Trump Montana Rally: 76 Percent of Trump's Claims are False or Misleading

As a former Republican, I like to believe that there was once a time when the Republican Party mostly took truthful positions.  True, there could be honest debate on issues, but the vast majority of the Party platform or statements wasn't deliberately false.  As I have noted before, the GOP began turning its back on truthfulness and honesty concurrent with the rise of "Christian conservatives" - I call them Christofascists - within the GOP base.  Having followed self-labeled "Christian" family values groups for two decades, there are few groups/people in America who lie as consistently and/or viciously than these self-congratulatory "godly folk."   With the rise of Donald Trump, this type of lying and the dissemination of falsehoods has hit record highs.  With large majorities of Republicans supporting Trump, the endorsement of deliberate lying has gone party wide.  An article in the Washington Post looks at the level of lying that Trump engaged in during his recent "rally" in Montana.  What is frightening is that the Trump/GOP base eats it up and never question the truthfulness of their führer's statements and claims.  Here are article highlights:

We’re doing something new: analyzing every factual claim from President Trump’s campaign rally in Montana on Thursday.

According to The Fact Checker’s database, [Trump] the president had made 3,251 false or misleading claims at the end of May, and his average daily rate was climbing. This side of Trump really comes alive during campaign rallies, so we wanted to do the math and find out whether the president speaks more fictions or facts in front of his crowds. We focused only on Trump’s statements of material fact at the Montana rally, avoiding trivialities and opinions. . . . According to our analysis, the truth took a beating in Montana. From a grand total of 98 factual statements we identified, 76 percent were false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.

Here’s a [partial] breakdown: [of the ] 45 false or mostly false statements, 25 misleading statements and four unsupported claims.

Trump’s rallies draw huge crowds — an estimated 6,500 people attended the Thursday rally — and they usually provide days of fodder for TV networks. Because three-quarters of the president’s claims in Montana were false, misleading or unsupported, there is a need to fact-check these events.

Here’s our [partial] analysis of all 98 claims:

False. The federal estate tax rarely falls on farms or small businesses, since only those leaving behind more than $5 million pay it. According to the Tax Policy Center, nearly 5,500 estates in 2017 — out of nearly 3 million — were subject to the tax. Of those, only 80 taxable estates would be farms and small businesses.

False. Democrats support measures to tighten border security, but they don’t support Trump’s plans for a border wall or other parts of his aggressive immigration agenda. There’s no evidence to show that immigration leads to higher crime. In fact, most studies have found that legal and undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the native-born.

False. Trump suggests the Justice Department went easy on Clinton while investigating her use of a private email server as secretary of state, but then-FBI Director James B. Comey gave detailed reasons for declining to bring charges and took the extraordinary step of rebuking Clinton in public shortly before the 2016 election. The Justice Department inspector general found “no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations” and said Comey acted inappropriately in calling her out before the election.

False. Germany in March approved an $11 billion pipeline, Nord Stream 2, to be built by Russian energy giant Gazprom. But the United States is not “paying for the whole thing,” not even by some logic that factors in U.S. spending on NATO. Germany is the second-highest contributor to NATO’s common programs. The United States pays 22 percent of these costs; Germany pays 15 percent.

False. Republicans often win the presidency. Trump’s suggestion that he lost the popular vote to Clinton because of voter fraud is not supported by any evidence.

False. MS-13 has a large presence in Long Island and other places, but it’s a serious exaggeration to say ICE has “liberated” towns from MS-13.

False. There’s no evidence that “thousands” of MS-13 members have been deported. Hundreds, yes. Thousands, no.

False. Trump has not secured funding for his promised border wall. The $1.6 billion he’s referring to comes with strings attached and cannot be used for the wall. It’s designated for a stretch of bollard-style fencing near San Diego.

False. Trump’s tax cut is nearly 0.9 percent of GDP, much smaller than Reagan’s tax cut in 1981, which was 2.89 percent of GDP. Trump’s tax cut is the eighth largest since 1918 — smaller than two tax cuts passed under Obama.

False. It’s not hard to find countries that the United States has a trade surplus with, including close allies such as Canada.

False. U.S. GDP growth is not the fastest among large nations, according to the World Bank.

False. Trump started commenting on NFL players kneeling in the fall of 2017. Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who first knelt during the anthem, began protesting in 2016. Ratings fell 9 percent in 2017 and 17 percent since 2016, according to Nielsen. But that roughly tracks with an overall decline in TV viewership and experts say that the protests were not the primary reason the ratings declined.

The lies go on and on and Trump's audience would rather embrace lies than face objective reality and the fact that their racism and bigotry are the real motivating factors for the support of Trump and the cesspool that is today's GOP.

