COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Neocons Beg Catholics for Salvation From Trump

As eccentric billionaire Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump continues to rack up primary victories, the party's establishment is beginning to wonder whether the political outsider can be stopped. Alarmed, neoconservative pundit Anne Applebaum goes so far as to suggest that a Trump presidency would mark "the end of the West as we know it."


Dear Catholics: Stop Trump, says National Review appeal | National Catholic Reporter

  |  
In an appeal to the faithful, 40 conservative Catholic leaders have denounced GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a demagogue and danger to the nation and the Republican Party.

The open letter appeared in The National Review on March 7, one day before the Michigan Republican primary, which could give Trump an almost-unbeatable delegate lead in the GOP nominating race if he posts a strong win.

Robert P. George, of Princeton University and George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, headed the charge, and the appeal was also signed by opinion leaders from academia and religious media.

The letter denounces Trump for “vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and -- we do not hesitate to use the word -- demagoguery."

Worse, they wrote, he's the opposite of what Catholics should seek in a leader.

George and Weigel wrote of Trump that there is “nothing in his campaign or his previous record that gives us grounds for confidence that he genuinely shares our commitments to the right to life, to religious freedom and the rights of conscience, to rebuilding the marriage culture, or to … the principle of limited constitutional government."

Those causes have been championed by the GOP, the authors wrote, but a Trump nomination would threaten the party's commitment to those issues.
The appeal, in the pages of the magazine founded by conservative icon author William F. Buckley, Jr., comes less than a month after its editors issued a similar denunciation of Trump in its January edition.

On Jan. 21,Trump fired back on Twitter:

"National Review is a failing publication that has lost it's way. It's circulation is way down w its influence being at an all time low. Sad!”

Ahead of Tuesday’s Michigan primary, a new Fox News-funded pre-election poll of likely Republican voters showed the New York billionaire was a popular choice among Catholic voters.

Trump’s recent kerfuffle with Pope Francis (who called the candidate's stance on immigration "not Christian") has not dissuaded Catholics.

According to the poll, Trump, with 52 percent of Catholic voters, leads Sen. Marco Rubio (16 percent) Ohio Gov. John Kasich (14 percent) and Sen. Tex Cruz (11 percent) with Catholics.

73 comments:

  1. ...In an appeal to the faithful, 40 conservative Catholic leaders have denounced GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a demagogue and danger to the nation and the Republican Party.

    Absurd statement: Catholics don’t do leaders. There is not one Catholic in a thousand that could identify 4 of the 40 as a “Leader”.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In a one on one race, Catholics will choose Sanders over Trump.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't be so certain. The Catholics I know aren't commies. Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union, worked briefly on a Soviet back ag commune in Israel - about the only job he had until age 40, when he got elected Mayor.

      And the Catholics I know are more economically literate than Bernie. Nor do they much care what the Pope's political 'position' is on this and that. They've been around long enough to know that, politically, one Pope says one thing and the next another.

      I used to have a Jewish lawyer. He's retired, now I got a Catholic one and she doesn't much care for Bernie.

      Delete
  3. The American people have noticed that The GOP Likuds Force was more interested in what happens to settlements in Israel than crumbling American cities. City after city with abandoned factories and rising deficits were ignored while the US Conga Line rumbas to the Israeli Hustle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deuce, you are deluded.

      Seriously. Seek professional help.

      But since you brought it up?

      I notice the murder of an American by a Palestinian doesn't rate a mention to you.

      Was his life worth less than anyone of the Liberty?

      A US citizen, not even a professional soldier, murdered by those you call friends simply for being on vacation..

      It is said that your apps, the ISIS of the West Bank, the Palestinians, IN REACTIOn to Biden's visit launched a dozen knifing attacks...

      wounding 10 and murdering one...

      Are you proud?

      Delete
  4. Deuce: City after city with abandoned factories and rising deficits were ignored while the US Conga Line rumbas to the Israeli Hustle.


    Blame the Jews...

    How "german" of you..

    And yet the issue is not Israel or the Jews.

    It's America and it's own stupidity in how it deals with China, Japan, Mexico, even the 3rd world...

    But if it makes you feel better to scapegoat the jews and Israel?

