DL Open Thread: Thursday, June 8, 2023
Need I say more?
Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
Robertson’s enterprises also included Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach; the American Center for Law and Justice, which defends the First Amendment rights of religious people; and Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization.
For more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his “700 Club” television show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment, blaming natural disasters on everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution.
Many followed the path Robertson cut in religious broadcasting, Green told the AP in 2021. In American politics, Robertson helped “cement the alliance between conservative Christians and the Republican Party.”
Betcha he thought he’d get his Heavenly rewards. He didn’t.
Guess I’ve got music on my mind. Been humming this one. Wonder why:
Oh, here’s why:
Federal prosecutors formally informed Donald Trump’s lawyers last week that the former president is a target of the criminal investigation examining his retention of national security materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstruction of justice, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The move – the clearest sign yet that Trump is on course to be indicted – dramatically raises the stakes for Trump, as the investigation nears its conclusion after taking evidence before a grand jury in Washington and a previously unknown grand jury in Florida.
Trump’s lawyers were sent a “target letter” days before they met on Monday with the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, and the senior career official in the deputy attorney general’s office, where they asked prosecutors not to charge the former president.
Oopsies. Migrant Workers Flee Florida Thanks To DeSantis.
Florida Republicans passed a bill criminalizing the transport of undocumented people into Florida, requiring hospitals to ask about immigration status on intake forms, invalidating out of state driver’s licenses or other forms of government ID issued to undocumented people, and preventing local governments from issuing identification cards to undocumented people.
Now, after sparking backlash among thousands of immigrants (who make up a great deal of Florida’s economy), some Florida Republicans are trying to backpedal and do damage control.
On Monday, Representatives Alina Garcia, Rick Roth, and Juan Fernandez Barquin appeared at an event sponsored by Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo, also a Republican. The trio, all of whom voted to pass the anti-immigrant bill, clumsily attempted to appeal to the thousands of people their party has alienated.
Rethugs are still struggling with their messaging here:
“This bill is 100 percent supposed to scare you,” said Roth. “I’m a farmer, and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees. They’re already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It’s urgent that you talk to all your people and convince them that you have resources, state representatives, and other people that can explain the bill to you,” he added, essentially begging Florida’s labor force to not leave the state that cares little for them.
“This is more of a political bill than it is policy. It does give more police state powers going forward to deal with immigration, but still this is mainly a political bill,” Roth concluded incoherently.
The pleading by Republicans who are reaping what they sowed comes after Latin American truck drivers began rallying behind calls to strike and not enter Florida, while thousands of workers and families have marched across the state protesting the bill and threatening to leave the state.
We’re Coming For Your Gas Stoves, And Rethugs Won’t Stop Us! Why? Because the House R’s refuse to meet:
The House of Representatives stalled on Wednesday with members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus vowing to “hold the floor” out of frustration with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
In an unusual rebuke to their own leadership, on Tuesday, 11 Republicans, including Bishop, voted against a procedural resolution bringing bills to the floor. The standoff continued Wednesday as the House failed to hold scheduled votes, and at the end of the day leadership canceled floor activity for the rest of the week.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted Wednesday that leadership failed to hold the line, so he and his fellow conservatives would hold the floor, meaning they would stand in the way of passing legislation, even messaging bills about defending gas stoves from regulation. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) amplified his message in capital letters.
I would ordinarily post a Delaware story in this post. But the bullshit surrounding the so-called LEOBOR reform bills will instead show up in my legislative roundup. Coming more-or-less soon.
What do you want to talk about?
At least we can take solace that he is definitely not looking down from above.
Jinx!
If American Christianity is even a little bit correct in terms of eternal rewards and punishments, Robertson is now being fucked by Satan in hell. Congrrats, Pat!
just got off my morning call with my man Lucifer and asked him about Pat and he said ” i wouldnt fuck him with Jason’s dick”
Like button!
A Pat Robertson speech about 30 years ago made a really vivid impression on my much younger self for how hateful it was. I’m thinking it must have been the one he gave at the 1992 Republican Convention. I just listened back to it (do not recommend), and was not as viscerally horrified, probably due to 30 years of being ground down by their same old messages. He hit them all: Calling it the “Democrat” party; referring to “Slick Joey from Delaware”; suggesting a 13-year old should be forbidden from having an abortion. Oh, and gawd gawd gawd, ad nauseam.
Legit shocker: Supreme Court rules that Alabama gerrymander diluted Black voter impact. Roberts and Kavanaugh joined the three liberal justices:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-alabama.html
Why does Clarence Thomas hate black people?
Any armchair psychoanalysts out there? It certainly seems true.
I heard that speech in 1992 also and was horrified. I remember that speech and an interview with Barbara Bush someone did at that same convention, which was also pretty horrifying.
I remember Nixon’s expressed admiration for Barbara Bush:
“She’s a hater. I like that.”
It is enraging that the media cover the Bushes like W’s administration never happened. The degree of grift and lawbreaking was breathtaking, (Chaney’s many sins, including the secret meeting of energy executives in 2001, after which energy prices spiked without explanation, Valarie Plame’s entire organization was outed). The degree of lying was off the chart. All those “good” Republican shills on MSNBC going after Trump and pretending that W and Chaney were righteous, paving the way for the Bushes to reclaim control of the GOP after the dandy demon is removed from the public sphere. My wife does not understand why I hate all of them so. Chuck Todd, join Pat Robertson in the depths…
GWB was still the worst president until Trump beat him by a nose on Jan. 6 2021.
Oh, it was more than a nose.
I think Bush’s war crimes and body count are just barely outweighed by Trump’s insurrection. But I could still be convinced to change my mind. We tend to give Trump’s misrule greater weight because of recency bias.