New Survey: Rural America is Racist and Out of Touch With Reality

A new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey of rural Americans confirms several things that I have long believed to be the case: (i) rural Americans tend to be much more racist than urban residents, (ii) even though they are the largest recipients of federal safety net spending, they think those who are "other" are the ones living off the dole, and (iii) rural Americans believe "Christian values" are under attack because there are more restrictions on their ability to persecute others.  Again, rural red states - especially those with white populations - receive far more federal funding that they contribute to Washington and they contribute far less to the national budget than the large cities and blue states that are the economic engines for the nation's economy. One can only assume these people get their "news" from Fox News, Breitbart, or their right wing "Christian" pastors.  It would almost be funny that these people who are the largest drain per capita on the federal government think minorities are the ones playing the system if it did not disclose an insidious deep seated racism that unfortunately goes hand in hand with much of rural America and conservative Christianity.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

The political divide between rural and urban America is more cultural than it is economic, rooted in rural residents’ deep misgivings about the nation’s rapidly changing demographics, their sense that Christianity is under siege and their perception that the federal government caters most to the needs of people in big cities, according to a wide-ranging poll that examines cultural attitudes across the United States. The results highlight the growing political divisions between rural and urban Americans. While urban counties favored Hillary Clinton by 32 percentage points in the 2016 election, rural and small-town voters backed Trump by a 26-point margin, significantly wider than GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s 16 points four years earlier. But popular explanations of the rural-urban divide appear to overstate the influence of declining economic outcomes in driving rural America’s support for Trump. The survey responses, along with follow-up interviews and focus groups in rural Ohio, bring into view a portrait of a split that is tied more to social identity than to economic experience.

“Being from a rural area, everyone looks out for each other,” said Ryan Lawson, who grew up in northern Wisconsin. “People, in my experience, in cities are not as compassionate toward their neighbor as people in rural parts.”

In the poll, rural Americans express widespread concerns about the lack of jobs in their communities. Two-thirds of rural residents rate local job opportunities as fair or poor, compared with about half of urban residents. Nearly 6 in 10 rural residents say they would encourage young people in their community to leave for more opportunity elsewhere.

Rural areas have experienced a weak recovery from the Great Recession, with the total number of jobs down 128,000 from pre-recession levels. Suburban and urban counties have each gained about 3 million jobs, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Rural Americans express far more concern about jobs in their communities, but the poll finds that those concerns have little connection to support for Trump, a frequent theory to explain his rise in 2016. Economic troubles also show little relation to the feeling that urban residents have different values.

Rural voters who lament their community’s job prospects report supporting Trump by 14 percentage points more than Clinton, but Trump’s support was about twice that margin — 30 points — among voters who say their community’s job opportunities are excellent or good. Trump also earned about the same level of support from those who say they don’t worry about paying their bills as those who couldn’t pay their bills at some point in the past year.

Most rural residents say they think key elements of Trump’s economic agenda would help their local economy. Large majorities of rural residents say infrastructure investments, better trade deals, a crackdown on undocumented immigrant workers, lower business taxes and deregulation are “very” or “somewhat” important to boosting jobs in their communities. The largest fissures between Americans living in large cities and those in less-dense areas are rooted in misgivings about the country’s changing demographics and resentment about perceived biases in federal assistance, according to the poll.

Rural residents are nearly three times as likely (42 percent) as people in cities (16 percent) to say that immigrants are a burden on the country.

“They’re not paying taxes like Americans are. They’re getting stuff handed to them,” said Larry E. Redding, a retired canning factory employee in Arendtsville, Pa. “Free rent, and they’re driving better vehicles than I’m driving and everything else.”

The poll reveals that perceptions about abuse of government benefits often go hand in hand with views about race.

When asked which is more common — that government help tends to go to irresponsible people who do not deserve it or that it doesn’t reach people in need — rural Americans are more likely than others to say they think people are abusing the system. And across all areas, those who believe irresponsible people get undeserved government benefits are more likely than others to think that racial minorities receive unfair privileges.

That sense of division is closely connected to the belief among rural Americans that Christian values are under siege. Nearly 6 in 10 people in rural areas say Christian values are under attack, compared with just over half of suburbanites and fewer than half of urbanites. When personal politics is taken into account, the divide among rural residents is even larger: 78 percent of rural Republicans say Christian values are under attack, while 45 percent of rural Democrats do.

The other irony, of course is that it is rural America's racism and religious based bigotry that prevents new and progressive businesses from locating to their areas. Until they let go of their 1950's beliefs, they will be increasingly fall by the wayside and continue their downward social and economic death spirals.  I'm sorry, but I find it hard to have sympathy for these people. With the Internet and other avenues to access truthful information, they have chosen to embrace ignorance. 

Donald Trump's America is an America in Retreat

Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer on this blog, was elected by those who, in my view, Hillary Clinton accurately described as a basket of deplorables: racists, would be white supremacists, increasingly marginalized whites who blame others for the consequences of their bad choices (dropping out of high school, drug use, alcohol abuse, etc.), those motivated by greed like Trump, those too lazy to get informed on issues and change the channel from Fox News, and, of course the Christofascists.  Indeed, Trump won the highest percentage of votes in regions that are increasing backwaters and in economic decline - in no small part because of their embrace of toxic, ignorance embracing right wing Christianity, and bigotry, all of which only increases the likelihood that new industries and progressive businesses will avoid them like the plague.  And rightly so. Now, Trump wants to take the nation as a whole in the same direction of this isolationist, bigoted and reactionary regions of the country.  Rather than making "America Great Again," this turn away from globalism and knowledge and a rejection of Enlightenment values will weaken America and make the future more dangerous. An editorial in the New York Times looks at this retreat into backwardness.  Here are excerpts:

The swiftness of President Trump’s transformation of America’s global image from a proud and valued leader to something more nearly resembling a whiny bully has heads spinning at home and abroad. Mr. Trump was elected on a slogan of “America First” and a promise that the country would never again be bound by agreements and conventions that, in his view, compromised its sovereignty. But the policies and pronouncements that have flowed from this promise have in fact made the United States, and his presidency, the object of disbelief, alarm, even derision.