    Fits your MO...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got to say I agree that is an absurd statement.

      Somehow I can't find the connection between Israel, the Jews, deteriorating cities in the Northeast USA, run by democrats for decades, the 'GOP Likud Force' and the water problems in Flint, Michigan.

      I think Flint, Michigan needs to hire a good City Engineer.

      Delete
  5. Now the good news about trump.

    He wants a better deal.

    He will demand something for American assistance.

    Good, He will demand that those who get aid give support to America.

    Good for israel, not so good for the "palestinians".

    He will demand that those who do not support us in the UN will not be getting preferential treatment...

    Good for israel, not so good for most others.. :)

    He will rebuild the American military.

    Good for israel, not so good for china, russia, turkey and others...

    Trump will be good for Israel.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ,

      Rebuild the American military? Are you fucking nutz?

      .

      Delete
    2. Sorry Quirk, I should know that you wanted a weak, pussy like military..

      Delete
    3. .

      I repeat, you are fucking nutz. The US spends close to $1 trillion a year on the military when you add in black ops funds that are off budget, the VA, insurance and disability for the wounded, interest from past years, money spent on other countries militaries, etc

      We spend more than the ext 15 countries combined. We are still looking for about $40 billion that disappeared in Iraq. the generals are given hundreds of millions in walking around money.

      You want a stronger military? Stop spending it on multi decade boondoggles like the F-35.

      Oh wait, when you said 'our' military were you talking about the Israeli military?

      .

      Delete
    4. C'mon Quirk, the US Military is not winning therefore it is weak.

      Delete
    5. Wow Quirk, that's deep..

      But look at the US navy...

      Let's hear some substantial comments on that...

      Delete
    6. .

      I repeat, are you fucking nutz?

      What about the navy. Do I need to give you the statistics? Really?

      .

      Delete
  6. Now Deuce LOVES Iran...

    Iran reportedly executes every adult man in one village for drug crimes

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/02/29/iran-reportedly-executes-every-adult-man-in-one-village-for-drug-crimes.html


    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. Taylor Force, Vanderbilt grad student, identified as Jaffa terror fatality

    The American murdered by the political violence of the Palestinians national movement.

    Force was a student at the Owen Graduate School of Management, according to a statement issued by Vanderbilt University.


    How many US cities could he have rebuilt?

    Now we will never know...

    Vanderbilt graduate student Taylor Force, 29, was killed Tuesday evening by a Palestinian terrorist who went on a stabbing rampage in Jaffa in which 12 other people were wounded.

    “This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world,” Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos wrote in a letter to the student body.


    US tourist Taylor Force, US Army veteran, graduate of West Point, stabbed & killed by Palestinians in Israel.


    West Point Grad...

    According to Force’s LinkedIn profile, he had completed tours of duty with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2009, he served as a field artillery officer until 2014.

    "Taylor was visiting Israel with his classmates in order to expand his understanding of global entrepreneurship and also to share his insights and knowledge with start-ups in Israel,"


    Was his life worth anything Deuce?

    Will you condemn the Palestinians for premeditated murder of Americans?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Blowback and revenge for occupation, repression, property destruction and murder, state sponsored murder? What is the story?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But you occupy other peoples lands...

      America genocided the indians...

      when are you going to move you european colonist?

      Delete
    2. Well to be fair?

      the arab history of occupation, repression, property destruction, state sponsored murder makes the Israel's look like nursery kids..

      Maybe Israel should fight like the aran'f fight?

      at last count 400,000 Syrians dead, (including 12,000 palestinians), several million wounded, several more million now real refugees...

      and that's just syria...

      your excuses for palestinian murderous behavior is wearing thin...

      But the good news?

      Every stabbing the palestinans do?

      Proves to the world that they are intact nothing more than the ISIS of the territories....

      That's why their brother arabs are done with them.

      Delete
  9. ARE YOU SO ARROGANT AND SO SELF ABSORBED TO BELIEVE THIS HAD NO CONSEQUENCE?

