All Things Trump: Is it over yet?

[Joe]

Beware the Deep State!

[Seabass]

Surprise! Bill Barr is another crazy, far-right, dominionist, christofascist culture warrior. Remember when we were told that Trump would be a liberal and a moderate, preferable to the likes of Cruz, Pence, and Santorum? Turns out, when you vote for a Republican, you end up with a Republican.

Attorney General Bill Barr: "This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion & traditional values."

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1182851865203105792

Attorney General William Barr blamed secularism in society for a series of problems such as drug overdoses, violence and poor mental health while speaking at Notre Dame's law school.

Barr, in a speech largely focused on the role of religion in law, decried what he described as an effort to drive religion away while promoting secularism.

"We see the growing ascendancy of secularism and the doctrine of moral relativism," he said. "Basically every measure of this social pathology continues to gain ground."

He described several social issues as "consequences of this moral upheaval."

"Along with the wreckage of the family, we are seeing record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males, an increase in senseless violence and a deadly drug epidemic.

"Over 70,000 people die a year from drug overdoses," he added. "But I won't dwell on the bitter results of the new secular age."

Barr also slammed "so-called progressives," saying that many are "among the militant secularists."

A spokesman for the university told the South Bend Tribune this week that the topic of Barr's speech would be "religious freedom."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ar-society

[L'Emmerdeur]

Anybody who's been paying attention (certainly not a large percentage of the population of the US) knows that 'religious freedom' is in the US at this point an institutionalised euphemism for aspirational theocracy. When you're doing God's work, like Trump and his crew are, sacrifices must be made and sins will be excused.

[Tero]

[Tero]

Trump says immigrants are unwelcome in Minnesota. What’s unwelcome is his bigotry.
washingtonpost.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... story.html

[Sean Hayden]

A law school and nobody demanded he show his work? Can you imagine if we approached problem solving with the lack of sophistication that allows Barr to link overdoses and secularism? --holy shit, we'd be fucked!

[Sean Hayden]

Are they stupid, or psychopaths?

Regardless of where we stand on secularism, we know, instantly I suspect for most of us, why Barr's opinion is horribly flawed. Is it really so unreasonable to assume Barr's own intelligence and education has equipped him with the same ability?

--compartmentalization, really? I'm less convinced of that explanation than ever.

[Seabass]

A law school and nobody demanded he show his work? Can you imagine if we approached problem solving with the lack of sophistication that allows Barr to link overdoses and secularism? --holy shit, we'd be fucked!

No need to imagine. That's the Republican party's modus operandi!

[JimC]

"This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion & traditional values."

No, the reality is simply that the old delusions are fading, and however the dinosaurs may rant, the zeitgeist has changed, and will continue to do so. Matthew Arnold saw it, however wistfully, in the poem "Dover Beach"...

...The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world

[Tero]

Minnesota.

[pErvinalia]

I like the "Go All Blacks" sign..

[Brian Peacock]

"This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion & traditional values."

No, the reality is simply that the old delusions are fading, and however the dinosaurs may rant, the zeitgeist has changed, and will continue to do so. Matthew Arnold saw it, however wistfully, in the poem "Dover Beach"...

...The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world

Barr's screed is not about faith, beliefs, or values. It's about appealing to a particular constituency and declaring the Republican party the Party Of God purely for electoral gain. The money-lenders have taken over the temple.

[Tero]

Trump "world peace" dude
https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtr ... 5993119749

[Svartalf]

Are they stupid, or psychopaths?

Regardless of where we stand on secularism, we know, instantly I suspect for most of us, why Barr's opinion is horribly flawed. Is it really so unreasonable to assume Barr's own intelligence and education has equipped him with the same ability?

--compartmentalization, really? I'm less convinced of that explanation than ever.

You forget such factors as fanaticism and bad faith.

[Sean Hayden]

Oh yeah, I left out a lot of possibilities because I wanted to call them psychopaths. But really I should have used the form, stupid, liars or psychopaths...just to piss'em off. That'll be the form it takes in my bestseller.

Whatever their motivations, they're dangerous.