America may be first in the eyes of the president, but in the eyes of the world it is in headlong retreat.

Trump has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ceding leadership on trade in Asia to China; refused to reaffirm the mutual defense commitment that has been the bedrock of trans-Atlantic security for half a century, forcing America’s European allies to think about dealing with threats like Russia on their own; and abandoned a landmark agreement on climate change signed by 190-plus other nations, ceding leadership on the issue to Europe and China, and, in the bargain, forfeiting the rewards of participating in a worldwide clean energy economy that the agreement will bring.

Anyone seeking answers for these reckless decisions beyond Mr. Trump’s campaign braggadocio might take note of one sentence in a remarkable op-ed article written by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Trump, they wrote, has “a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a ‘global community’ but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage.”

The authors presumably meant this as praise of hardheaded realism. It is actually a vision of a world of cutthroat competition and zero-sum outcomes deeply at odds with the more cooperative, rules-based vision that has motivated America and its allies since World War II. . . . . American leadership and engagement were undeniably good for this country and, more often than not, a force for global peace and security. . . . . Washington also led the way in promoting human rights and democracy.

America’s commitment to those institutions and values is now in question under a president who is arrogant in his disregard of history, nuance and, most important, understanding of American leadership and what in fact makes the country secure, prosperous and “great.”

Mr. Trump and his team, embroiled in controversy over Russia and other matters, have shown no inclination, much less skill, to do the hard thinking that must precede any decision to alter America’s role in the world. And even if they did attempt such preparation, it is hard to imagine any convincing argument for abrogating or even weakening the country’s leadership responsibilities, its defense of NATO and Europe, its preference for cooperative problem-solving and its commitment to democratic values and human rights.

Is this what Americans want? If not, they had better voice their opposition loudly and clearly. Mr. Trump, abetted inexplicably by people who should know better — General McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — is moving fast down a dangerous and uncertain road.

Quote of the Day on Trump Voter Hypocrisy

As noted frequently on this blog, the hypocrisy of many Trump supporters - a number of whom I know here in Hampton, Virginia, and other parts of Hampton Roads - is pretty amazing.  These people voted for a man whose campaign was based on racism and misogyny, but they now are striving to disavow the ugliness and bigotry of what their candidate stands for and, based upon initial the appointees named to date, will carry forward into his administration. It has been hard to adequately describe my feelings towards these individuals.  Blogger friend Bob Felton in North Carolina has captured the situation perfectly.  Here is the money quote:

Less than 2-weeks after the election of Donald Trump, Republicans are demanding that they not be identified with the racism, xenophobia, misogyny, corruption and nepotism of their candidate.

Right. They just prefer a candidate who happens to be all of those things to a candidate who is none of those things.

Pardon me if I’m detecting some eau de 60’s here, as in “We love our darkies!”
 Sorry, ladies, but, bless your hearts, you knew exactly what you were voting for. Trump’s racist and ethnic hostilities, his lies, his shabby business conduct, his ignorance, his bullying, his degrading treatment of women, his overt hostility to America’s foundational ideals … those were front and center for 18-months. You can’t plead ignorance. Nor, after 7 separate Congressional investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing, can you plead Benghazi. And with Trump holding telephone conference with world leaders on an unsecured phone line, you’re going to look foolish if you plead e-mail. . . .  you sat at the family dinner table and announced and defended your support for a man who does exactly what you tell your children not to do.

Y’all aren’t kidding anybody but yourselves. You own it.

For my friends who voted for Trump, read these words and then take a good look in the mirror.  You can deny your true selves, but the rest of us - and future generations - have your number and will adjust our interactions with and view of you accordingly. 

Donald Trump's America - Arrogant Ignorance

I often lament the state of affairs in American society today and make the case that much of the toxicity and poisonous atmosphere is due to the right wing politicians and the Christofascists and white supremacists.  Worse yet, when these individuals are not busy disseminating hate and discord, they are focused on embracing ignorance and undermining safety regulations, employment protections and addressing growing problems such as global warming.  Hatred, bigotry and the celebratory embrace of ignorance are the hallmarks of these people and groups which have found their personification in Donald Trump. Facebook friend Brody Levesque has a piece at  The New Civil Rights Movement that lays out this menace Trump and his followers pose to America.  Here are excerpts: 

The past month or so has been especially bloody between the slaughter of innocents at the Pulse nightclub, the murders –  actually summary executions of unarmed Black men by law enforcement in extremely questionable circumstances – to the homicides of police officers in Dallas, Texas, and then Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The problem, however, is that these acts of violence very much are the current reflection of reality of life today in the United States.

