dropped my jaw.

Left's Diversity Push Played Role in New Zealand Killings.

I had to read it twice to believe it.

Who int he Hell would have written such at hing?

Surprise, surprise surprise! Pat Fucking Buchanan is still around!

Now how in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Nineteen anyone still sees fit to publish the son of a bitch is another issue. But Holy God, look at what the bastard wrote about Christchurch!

Of course he begins with the standard "I don't condone these killings, I have always believed that people should not do murder" boilerplate:

Last Friday, in Christchurch, New Zealand, one of the more civilized places on earth, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, turned on his cellphone camera and set out to livestream his massacre of as many innocent Muslim worshippers as he could kill.
Using a semi-automatic rifle, he murdered more than 40 men, women and children at one mosque, drove three miles to another, and there killed seven more. Dozens are still wounded, suffering and dying.
An atrocity and act of pure evil by a man with a dead soul.

Okay, you've covered your ass, now what do you really think?

Yet, predictably, within 48 hours, the president of the United States was being publicly indicted as a moral accomplice.

Well, of course your first reaction to racist murder is to try and insulate the racist-in-chief from any incrimination. Obviously that's gotta be your first priority! Although, I gotta ask, are we forgetting to emphatically aver that the gun itself is in no way at fault?

Donald Trump, it was said, used a word, “invasion,” to describe the 76,000 migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S. border in February. At the same time, the killer used that word to describe the Muslim migration into the West.

Well, there was that. But also, there was the fact that the terrorist murderer specifically named Donald Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose."

So, ya know. . .  it's not like people are just jumping on a single word that Trump used.

The killer also mentioned Trump in his 74-page manifesto.
What further need have we of proof?

Well, he did a bit more than "mention" him, but why bother with a genuine honest argument, eh?

Anyway, let's skip the Trumpist sideshow and get to the meat of Pat's argument. The rotten, rancid, noxious meat of his argument.

Now, there are no excuses, or defenses, for what happened in Christchurch. But there is an explanation.
All peoples to some degree resent and resist the movement of outsiders into their space.

Holy Fucking Shit, dude!

Let's set aside for a moment that you are using the fact that some people are xenophobic to justify mass murder. Are you saying that this murdering son of a bitch was resisiting "outsiders" coming into "his space?" You do know that white people are not indigenous to New Zealand, right? The people in New Zealand who would have a legitimate complaint about outsiders coming into their land would be the Maori. White New Zealanders are living in "space" their ancestors stole from the Maori. And, as you mentioned in your very first sentence, the killer . . . was AUSTRALIAN. So he didn't even have a half-assed claim to wonership of this "space." HE was a foreigner. He was upset about "outsiders" moving into someone else's "space" which wasn't even their "space" to begin with.

Some migrants are more difficult than others to assimilate into Western societies. European nations that had not known mass migrations for centuries were especially susceptible to a virulent reaction, a backlash.

Oh my God. So the reason that Muslims got murdered in New Zealand is because there were Muslims in New Zealand?

That's like saying "you know, if the banks didn't have all that money in them, John Dillinger wouldn't have had a motive to rob them. So, it's kinda their own fault."

Or it's like saying "Hmm, the pastor here is a child molester. The solution is to not allow any children to attend services here which, oh my God, I just remembered that a church in  Florida actually did! Hold on, we need to go on a tangent here.

(via: Atlanta Daily World)

A Florida church had previously barred children from attending service because a sex offender convicted of two counts of child molestation had become their pastor right after he got out of prison. He was prohibited from being in the vicinity of children, prompting the church ban on children.

So, the church council or the deacons or whoever is looking for a new minister and they're interviewing this dude and they're all like "so I see you were at St. Mark's for four years, you were the senior pastor at First Baptist. Then there's a gap in your resume'. What have you been doing the last several years?" And this pastor's all "oh, I've been in prison. I'm a vile, loathsome child molester!" And the hiring committee is like "Dang, other than the child molestation thing, I really like this guy. Do we even have that many children in our congregation?" And the solution is somehow not "get the hell out of our church and never darken our doorway again. Deacon Smith, would you call an exorcist please?"
The solution is "well, what if we just don't allow children in the building while he's in the pulpit giving us lessons in morality?' I mean, fuck, I know it's Florida, but come on!

There's really no way you could make this any worse! What's that, Florida? Hold your beer? Well, okay, but I don't see how. . .

