Longtime Anti-LGBT Hate Merchant Phyllis Schlafly Dead at 92

Yes, I know it is poor form to speak ill of the dead, but when it comes to Phyllis Schlafly, it is difficult to say anything nice about a woman who  peddled so much hatred over the last four and a half decades.  She opposed equal rights for women and was an extreme homophobe and continued to market the lie that being gay was a choice and/or the result of poor parenting - even though she had an LGBT child of her own - to the bitter end.  Moreover, if one ever visited the Eagle Forum web page, the organization was largely a platform of out of control, self-congratulatory egomania.  It is sad, but I can only believe that the world will be a better place with her foul influence gone from the scene.  I hate too say it, but a heart, the woman was a white nationalist.  A CBS affiliate has these details:

Multiple sources are confirming to KMOX news that Phyllis Schlafly, has died.

Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum in 1972, a pro-family conservative group focusing heavily on social issues — it has about 80,000 members and, as of this week, Schlafly was still president.

“Phyllis Schlafly spent an astounding 70 years in public service of her fellow Americans,” said the Eagle Forum in a statement. “Her focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life. She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those values.
 Schlafly’s organization has been split this presidential election — Schlafly supported Donald Trump, though many board members disagreed. She maintained her leadership of the organization.

She also fought nephew, Tom Schlafly, over the naming rights to his brewery in St. Louis. Schlafly contended her name juxtaposed with beer and libations would damage the conservative brand’s reputation. A judge disagreed.

 Schlafly was 92.

If there is a Hell, like the late Jerry Falwell, I suspect that Schlafly is now occupying her reserved seat.  While she constantly proclaimed her supposed Christian faith, there was little in her public actions that mirror Jesus' teachings in the Gospels. 

Quote of the Day: Josh Marshall on Trump's Frightening Aspects

I have frequently indicated that Donald Trump strikes me as a 21st Century version of Adolph Hitler, especial in the manner in which he has used racism, hatred and the demonizing of others to further his own ego driven political efforts. Some say that the comparison is unfair to Trump, but I nonetheless view the man as evil, utterly unable to empathize with others, and completely amoral.  His entire career has been about making money at any cost and satiating his own narcissism.  Now running for the presidency, I wonder at times whether or not Trump sees himself as America's Putin with an eye to pillaging the Nation as Putin and his cronies have raped Russia.  In a column at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall hits on one of the similarities between Trump and Hitler.  Here is the on target quote:

We've now heard Trump's big immigration policy speech.  Let me start with a general comment on tone. This was as wild and as unbridled a speech as I've seen from Trump. Even if you couldn't understand English, it would be stunning to watch the slashing hand gestures, the red face, the yelling. It's hard to imagine any presidential candidate in living memory giving such a speech. And again, this is if you didn't know what the words even meant.

As the speech was unfolding, I said something on Twitter that I'm sure many will find extreme or beyond the pale. But watching this speech, compared to the press conference today in Mexico City, what kept coming to my mind was the contrast between Hitler's uniformed rally speeches from the hustings and the suited, statesman Hitler we see in the old news reels in Munich and at other iconic moments in the late 1930s. Hitler is sui generis, of course. His crimes are incomparable. But the demagogic style, the frenzied invocation familial blood sacrificed to barbaric outsiders - these are not unique to him. When we see this lurid, stab-in-the-back incitement, the wild hyperbole, the febrile railing against outsiders who will make us no longer a country - the similarities are real. More than anything, perhaps the most chilling part of this day is the contrast between the two men - a measured, calm statesman figure we saw this afternoon and this railing, angry demagogue figure who captured the emotional tenor of Klan rally. As I said, the ability to shift from one persona to the other is a sign of danger in itself.

Trump and his followers are a clear and present danger and they need to be defeated at the ballot box and to become social exiles with whom decent people refuse to associate. (Please read the rest of Marshall's piece.)  I also encourage readers to watch "Triumph of Will" and to draw their own parallels.

Ted Cruz Uses Transphobia to Try to Revive His Dying Campaign

Ted Cruz got trounced in Tuesday's New York State primary and failed to win a single delegate.  Now, it is mathematically impossible for him to win enough delegates to win the GOP nomination on a first ballot - or even a second or third ballot for that manner.  So what does Cruz do?  He pivots back to trying to energize the Christofascists by playing on transphobia - not that there are enough of them to save his sorry, nasty ass - and depicting transgender individuals as a threat to women and young girls.  The man is despicable! A piece in Salon looks at Cruz's utter foul tactic.  Here are highlights: 

After a dismal performance in New York, whose Republican voters looked upon the Texas senator who denigrated their value system so much so that he managed to lose a congressional district to Ben Carson despite his dropping out of the presidential race a month ago, Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign was declared dead on arrival in Cleveland for the GOP’s convention this July. The Associated Press reported that after Tuesday’s vote, Cruz is mathematically eliminated, leaving Donald Trump as the only Republican candidate with any chance of clinching the nomination before the convention.

Naturally, Cruz’s campaign has turned to fearmongering and scapegoating to deflect from the news that according to Ted Cruz — earlier this month Cruz called on John Kasisch to drop out after it was determined Kasich was mathematically eliminated from earning enough delegates to win the nomination outright — it’s now time for the Cruz campaign to call it quits.

“Grown adult men — strangers — should not be alone in a bathroom with little girls. And that’s not conservative. That’s not Republican or Democrat. That’s basic common sense,” Cruz asserted while campaigning in Maryland on Thursday.

Reacting to Donald Trump’s opposition to the law, citing negative business repercussions on the “Today” show early Thursday, Cruz said the backlash was proof positive that the country has “gone off the deep end.”