Contemporary society of the United States is in deep trouble; it is unsafe and discriminatory (read: racist/misogynistic/homophobic/xenophobic.) It is awash in a virtual ocean of guns, most of which have no business being in the hands of civilians or law enforcement alike. The deep divisions that now exist in terms of economic, political, and religious status are propelled by well funded minority "family" or religious groups tied to the American right/conservative-Christian movement, threatening to undo any real form of progress forward for the American way of life, especially on so-called "cultural issues."

President Barack Obama has attempted to be a voice of reason as he asks Americans to pull together and make an effort to stop the violence, saying that such violence is not the American way nor reflects American values as a nation.

The President's efforts have been met by the right-wing with accusations that his actions and speeches actually foment the violence, and those in opposition blame him personally. Of course in Washington it is a rarely acknowledged open secret that a majority of the President's right-wing opposition – read: Republican – are angry that he is even sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office in the first place. They'd rather he were wearing white gloves, a snazzy formal tux, and was standing next to the desk while serving a white guy seated behind it.

The so-called cultural wars have now turned from rhetorical into actual combat. . . . . [the] reality is that the right-wing, supported by radical Christian fundamentalists, have over the past 45 or so years not only accumulated vast political power, but additionally have succeeded in holding the American governmental system at local, state, and federal levels hostage to their narrow vision. This vision, this divisiveness as evidenced by the total lack of legislative work product out of Washington to address the issues that plague everyday Americans, has now completely paralyzed the federal government.

The Christian right-wing's taking control at a local level of school boards, governments, and statehouses over the past forty years, along with their marriage to the Republican party, has created a state of erosion of the American educational system. This in turn has created a scenario where ignorance in key critical areas of sciences and civics has primarily contributed to the national state of arrogant ignorance. It has also led to a sense of meaningless hyper partisan religious centric ideology which has devolved governing into a state of inaction and hyper-gridlock.

While the United States may have fought a bloody civil war in the mid-nineteenth century to end slavery, it has never shook off its problem with its embedded racism. These days, fueled by recent acts of terrorism and abetted by that same so-called Christian ideology that literally affirmed biblical approval for slavery over a century ago, has now given arise in a resurgence xenophobia, which previously included Irish, then Chinese, and Italian, now lashes out at Muslims, and others of color in particular who don't fit the “ideal” model of what is deemed "American."

These worst traits have been embodied and personified in the Republican nominee in the presidential race, Donald Trump, whose public statements reflect this sorry state of affairs. From immigrants to women's rights to Muslims, Trump has unashamedly and unrepentantly bashed them all.

Of course it is more than just an issue of racism. The right-wing have also demonised women's choices over their own bodies and reproductive health issues, as well as targeting LGBTQ persons by categorising them as little more than deviant and pedophiles – sinners who merit only damnation, judgment, and ostracism by the "acceptable proper Christian society" and culture that upholds "true American values." The right-wing's open warfare waged on the American transgender community and its allies claims that they are upholding true Christian values, American values, against the "predators" that, supposedly, are the transgender persons. 

This whites only, Christian only, privileged thinking is further aided by a complacent and sometimes active co-conspirator/partner in the form of the right wing media, particularly Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Corporation. 

Columnist and political pundit Andrew Sullivan summed up Monday evening's RNC: 

The degeneracy of conservatism – its descent into literally mindless appeals to tribalism and fear and hatred – was on full display. You might also say the same about the religious right, the members of whom have eagerly embraced a racist, a nativist, a believer in war crimes, and a lover of the tyrants that conservatism once defined itself against. Their movement long lost any claim to a serious Christian conscience. But that they would so readily embrace such an unreconstructed pagan is indeed a revelation.

The problem is that as a whole, it seems that Americans are loathe to confront their demons, especially the grand daddy of them all: religious influence. While the First Amendment grants "freedom of religion," it also grants freedom FROM religion and the unholy marriage of the Christian right to the American body politic needs to have a divorce.

Americans need to confront the fact that white privilege exists, it is a reality, and it has no place in modern society. Americans need to wrap their arms around the fact that like in the other species that inhabit this planet, there are variants and natural occurrences and that human beings who are LGBTQ are just that; human beings. Americans need to recognise that the United States by no means is the "superior" culture and society in the global community.

Finally, Americans need to reevaluate a political process that allows a person like Donald Trump to even be considered as a viable candidate for the Office of President of the United States.

Very well said!

The Hypocrisy of Evangelicals Supporting Donald Trump

Unlike many on the right, I long ago ceased to view evangelical and similar conservative Christians as nice and decent people.  Instead, I concluded that hypocrisy, hatred of others, and often racism are the pillars of their belief system.  In yet another piece in the Washington Post belatedly lamenting what has become of the GOP in the context of the rise of Donald Trump, Michael Gerson finally seems to be opening his eyes to the hypocrisy of the evangelical crowd that is supporting Trump.  For Gerson, support for Trump is a betrayal of Christian values.  In my view, the phenomenon merely underscores the hypocrisy that has always been main stream among evangelicals.  Here are column highlights:

Of all Donald Trump’s political skills, perhaps the most impressive is his ability to persuade people to support him by suspending their deepest, lifelong beliefs. 