Just the other day, the probation on the pastor was changed to enable him to minister to children and the church leaders lifted the ban from kids attending service.

Look, I understand the idea of giving someone a second chance, but. . .

In 2009, Gilyard pleaded guilty to lewd or lascivious conduct and molestation involving two girls younger than 16. His 2007 resignation after 15 years as pastor of Jacksonville’s Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, a 7,000-member predominantly African-American congregation, marked the fifth pastorate he lost due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

And you're seriously going to let children around this scumbag? What does the judge have to say about that?

According to WJXT, a judge modified Gilyard’s probation which now enables him to “minister to children under the age of 18 as long as the children are supervised by an adult other than the defendant.”

All right, anyway, let's get back to the subject at hand: Pat Buchannan being a huge disgusting racist asshole.

Americans, after all, reacted viscerally to the Irish migration of 1845-1849, and, again, to the Great Migration from Central and Eastern Europe from 1890 to 1920. Inter-ethnic violence was not uncommon.

Aaaaand. . .? And that waaaaaas. . .? That was. . . no? You don't know? You don't know this one? It was WRONG! When did your Irish ancestors come here? Do you think they were okay with Americans "reacting viscerally" to their arrival? You think ot was okay that inter-ethnic violence was visited on them? I understand the value of tradition, but just because American assholes were shitty to the Irish a hundred fifty years ago and shitty to Germans and Poles 50 years later doesn't mean we should be shitty to Muslims now. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

Our leaders in the 1920s understood this and took steps to halt the migrations until those who had come could be assimilated, and, in a word, Americanized. It worked. By 1960, we were a united people.

 

Oh my God! Imagine actually thinking that! Imagine being a person who was alive in 1960 and actually thinking that!

Yup, just one big happy family!

 

       Ah, so united!

Boy, I sure hope immigration doesn't sow the seeds of division and spoil this time of peaceful harmony!

Then, without the people’s consent, the great experiment began:
America’s doors were thrown open to peoples of every religion, race, culture and creed, to create a different nation 

Wait, what? Without the people's consent? Were we not a Democratic Republic in the 1960s? If  "the people" didn't want increased immigration, couldn't they have just voted in representatives that were even more xenophobic than your average Congressman?

The problem: A universal nation is a contradiction in terms. A nation of all races, religions and tribes had never before existed.

And, as we all know, if something has never existed, it can't be done and is inherently bad. That's why the Founding Fathers didn't try to create a constitutional democracy where citizens could choose their own representatives in goverrnment and there would be no monarch. Because such a nation had never existed, and they wisely understood that if something hasn't happened before it is just too dabgerous to try it now.

The liberal democracies that embraced this ideology, this idea, are at war with human nature, and are losing this war to tribalism and authoritarianism.

I thought you were supposed to be some sort of a Christian.
You know, the entire idea of Christianity is to be at war with human nature. Your basic human instincts are to take whatever you want, kill anyone who might be a rival and fuck every woman you see. The goal of Christianity and pretty much any major religion, is to get people to say "even though I want to do this or that thing, I won't because it would make Baby Jesus cry and then I'll go to Hell." And I'm not saying that you need religion to get people to behave like civilized human beings. You don't. As long as your parents taught you empathy. Anyway, we're getting off track here.


If I'm understanding you correctly, what you're saying is that the way to stave off tribalism and authoritarianism is to have a strong leader who will not allow anyone but your own people in ot the country?

As for Christchurch, unfortunately, such horrors appear to have become the new normal. But Brenton Tarrant alone is responsible for what he did. And it was not Trump but the New World Order globalists who fertilized the soil that spawned him.

Yes. The murderer alone is responsible for his actions. Agreed. No one else is to blame for his despicable actions. Not Donald Trump, not Candace Owens, not "pewdipie," whoever that is. Only the killer is to blame. Oh, and also, it's the globalists' fault. And the New World Order. But not the racist right.

If the globalists would only stop letting "those" people into our nice clean white countries, white people wouldn't have to murder them.

Seriously, how in the hell is anyone publishing this asshole?

Making America Stupider.

Flat-Earthers' Cruise Will Sail to Antarctica 'Ice Wall' at the Planet's Edge.

Organizers of an annual conference that brings together people who believe that the Earth is flat are planning a cruise to the purported edge of the planet. They're looking for the ice wall that holds back the oceans.