“As you know, my daughters are 5 and 8. My 5-year-old knows the difference between boys and girls,” Cruz said, exploiting his children to make a hateful and wholly dishonest political point. “That’s not a reasonable position, it is simply crazy and the idea that grown men would be allowed alone in a bathroom with little girls — you don’t need to be a behavioral psychologist to realize bad things can happen, and any prudent person wouldn’t allow that.”

Cruz’s basic contention is an ugly right-wing myth meant to dishonestly link transgender people with criminality. But in fact, an investigation by an independent non-profit found no connection between transgender nondiscrimination rights for restrooms and locker rooms and women’s safety: 

A new investigative report by the non-profit new agency Crosscut shows that in states where such legislation has been passed,the safety of women is not compromised.

According to the publication, officials in Nevada, Oregon and Hawaii — the latter having protections in place for 10 years— said the laws haven’t been linked to any crimes.

Still, as his campaign flounders, Cruz desperately culls the transphobic beliefs of the conservative base for votes, as he is wont and trained to do.

Simply put, Ted Cruz is a foul individual and makes the perfect case of why one would not want to be even call them self a "Christian."  

Donald Trump's Ideology of Violence

Following up on the last post, Ezra Klein has a piece in Vox that looks deeper into Donald Trump's responsibility for the growing violence his supporters are willing to direct at those Trump is labeling as "other" or "them."  Like his Nazi predecessors, the fault for the circumstances in which his supporters find themselves is never due to their own failings - e.g., not finishing high school, clinging to and embracing ignorance, etc. - but due to someone else's behavior or undermining.  Those falling into the "other" or "them" categories are blacks, Hispanic immigrants, non-whites, non-Christians - the list is long.  And while Trump tries to blame the violence on outside protesters, he is continually send them message that is is perfectly alright - perhaps desired - that protesters be met with violence.  It is very, very scary.  That evangelical Christians are rallying to such a message shows the reality that conservative Christianity is itself a threat and evil as well.  Here are article highlights:

During a rally in St. Louis Friday, Donald Trump lamented that "nobody wants to hurt each other anymore." Yes, lamented.

The topic was protesters, and Trump's frustration was clear. "They're being politically correct the way they take them out," he sighed. "Protesters, they realize there are no consequences to protesting anymore. There used to be consequences. There are none anymore."

"Our country has to toughen up folks. We have to toughen up. These people are bringing us down. They are bringing us down. These people are so bad for our country, you have no idea."

This is more than an aside; this is the core of Trump's ideology. The protesters who interrupted his rally, the political correctness that kept the police from cracking their skulls, the press that takes the hippies' side — this is why America has stopped being great. We were strong, and we were tough, and we didn't take this kind of shit from anybody. And now we are weak, and we are scared, and we take this kind of shit from everybody.

How is a country that can't shut down a protester going to out-negotiate the Chinese? How is a country that that is so afraid of hurt feelings going to crush ISIS?

Violence is scary. But violence-as-ideology is terrifying. And that's where Trump's campaign has gone.

On February 1st, Trump made a promise to an angry crowd. You protect me, he said, and I'll protect you. "If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Knock the hell out of them. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise."

No one threw a tomato at that rally. But a few weeks later, Donald Trump showed that he meant what he said — if you used force to protect him, he'd have your back.  Trump was leaving a rally when Michelle Fields, a reporter for the Trump-friendly Breitbart News, stepped forward to ask a question. Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager, grabbed her by the arm and threw her out of the way. His grip was hard enough to leave bruises on her arm. The moment was witnessed by Ben Terris, a Washington Post reporter, and there's audio and video record of it.

Donald Trump will pay your legal fees. He will believe your baldfaced lie. He is on your side against the protesters, the press, the losers who are bring America down. He knows things get rough sometimes. He's got your back.

The great mistake the media makes with Donald Trump is to pretend he has no ideology — that he's just a celebrity, a carnival barker, a reality star.

As my colleague Matt Yglesias has written, Trump does have an ideology. He does have an agenda. The core of Trumpism is "a revived and unapologetic American nationalism, which will stand for American interests abroad while defending the traditional conception of the American nation at home."

Like most nationalists, the emotional center of Trump's ideology is an Us vs. Them argument. "These are not the people who made our country great," Trump told the crowd in St. Louis. "We're going to make it great again, but these are not the people. These are the people that are destroying our country."

This is what Trump supporters hear at his rallies. They are told that America is no longer great. They are told who to blame. They are told that the reason these losers are dragging America down is we have become too politically correct, too scared, too weak, to stop them. They are told Trump will pay their legal fees if they want to do what's necessary. "There used to be consequences," Trump sighs. The crowd knows what he's asking. Make Consequences Real Again.

This is ugly, but it is coherent. What Trump is offering is an explanation and a solution; an argument and an ideology. It is dangerous, and it is violent, but it is not confusing, and it is not unclear.

And this is why Trump is something different and more dangerous in American life. He is a man with an evident appetite for suppressing dissent with violence, a man who believes America's problem is that it's too gentle to its dissidents. Trump is making an argument for a politics backed by force, for a security service unleashed from "political correctness," for a country where protesting has consequences. The results are playing out before us, night after night, on our televisions.

If Trump wins and this country goes down a dark path, we will never be able to say we didn't see it coming. We will never be able to say we weren't warned. 

Be very afraid - but also, do not sit back and quietly let this ugliness grow.  Trump and the ugliness that he and the GOP represent must be defeated.  Get involved and for God's sake get out an vote Democrat come November.