The same can be said of some pro-lifers, who must look past Trump’s previous support for partial-birth abortion and his inability to provide a serious rationale for his pro-life conversion (other than the obvious political imperative).  

Many evangelical Christians are now in a similar position. In considerable numbers (Trump was the presidential choice of 42 percent of them in a recent poll), they are attracted to Trump’s unvarnished populism and his identification with middle-class anxiety and anger. 

The greater problem for evangelicals is found not in the field of biology but of theology. Trump’s defining personal and public characteristic is pride. In making America great again, he offers not a set of political ideals or policies but he himself. He, he says, is better, smarter and tougher than our corrupt and stupid leaders. Pride is his platform.  

It is also, in the traditional Christian view, a vice, and a particularly pernicious one. “The essential vice, the utmost evil is Pride,” wrote C.S. Lewis. “Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison; it was through Pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” 

Why is pride so dangerous? Because it is never sated, and always breeds conflict. “Pride is essentially competitive,” said Lewis, “while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. 

In our personal experience, we know that pride is often at the root of resentment, rivalry, jealousy, antagonism, greed and a desire for revenge. It is the unifying conviction of evangelicals that people eventually come to the end of their ego and need to look upward; upward from the foot of the cross. 

A narcissistic leader is always at enmity with other people and groups, and cannot be a unifying figure. As Abraham Lincoln displayed, the capacity to heal requires humility and empathy. A narcissistic leader is vindictive, keeps lists of his grievances and enemies and is vulnerable to the abuse of power. A narcissistic leader finds it difficult to feel sympathy for those regarded as failures and losers, for the wounded and disabled, for strangers, refugees and the vulnerable. 

The reality is that pride is a hallmark of evangelicals who are narcissistic in their belief that they are better than others - those deemed to be "sinners" - as the selectively pick and choose Bible passages to condemn and denigrate others while ignoring their own lack of morality and decency.   Donald Trump is in perfect company with these hypocritical and hate-filled people.

Worlds Apart: Income Gap, Education Gap and Life Expectancy Gap

A piece in the New York Times looks at the contrasts - indeed, different worlds - between Fairfax County, Virginia, and McDowell County, West Virginia.  The contrast could likewise have been made between affluent, educated and much healthier Fairfax County, and rural counties in Southwestern Virginia that have more in common with McDowell County than with Fairfax County.  What the have not counties have in common is that they are poor, uneducated and, although the article doesn't focus on it, culturally backwards and  not welcoming to outsiders or diversity.  Indeed, these have not counties represent a perfect storm that makes them among the least likely places that new, progressive businesses would seek to locate or expand.  As a result, they remain captive to the coal industry which devastates many lives just as it devastates the environment.  And this backwardness and associated poverty literally is costing lives in the form of much lower life expectancies.  Yet these areas - and their typically Republican politicians - refuse to grasp that their rejection of modernity is one of the causes of the areas' plight.  Here are article highlights:

Fairfax County, Va., and McDowell County, W.Va., are separated by 350 miles, about a half-day’s drive. Traveling west from Fairfax County, the gated communities and bland architecture of military contractors give way to exurbs, then to farmland and eventually to McDowell’s coal mines and the forested slopes of the Appalachians. Perhaps the greatest distance between the two counties is this: Fairfax is a place of the haves, and McDowell of the have-nots. Just outside of Washington, fat government contracts and a growing technology sector buoy the median household income in Fairfax County up to $107,000, one of the highest in the nation. McDowell, with the decline of coal, has little in the way of industry. Unemployment is high. Drug abuse is rampant. Median household income is about one-fifth that of Fairfax.

One of the starkest consequences of that divide is seen in the life expectancies of the people there. Residents of Fairfax County are among the longest-lived in the country: Men have an average life expectancy of 82 years and women, 85, about the same as in Sweden. In McDowell, the averages are 64 and 73, about the same as in Iraq.

There have long been stark economic differences between Fairfax County and McDowell. But as their fortunes have diverged even further over the past generation, their life expectancies have diverged, too. In McDowell, women’s life expectancy has actually fallen by two years since 1985; it grew five years in Fairfax.

Living in Fairfax is different than living in McDowell. In Fairfax, there are ample doctors, hospitals, recreation centers, shops, restaurants, grocery stores, nursing homes and day care centers, with public and private entities providing cradle-to-grave services to prosperous communities. 

Coal miners[in McDowell County]  still dig into and blast off the tops of steep Appalachian hills. But the industry that once provided thousands of jobs is slowly disappearing, and the region’s entrenched poverty has persisted. The unemployment rate is 8.8 percent, down from more than 13 percent in the worst of the recession. The current number would be even higher if more residents hadn’t simply given up looking for work.

 

Government assistance accounts for half of the income of county residents. Social workers described shortages of teachers, nurses, doctors, surgeons, mental health professionals and addiction-treatment workers. There is next to no public transportation.

[T]he contrast between McDowell and Fairfax shows just how deeply entrenched these trends are, with consequences reaching all the way from people’s pocketbooks to their graves.

Having traveled through and taken cases for those in Southwest Virginia, I do not see how the diverging trends can be halted - at least not until there is a major change in the mindset in rural areas of Virginia.  No one who has the option to move away will likely stay and the downward spiral will continue.  Meanwhile, businesses and jobs will located to more accepting and open minded areas.  And for gays living in these rural areas, flight or suicide will likely remain attractive.  Ignorance and backwardness carries a terrible price.