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s offensive on Gaza has caused over $5 billion of damage to homes and infrastructure in the Strip, the Minister of Public Works said …
    Some 10,000 homes have been completely destroyed, and 30,000 homes partially destroyed, al-Hasayneh said.
    “The three areas that have undergone the most intense destruction are Shujaiyya, Beit Hanoun, and Abasan,” the minister said.
    “Ministry crews were astonished when they arrived to Shujaiyya, where some 110,000 people live. Sixty percent of the homes were completely destroyed, especially those in the eastern part of the neighborhood.”
    The minister said it would take $5 billion to rebuild structures alone, “not including possessions, like furniture and cars.”
    “The offensive destroyed buildings belonging to Gaza governorates, in addition to police stations and national security buildings,” al-Hasayneh said.
    The diesel containers belonging to Gaza’s power plant have been destroyed as well, he said.
    Al-Hasayneh says the “containers will cost $25 million, and there are ten power lines that supply Gaza with power and have been cut off” as well.
    He added that 70 percent water wells had been completely destroyed, “in addition to waste water lines.”
    According to UN figures, up to 485,000 people — a quarter of Gaza’s population — has been forced to leave their homes throughout the assault on the Strip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The current wave of 'terrorists' in Jerusalem, Hebron and other parts of the WB aren't Hamas or Fatah they are young kids willing to accept death by IDF because they have no jobs, no future, and no hope.

      They chose a piss poor way of doing it. But it is unlikely to go away.

      .

      Delete
    2. The are directly incited by the PA and Abbas.

      They are the new foot soldiers in the war against the Jews.

      It has nothing to do with jobs, future or hope.

      It has everything to do with driving the Jews from the land.

      Kerry warns Abbas against inciting violenceSecretary of state says Palestinians ‘need to understand’ that ‘no amount of frustration is appropriate to license any violence’

      http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-warns-abbas-against-inciting-violence/


      IF the palestinians wanted jobs and a future and hope?

      They COULD have accepted a peace treaty and settlement at least 7 times in the last 40 years.

      And if they were angry about JOBS?

      They could be attacking their own leaders..

      You remember them? The ones that praised the loss of jobs do the to BDS pressure?

      Delete
    3. Maybe the palestinians of the strip should join their brother arabs from syria and move to Europe if it sucks so bad?

      Delete
    4. Well we know from the lips of Secretary of State Kerry's spokeswoman that all ISIS needs to settle down and become responsibly domestic is job opportunities leading to a future and some hope, so you may be onto something there, Quirk.

      But I think not. First it is by no means all 'young kids' and second they are being stirred up to violence by the Arabstinian media, their TV and radio.

      Martha Gellhorn told us so long ago that the media of the Arabs of Palestine, as she called them, was "one long scream of hate." And she concluded that 'they love hate, the taste of it', etc.

      Nothing much has changed.

      It is unlikely to go away, I grant you that "until the Arabs teach their children not to hate" as Golda Meier once said.

      Delete
    5. Maybe if Hamas didn't shoot 10,000 rockets into Israel and spend a billion on tunnels they could have fixed their problems...

      oh yeah, they don't care about that...

      they seek to murder Jews...

      So sorry deuce that the Jews don't play the game any more...

      you complained that the Jews of Europe didn't fight back against hitler....

      now they fight back against the arab version of hitler.. Hamas And you bitch like a school girl.

      Dont want destruction?

      Dont attack Israel!

      Simple equation...

      Fuck with Israel? be destroyed...

      :)

      and btw, when Hamas starts the NEXT round of war?

      expect even MORE destruction of Gaza...

      Delete
    6. Deuce ☂Wed Mar 09, 10:20:00 AM EST
      ARE YOU SO ARROGANT AND SO SELF ABSORBED TO BELIEVE THIS HAD NO CONSEQUENCE?


      Shoot 10,000 rockets, kidnap and murder Israelis and Jews....

      ARE YOU SO ARROGANT AND SO SELF ABSORBED TO BELIEVE THIS HAD NO CONSEQUENCE?

      Delete
    7. .

      bullshit.

      You should try expanding your reading list beyond Jennifer Rubin, Rick Moron, and Debkafile. You might learn something. Try some Israeli papers, The Times of Israel, Haartz, Ynetnews.

      Try and keep up.

      .

