So, Martial Law as a Campaign Promise?

No wonder you're polling at six and a half percent!

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said at a campaign stop on Thursday that he would consider sending federal troops or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop abortions.
“I will not pretend there is nothing we can do to stop this,” Huckabee said. When a reporter asked if hew would use federal troops or the FBI to this end, he said, “We’ll see if I get to be president.”

Seriously?

The Supreme Court has ruled that abortion is perfectly legal. You don't like that. So you're toying with the idea of sending United States troops on to American soil to prevent women from accessing this perfectly legal procedure? And that's a selling point?

How in the hell would you justify this?

Huckabee said he would “invoke the 5th and 14th amendments for the protection of every human being.” The Fifth Amendment states, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger.”

So. . .  the 14th . . . the equal protection under the law amendment? So you figure that as long as martial law was applied equally to everyone? That would pass Constitutional muster?

Also, you are familiar with the Posse Comitatus Act, right? You're not allowed to use US troops to enforce the law. You know that, right?  Although, I guess in your defense they wouldn't actually be enforcing the law, they would be doing kind of the opposite. Preventing the law from being enforced and . . .HOW THE FUCK ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIS????

So I assume that the other Republican candidates have all been called upon to "refudiate" Huckabee's terrifying statement?

**Crickets**

Haha, of course they haven't. Huckabee is only a former governor and FOX tv host who's currently polling fifth in the Republican primary race. It's not like he's Sister Souljah!

Uh-oh. It's learning.

It's learning.

“Real-estate mogul Donald Trump said Monday that he is in favor of Republicans moving to shut down the federal government in the Planned Parenthood funding fight.
“I can tell you this: I would,” the presidential candidate said when asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt whether he supports shutting the government down in the fight.”

He's learning how to pander. Because you know Trump doesn't give a shit about Planned Parenthood or aborted fetuses. He's never been a "family values" guy.

 

Trump only cares about two things:
1.  Being rich and famous
2.  Getting richer and famouser.

That's it. So the only reason that he's talking about this is to shore up his support with the Religious Right. For some reason, they've taken a shine to the thrice-married libertine, but anything less than full-throated opposition to reproductive freedom could cost him some votes with the Bible-thumpers, and, contrary to what I was sure of a few weeks ago, Trump may actually be in this to win it.

I assumed he was running as a publicity stunt, a chance to try and garner some adulation from the rubes before returning to his game show hosting gig, but suddenly he found himself leading in the polls. And having spent a lifetime surrounded by sycophants and yes-men, he may actually have started to believe he can pull this off. But if he was going to make a serious run, he had to learn to pander. He seems to be learning.

The Far Country

I hadn't ever heard of this movie until a couple days ago when I saw that Encore was running a "six-gun salute" to Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy Stewart being one of my favorite actors, I set the DVR to record it.

It's not he greatest western ever made, but it's not bad. But what struck me about this movie is that I'm fairly sure that, 50-some years before "Brokeback Mountain," this movie featured a couple of gay cowboys.

Jimmy Stewart and Walter Brennan speak often about their plans to buy a little house in Utah and "settle down" together.  Stewart's character has a bell on his saddle that Brennan's character bought for him, planning to hang it on the door of their house to let them know when visitors arrive. "It's a pretty small bell" says Renee (One of two women in love with Stewart) "Well, it's gonna be a pretty small house." answers Brennan.
At the end of the movie, when Renee leans in to kiss Jimmy Stewart, and the music swells dramatically, Stewart turns away, walks over to his horse and wistfully fiddles with the bell given to him by the now-dead Walter Brennan. He's clearly heartbroken and not at all interested in making kissy-face with Renee, or with Ruth Roman, from whom he also walked away when she tried to kiss him.

 

That's right. THIS did not impress him!

Plus, three times in the movie, Jimmy Stewart reaches into Walter Brennan's pocket, pull out his pipe, puts it in Brennan's mouth and lights it for him. It's a very loving gesture, especially when, as he is doing this, he says to Brennan "I can take care of me. And in a pinch, I can take care of you, too."

 

It's much more romantic than it looks in this picture.

The screenplay was written by Borden Chase and the film was directed by Anthony Mann. I can't find a whole lot of biographical information on either of them, so I don't know if either or both were gay or not, not that that would necessarily matter, I mean, I don't think Ang Lee is gay either.

Anyway, if anyone has seen The Far Country, I'd love to know what you think. Were Stewart and Brennan acouple, or am I just reading too much into their friendship? Because if I'm right, this film would be pretty groundbreaking and it's definitely not getting any credit for it.

 

Flashback Friday - Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper

Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper burst out of the Southern California Rockabilly/Cowpunk scene in the early 1980's with a string of albums featuring Mojo on vocals and guitar and percussionist Skid Roper on everything from washboard to washtub bass. Mojo was the spiritual descendant of Hasil Adkins with bits of John Lee Hooker and Howlin Wolf for good measure but his sound and lyrical worldview were uniquely his.

I never did get to see Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper perform, but I did see Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors at Slim's in San Francisco, and I saw Mojo perform as part of the Pleasure Barons somewhere in San Jose. He was a consumate showman and hopefully still is.

This is only going to get worse.

These people are scum.

Cops: Video shows 2 men placing Confederate flags at Ebenezer

• 
  

View Larger 

Small Confederate flags were found Thurs., July 30, 2015, at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

By David Markiewicz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta —

Atlanta police said surveillance footage shows two men placing Confederate flags at two of Atlanta’s most notable landmarks early Thursday: Ebenezer Baptist Church and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site Visitor Center.

Ever since Confederate flags finally started coming down, a segment of the white population has somehow decided that something valuable is being taken away from them and they're going to fight back.
So far, it hasn't been violent, not that I know of anyway, but last week, this also happened, and also in Georgia (sigh).

Confederate flag wavers caught yelling racist slurs at black kid’s birthday party insist they’re not hateful

Bethania Palma Markus
29 Jul 2015 at 12:32 ET                   

Confederate flag wavers taunt black Georgia birthday party guests as they drive away (Screenshot/YouTube)

Armed white Confederate flag supporters clashed with attendees of a black child's birthday party in Douglasville, Georgia, over the weekend, culminating in a tense standoff between the two groups and a threat from the Confederate battle flag-bearing band that they would "kill y'all n****rs."

"One had a gun, saying he was gonna kill the [racial slur]. Then one of them said gimme the gun, I'll shoot them [racial slur]," party organizer Melissa Alford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, adding the trucks had passed by several times before stopping in a field next to her house.

Oh, but don't worry. They aren't hateful. Like at all.

A group of white men said they were the ones victimized after being accused of disrupting a black child’s birthday party in Georgia while flying Confederate flags from their pickup trucks, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Because of course. Of course they're victims. Nothing happened to these guys. None of them got hurt. One guy did get arrested, but, as the police report states, that was for an un-related charge.




But somehow, they are still able to see themselves as "victims." They haven't had their precious flags taken away. They haven't lost the right to fly them in public. But if there is maybe a bit of societal disapproval for flying the banner of a nation that went to war with the United States in order to try to preserve the institution of slavery, they somehow feel that they're - I don't know, losing their place at the top of the societal food chain? Or something? I don't know, but they seem to feel threatened in some way.
And these cro-magnons are not going to go gently into the dustbin of history. They thrive on rage, resentment and paranoia. And they're heavily armed.
This is only going to get worse.

In Tennessee, Sgt. Briscoe, a 17-year Army veteran and African-American woman, was harassed by two white men in a pickup truck similarly adorned with Confederate flags. While driving past her family at her home, the truck slowed down and the men called them “m*therf*cking n***ers.”