Duck Dynasty Ratings Continue to Drop

A face of bigotry

I continually say that bigotry carries an economic price - typically in the context of Virginia's homophobic and racist rural areas where unemployment is high and where few new businesses want to relocate.  After all, who wants to locate a business or plant in an area inhabited by social Neanderthals who will be hostile to educated and moderate individuals.  Sadly, the inhabitants of Southwest Virginia and parts of the Shenandoah Valley haven't yet figured out this reality.  But, based on the continued plummeting of the ratings for Duck Dynasty, the same economic truism holds true in the realm of television.  The New York Times looks at the show's apparent continued downward spiral and notes the homophobic mindset of the cast while ignoring their racism.  Here are excerpts:

For a second week in a row, ratings for “Duck Dynasty,” the prodigious success for the A&E network, were off sharply from its previous cycle, suggesting — though far from proving — that there has been a significant backlash to comments made by Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family at the center of the show.

Those remarks were criticized for being homophobic by the network’s management, which first suspended Mr. Robertson and then retreated under pressure from conservative voices.

So far, the new season, the show’s fifth, is showing a significant audience falloff. The second episode, Wednesday night was down to 6.6 million viewers (before delayed viewing is counted) from 8.5 million for the second episode of the show’s previous cycle, which aired in August.

The audience for last week’s premiere, also 8.5 million, was down from 11.7 million for the show’s previous premiere.

Similarly, the show has fallen off in the category that A&E sells to advertisers, viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. The premiere last week came in at a 3.3 rating in that group, down from a 5 rating for the premiere in August. Wednesday’s episode dropped to a 2.9 rating.

Personally, I hope the ratings continue to plummet.   History is moving on and it is the Christofascists and white supremacists who deserve to be thrown on the trash heap of history.

Women Justices Take on Supreme Court Bully

For some time I have argued that at least two of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas need to be removed from the Court.  In the case of Thomas, he violates the ethical conduct and financial restrictions that would have long ago caused a lower court judged to have been removed from the bench.  In the case of Scalia, the man has become increasingly insane and now doesn't even try to give the appearance of objectivity.  He makes his mind up before cases ever reach him and makes statements that would cause a lower court judge to be removed from cases if not the bench.  He's become an open bigot who is contemptuous of the religious freedom of others and who personifies the elderly angry white men who increasingly make up a majority of the GOP base.  Both men are harming the reputation and image of the Court.  Now, as a column in the Washington Post takes note, two women justices on the Court seem ready to confront Scalia and politely bitch slap him as he deserves.  Here are column higlights:

For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down.  As it happens, the two manning up to take on Nino the Terrible are women: the court’s newest members, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The acerbic Scalia, the court’s longest-serving justice, got his latest comeuppance Wednesday morning, as he tried to make the absurd argument that Congress’s renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 by votes of 98 to 0 in the Senate and 390 to 33 in the House did not mean that Congress actually supported the act. Scalia, assuming powers of clairvoyance, argued that the lawmakers were secretly afraid to vote against this “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

Kagan wasn’t about to let him get away with that. In a breach of decorum, she interrupted his questioning of counsel to argue with him directly. “Well, that sounds like a good argument to me, Justice Scalia,” she said. “It was clear to 98 senators, including every senator from a covered state, who decided that there was a continuing need for this piece of legislation.”

Sotomayor is blunt and caustic, repeatedly interrupting. In an opinion this week, she harshly criticized a Texas prosecutor for a racist line of questioning. She has been on the interview circuit publicizing her memoir.

Kagan is choosier about when to interject herself, but she’s sardonic and sharp-witted. (“Well, that’s a big, new power that you are giving us,” she said, mockingly, when a lawyer tried to argue that the justices should overrule Congress’s discrimination findings.)

Both are more forceful than the Clinton appointees, the amiable Breyer and the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The two new justices are sending a message to the court’s conservative majority: You may have the votes, but you’re going to have a fight.

Sotomayor allowed the lawyer for the Alabama county seeking to overturn the law to get just four sentences into his argument before interrupting him. “Assuming I accept your premise — and there’s some question about that — that some portions of the South have changed, your county pretty much hasn’t,” she charged. “Why would we vote in favor of a county whose record is the epitome of what caused the passage of this law to start with?”

Moments later, Kagan pointed out that “Alabama has no black statewide elected officials” and has one of the worst records of voting rights violations.

Scalia was not about to surrender his title of worst-behaved justice. He mocked the civil rights law as he questioned the government lawyer. “Even the name of it is wonderful,” he said. “The Voting Rights Act: Who is going to vote against that?” (Verrilli cautioned him not to ignore actual votes of Congress in favor of “motive analysis.”)

But Scalia’s mouth was no longer the loudest in the room. When the Alabama county’s lawyer returned for his rebuttal, he managed to utter only five words — “Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice” — before Sotomayor broke in.

What I also find disturbing is that Scalia - the son of immigrants who once were treated nearly as bad as blacks and Hispanics - has totally forgotten his own family's history and is now only too happy to support open discrimination against those who are different from his fellow angry white males.