Oh my God.
At first I thought "well, good. This should finally disabuse them of their ridiculous 'theories,'" but then I realized that if - IF - this cruise ever actually happens, they will probably just sail towards Antarctica until they see a glacier and sya "there it is! That's the ice wall!"

This flat-earth thing is getting close to becoming my favorite conspiracy theory.

My current favorite is the Roswell UFO thing. What I love about the Roswell conspiracy theory is that the believers actually have managed to convince themselves that the reason the Air Force is covering up the existence of alien space craft is because. . .



.

. . . wait, hold on. . .

The Air Force is covering this up because. . .


. . .they don't want people to panic!





The United States military, the group that spent 60 years telling us to be afraid - VERY AFRAID - of the Russians, the people that have spent the last 20 years telling us we need to be terrified of Muslims, that military wants to PREVENT people from panicking?!?!?! Do you have any idea how much god damn money would be thrown at the Air Force if they could demonstrate a threat from flying saucers?  If they had a crashed alien spacecraft, they would have paraded it through the streets of every city and town in the USA. They would have been on every news program on every network screaming about how much better the martian technology was and how our very survival depended on spending whatever it took to catch up.

So anyway, that's my favorite conspiracy theory because the whole reason behind it is just so hilariously dumb.

Now the flat-earth people, they don't seem to have a reason behind their conspiracy at all. I mean, it's one thing to look out at the landscape and say "it looks flat to me." And it's one thing to say that the ancient Greek mathematician who figured out that the Earth is a sphere must have gotten it wrong, but there are photos of the Earth from space showing it to be quite spherical. So in order for their theory to have any leg to stand on, those photos have to be fake. Which means that NASA would have to be engaged in a massive hoax/coverup. But why? Why the hell would NASA care about deceiving people about the shape of the planet?

I watched part of a documentary about these people on Netflix and they all believe this. They all believe that NASA is involved in perpetuating this enormous lie. But, having watched probably half of this movie, I couldn't begin to tell you what they think NASA's motivation is.

Oh, and also there's a dome. Depending on who you ask.

One of the flat-earth people pointed out that "NASA" sounds sort of vaguely like the word in some ancient language for "deception," so . . .you know. . . . that's pretty much scientific evidence right there.




Anyway, bon voyage and don't hurry back to all the flat-earth geniuses heading for Antarctica. You're all part of the enstupiding of America and you can all get bent.



And speaking of making America stupider. . .
CNN.

Special counsel Robert Mueller found that no one in the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in 2016 -- but Democrats are not ready to accept that finding https://t.co/ywnmPFjZ8X

— CNN (@CNN) March 25, 2019

CNN has not seen the Mueller report. No one has. Except William Barr and it's doubtful he's been able to read it yet, as it's likely about as long as the Ayn Rand box set. The one thing that we do know is that it does NOT exonerate him. And yet, there's CNN jumping in to repeat any Republican spinmeister's talking points as if they were gospel truth. Because, you know, "liberal media."

You want to know who did a better job than CNN covering the Mueller report? You may want to sit down for this. . .FOX!

Yes, that FOX.

Mueller did not exonerate Trump – Barr acted as judge and jury. Now Congress needs to do its job

By Mary Anne Marsh | Fox News

Really?

First, let me start with a fact. We have not seen the Mueller report. Let me repeat that…We have not seen the Mueller report. Not one page. Not one paragraph. Not one period. Nothing. So, we have no idea what is in it, what Mueller did, what Mueller said, and what, if anything, Barr used from it to make his decisions.

Are you seeing this, CNN? You could take a lesson in journalistic standards from. . . wait, are we sure? . . . Yep, from FOX.

Speaking of decisions, if Barr is to be believed – and that’s a big if – then Mueller wrote a report that didn’t make one decision regarding any crimes he examined. Is this possible? It is hard to believe and highly unusual, if true.

Oh my God, this woman is going to get fired. God bless her!

Speaking of decisions, if Barr is to be believed – and that’s a big if – then Mueller wrote a report that didn’t make one decision regarding any crimes he examined. Is this possible? It is hard to believe and highly unusual, if true.

Wow! I mean, I would expect this from. . . I don't know, probably not anyone these days. . the Nation maybe? But she is writing for FOX GODDAMM NEWS! This is astonishing! Seriously, read the whole thing (link) it's amazing.

You know who else could take a lesson from -- god, this feels so weird -- FOX?

These guys:

Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy

Ugh! What has become of you, Grey Lady?