The Increasely Open Racism of the GOP and "Conservatives"

Every now and then I receive comments that are almost down right scary in their venom - these typically come from the "godly Christian" crowd.  I don't publish these remarks for several reasons not the least of which is I refuse to provide a platform for such unvarnished hatred.  Other comments that go unpublished often reveal the dark racism of putative "conservatives" and many self identified Republicans.  These latter comments often are chilling because they reflect an utter inability on the part of the writer to see the humanity in anyone who isn't a white heterosexual.  And then there are the nutcases like the author of a comment I received yesterday that are obsessed with the lunacy that Barack Obama is out to "destroy American."  The author of this comment apparently sees the "destruction of America" to be ending a period in time dominated by white heterosexual Christian privilege where gays stayed deep in the closet out of fear and where blacks and other racial minorities "knew their place."   I will not publish the comment in full, but here are some highlights that are to me indicative of what has become of supposed conservationism and the GOP:

I have known since day one that this man is out to ruin America. One might wonder why he would do bad things to this country;.....after all wouldn't that result in destroying his "Presidential legacy"? Of course it would if he valued an "American legacy". My belief since his beginning, has been that he doesn't not like this country and never has. He has studied from past men who despised this country and he has been brainwashed into believing that America is the enemy of the Muslim world.

[H]is Father was a dark skinned African Arab Muslim, NOT an African Black. His ultimate goal would be to be known in the Muslim world as the man who "took down" America and paved the way for the Muslims to take over world dominance. If you think my view of this is radical, then OK, just hide and watch, and remember.  .   .   .   .   We are in a very dangerous time right now, and our country is in peril if we allow this man to continue. 

The author identified himself as a retired military officer.  Apparently, he never figured out during his career that the the Constitution and the rights of citizens extend to everyone, not just white Christian conservatives.  The idea of someone who is not 100% white in the White House has put this sad individual over the edge.  What's disturbing is that this mindset is now the norm in the GOP and among those likely sitting in church pews in conservative denominations this morning congratulating themselves on the piety and godliness.

Politics and Religion of Hate

Michelle Kraus has a column in Huffington Post that looks at yesterday's shooting at the Holocaust Museum and correctly attributes much of the atmosphere of hate on the far right to the Bush years and the politics of hate and division perfected by the Chimperator and Karl Rove. She fails, however, to give full credit due to the professional Christian set which played a key role in whipping the ignorant and bigoted into a frenzy against gays, abortion, immigrants and others in order to implement the Bush/Rove message. Sadly, the media continues to help give a platform to these folks and never challenges their false claims and/or hypocrisy, leaving that task to blogs and other evolving forms of journalism. Here are some column highlights:

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Hate is out of control in the post Bush years. . . . The point is these atrocious actions are the result of the politics of hate. Words spoken in the world of 24/7 news do have an impact. They result in deliberate actions as is evidenced by the recent atrocities. Wonder of wonders, the suspected murderer of Dr. Tiller has reached his personal Nirvana. He has climbed from relative obscurity in Kansas to an international pulpit viewed daily on the news. The absurdity is profound.

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The Bush years are the gift that keeps on giving. They were masters of the message deeply infiltrating the culture with seeds of fear and hate. Thank you very much Karl Rove and your minions. These guys and gals were taught how to harness the airwaves of television and the Internet. They became the titans of manipulation showering divisive messages, and the work was extraordinary. They were more skillful then Madison Avenue. Maybe Microsoft should hire you to merchandise their new search engine, Bing!

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Every major issue facing this country has been tarnished by their polarizing messaging -- whether it is climate crisis legislation, nuclear proliferation, Mid East peace, stem cell research and treatment, women's reproductive rights, health care reform, or gay marriage. These issues have been infused with emotion, partisan affiliations and religiosity. Yet here we are late for the train with a well oiled message machine, a weary populace, and a greedy media willing to sell their mothers for a story.

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We are living in a world of hurt, domestic unrest and a country bled dry financially and morally. When will it stop?

Martinsville Journey

As I indicated a couple days ago, I was in Martinsville, Virginia, in rural south central Virginia to argue a case involving a state employee discharged by the Virginia Museum of Natural History for being gay. I was aided on the legal research by the Washington, D.C., office of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Project of the ACLU and having made the arguments we are awaiting a decision within the next week and a half or so. Needless to say I will be keeping my fingers crossed.

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Martinsville is a physically beautiful place located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Progressive, however, it is not and it truly makes Norfolk look like a bright shining cosmopolitan center of liberalism (which it is not) in comparison. As the case of the "Martinsville Seven" from circa 1950 reveals, Martinsville has dark elements in its past. Yet, by the same token, it's amazing what even the main stream media was like at that point in time. A Time magazine article from the time period described those who were supporting the efforts to clear the names of seven blacks accused and condemned for raping a white woman as "communists:"

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The well-greased Communist apparatus was making propaganda hay out of the Martinsville Seven—with suitable adjustments in the facts.

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It was a pretty scary world back then and it's encouraging that the nation and Martinsville have progressed from that period of time. It is ironic, however, that it is to that time period that the Christianists seem Hell bent on trying to return the country to.

More Transgender Bashing From Focus on the Family

Sadly, the less than Christian folks at Focus on the Family are yet again using transgender individuals as a boogey man to try to incite wingnut readers to contact elected officials and better yet, send some money on to FOF. The latest e-mail missive sent out by FOF bears the caption "Men in Women's Bathrooms: Is Your State Next?" It is sicken to see the manner in which Daddy Dobson's foul minions demonize transgender individuals as if they were not human and instead some alien predator species. Here's a sampling of the "loving" message distributed to FOF subscribers:

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The reality of “change” has hit full-force in Washington, D.C., and in many respects, it’s a nightmare. But as bad as things are in Washington, for many pro-family Americans the greatest political danger lurks much closer to home. From Albany to Sacramento, state capitols are the flash points for the most aggressive efforts to redefine family and “re-norm” cultural standards—all the while undermining religious freedom. And changes at the state level often cause the biggest impact in our daily lives . . . and the state of Colorado has served as a testing ground for strategy now being exported across the country.

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I told you last summer about a new Colorado law that gave special “public accommodation” protections to people who self-identify as homosexual or "transgender.” I shared with you how Focus on the Family Action warned lawmakers that this legislation would reap a whirlwind of social problems. We specifically warned them that their vote for this bill would even allow men to use women’s restrooms—right alongside women and even young girls.

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Now, months later, a state agency has issued regulations to enforce the new law, . . . . You see, a number of the new rules deal specifically with restrooms, locker rooms and other locations where “nudity is customary.” But instead of being concerned with public safety and protection of children in these vulnerable public situations, the regulations read more like social engineering that reaches far beyond the sensibilities of the average Coloradan.

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“Transgender status” is defined so vaguely that only a mind-reader could know whether a man is actually “transgendered”—or if he’s really a Peeping Tom, or worse. In other words, a “transgendered” > man entering a women’s restroom might display obvious signs (such > as cross-dressing), or he might appear like any other man.

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In at least a dozen states, religious freedom is being threatened by existing “nondiscrimination” laws. . . . our nation didn’t get into this situation overnight, and it’s going to take a long, committed effort to get out. That’s why I’d like to invite you to team up with us as a monthly financial partner. Your regular support—whether it’s $10 a month or $100 or more—allows us to more effectively plan, budget and carry out our work for the long haul. To set up a recurring gift, select "Monthly" in the Frequency field on our online donation page. Of course, we most certainly welcome gifts of any form right now.

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Demonizing an entire class of people for money. The pieces of silver paid to Judas seem petty ante compared to the disgusting tactics used by FOF to further the message of hate that is FOF's stock in trade. Every LGBT citizen and our fair minded allies need to be aware of just how low FOF and its Christianist allies will stoop in their effort to keep LGBT Americans less than full citizens.

Republican Cat Fight: Limbaugh 1, Steele 0

It is entertaining to watch the GOP tear itself apart as embodied by the cat fight between Oxycontin popping queen, Rush Limbaugh, and the GOP's token black RNC chair, Michael Steele. Rush Limbaugh, in his typical demagogue form, spent the weekend inciting the Kool-Aid drinkers at the CPAC gathering in Washington, D.C., and making numerous outrageous pronouncements, including again stating that he hopes the Obama administration fails - apparently with no regard as to what might happen to the country. Initially, Michael Steele condemned some of Limbaugh's nastiest comments and described them as "incendiary" and "ugly." Now, apparently confronted by Rush's zombie like followers, Steele has issued an apology to Limbaugh thus underscoring that Rush and his followers are indeed the face of the GOP today. Here are highlights from ThinkProgress:

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Steele has quickly backed down. Politico reports that Steele “reached out” to Limbaugh today to say that he didn’t mean what he said. “My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” […]

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“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. “It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not.”

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Steele made clear that he will welcome Limbaugh into the party,” calling him a “very valuable conservative voice for our party.” “He does what he does best, which is provoke,” Steel said. “My job is to try to bring us all together.” Steele isn’t alone. Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) have previously dared to criticize Limbaugh but then quickly backed down. To quote Rush, a lot of Republicans are being told to “bend over and grab the ankles” for him.

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Talk about groveling! It's pretty sad when the leadership of a national political party is intimidated by a drug abusing blowhard. Oh, and as for "family values" and the sanctity of marriage, here's how Limbaugh applies Biblical values in his own life:

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Limbaugh was first married on September 24, 1977 to Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at radio station WHB in Kansas City Missouri. In March 1980, McNeely filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility." They were formally divorced on July 10, 1980.

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In 1983, Limbaugh married Michelle Sixta, a college student and usherette at the Kansas City Royals Stadium Club. They were divorced in 1990, and she remarried the following year.

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On May 27, 1994, Limbaugh married Marta Fitzgerald, a 35-year-old aerobics instructor. They were married at the house of U.S Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who officiated. They were separated on June 11, 2004. Limbaugh announced on the air, "Marta has consented to my request for a divorce, and we have mutually agreed to seek an amicable separation." The divorce was finalized in December 2004.

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And Limbaugh ridicules gays for wanting to marry? It seems like he's the one who makes a mockery out of marriage.