And the less said about Vox, the better:

Trump: Barr letter on Mueller report shows “total and complete exoneration”

“The findings of the Department of Justice are a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States.”

By Dylan Scott@dylanlscottdylan.scott@vox.com  Mar 24, 2019, 4:40pm EDT

I mean, what is the point of that headline? You're just repeating a lie from an habitual liar with every incentive to lie and making that your headline? Do you think that beginning with "Trump:" makes it okay? I mean, technically, you're not saying that Trump was exonerated, you're saying that Trump said Trump was exonerated, but  it might as well just be a press release and you might as well be his publicists. If you're going to use Trump's words for your headline, you need to say something like "TRUMP CLAIMS TO BE EXONERATED, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HIS CLAIM." Or "TRUMP SAYS THINGS ABOUT MUELLER REPORT, THOSE THINGS ARE PROBABLY NOT TRUE AND TRUMP IS A COMPULSIVE LIAR WHO SHOULD NEVER BE BELIEVED WITHOUT CORROBORATING EVIDENCE."


Why would anyone, other than complete hacks like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, ever report on what Trump says about what Barr says about a report that Trump has never seen and Barr has not read as if it had any credibility? No journalist should ever take any statement from anyone in Washingtonm at face value. That goes double when the statement comes from a Republian, since they have proven over the last several decades to be less than honest brokers who can never be given the benefit of the doubt. And that goes double again when the statement comes from anyone in the Trump administration, as everyone in Trump's orbit has shown themselves repeatedly to be shameless craven bald-faced liars. Pretending otherwise is just making America stupider.

Centrists Never Learn

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile to join Fox News

Brazile in a statement said she was “delighted” to join the network and said she was eager to represent Democrats for Fox News viewers, who she argued don’t “hear enough from Democrats.”

God, could anything be more on-brand for Donna Brazile? I don't know what could be more pathetic than thinking that if we just reach out to people who willingly submit their brains to hours of FOX's right-wing propaganda every day, we're sure to find some common ground. Surely they will listen to reason! And sure, my presence on their network will allow FOX to continue to propping up the thin veneer of "fair and balanced" or whatever they're calling it now, sure I'm helping them to try to rehab their image with some facade of legitimacy, but that's beside the point. We all need to work together, blah blah blah.. . .

She acknowledged that she might catch heat from members of her party for the move, saying that “my response is that, if we've learned anything from the 2016 election, it is that we can't have a country where we don't talk to those who disagree with our political views.”

So in other words, we have not learned anything from the 2016 election.

The one lesson we should have learned from 2016 is Play To Win. There is nothing to be gained by playing not to lose. It's tempting to think you can just sit back and be the responsible adult in the room while the other candidate implodes, but it didn't work for Al Gore (a campaign run so teeibly by Donna Brazile herself)* it didn't work for John Kerry, and it didn't work for Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Republican electorate Does. Not. Care. how incompetent, how stupid, how ridiculous their candidate is, they are going to turn out to vote for him. Honestly, they like a candidate even more if he's seen as stupid or incompetent because they see voting for him as "triggering the libs." You can not expect that you're going to be able to pry any votes away from the Republican candidate by reasoning with them.

These people are not reachable. They can not be reasoned with. They need to be soundly defeated, not appeased.

The only way to win is to energize your base, get your voters to the polls, give them something to vote FOR, not just a Republican monster to vote against.

These centrist-liberal "third way" Democrats still think that we can get back to a pre-Gingrich version of Washington where Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would go out for cocktails after work because despite their differences, they still respected each other. Those days are gone and they are never NEVER coming back.

Barack Obama spent eight years trying to get along with these people. Their response was to state publicly that their chief legislative goal was to make him a one-term President, then filibuster and obstruct everything he tried to do including refusing to even consider anyone he might nominate to the Supreme Court. They spent 8 years sometimes implying sometimes stating outright that President Obama was not born in America, then elected one of the biggest mouthpieces for that smear to the presidency.

They do not care and they do not care who knows it. There will be no getting along, there will be no compromise, there will be no dialogue, there will be no good faith negotiations because they do not believe in any of those things. Those things are all anathema to them. Even if some of them wanted to work out some sort of compromise, they would be afraid to admit it because they know they would get primaried by someone even crazier, stupider, and farther to the right.


And FOX is a big reason why things are the way they are.

And Brazile thinks she's going to accomplish something by becoming a part of this network.

They never learn.






*And yes, I know the 200 election was stolen, but Christ, it never should have been close enough to steal!