      Delete
  10. But I did notice how Deuce REFUSES to condemn the palestinian murder of Americans. AGAIN

    ReplyDelete
  11. Some 10,000 homes have been completely destroyed, and 30,000 homes partially destroyed, al-Hasayneh said.
    “The three areas that have undergone the most intense destruction are Shujaiyya, Beit Hanoun, and Abasan,” the minister said.
    “Ministry crews were astonished when they arrived to Shujaiyya, where some 110,000 people live. Sixty percent of the homes were completely destroyed, especially those in the eastern part of the neighborhood.”



    And yet Israel barely killed 2200 people!!!

    Now that's amazing..

    ReplyDelete
  12. So let's review.

    The arabs invaded and stole the entire middle east from the jews, berbers, druze, egyptians and others....

    Israel was created in 1948 on 1/1300 of the lands.

    The arabs? Rejected and went to exterminate the Jews and their state..

    They lost.

    Now Israel holds 1/900th of the lands, which 20% of all of Israel is made up of arabs.

    The other 899/900th of the middle east is arab occupied and almost 100% Jew free and other ethnic peoples have been conquered by the arabs...

    wow..

    Those greedy Israeli's how dare they have a state of their own and not learn to love sucking arab cock.....

    ReplyDelete
  13. What is "Occupation"Wed Mar 09, 12:31:00 PM EST:

    "And yet Israel barely killed 2200 people!!!

    Now that's amazing.."








    wow!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So sorry deuce that the Jews don't play the game any more...

      you complained that the Jews of Europe didn’t fight back against hitler....


      The Jews in Europe were home. They were Europeans and Germans.

      The Israelis are transplanted Europeans and colonizers, invaders and occupiers. Get the difference?

      Delete
  14. THE BULLDOZIN CHOSIN ON ANOTHER HEARTS AND MINDS MISSION

    ( Why would any Palestinian not appreciate such Jewish humanity and think of revenge?)

    Israeli bulldozers demolished dozens of homes and agricultural installations near the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, under the pretext that they were built without a permit.

    The head of the village council of Douma Abdul Salam Dawabsheh explained that a large number of Israeli forces accompanied by bulldozers raided Kherbat Ein El-Rishrash and demolished some 40 buildings. Half of which were inhabited.

    During an interview with Quds Press, Dawabsheh said that the Israeli authorities had notified the residents of the demolition a year and a half ago.

    He said the Israeli Supreme Court had recently rejected a petition submitted by the residents against the demolition plans.

    Dawabsheh said that the aim behind the demolitions is to make more than a hundred Palestinian citizens homeless, displace citizens and expel them from their lands.

    He said that the council is going to provide alternative shelters for those affected.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Who wouldn’t want to kill them?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Need to see more? Be my guest:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MpWPQcDNi4

    ReplyDelete
  17. Israel has increased by more than five times the rate at which it tears down Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank’s biggest administrative division.

    According to the daily Ha’aretz, Tel Aviv was now demolishing 49 Palestinian residences in so-called Area C every week, compared to nine in 2015.

    The demolitions have rendered more than 480 Palestinians, including 220 children, homeless so far this year, it added.

    As many as 104 European-funded homes have been razed to the ground in 2016, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported, saying the rate almost equaled that for the entire 2015.

    Area C covers 360,000 hectares (890,000 acres) of land, equal to 60 percent of the West Bank’s area. An estimated 298,000 Palestinians are living in the area, together with 341,000 Israelis in 135 settlements and about 100 outposts.

    Israel has earmarked less than one percent of the terrain for Palestinian development, in comparison with 70 percent to its construction of illegal settlements.

    WHY DO THEY HATE THEM?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:

    Flooding lands and homes in Gaza

    On Monday, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency WAFA reported that the Israeli army had deliberately opened a number of dams in central Gaza Strip, flooding large portions of Palestinian land and several homes. Rainfall raises the water levels behind the structures during the winter and the army repeatedly opens the dams without prior notice, inflicting considerable material damage on Palestinian properties and causing many injuries on people.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The worst crime against humanity isn’t what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians; it is the inaction amongst those who have the ability to make a change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The WORST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY?

      Really?

      Where are the death camps that Israel set up?

      What are the crimes that Israel is "doing"?

      Is what Israel does to the Palestinians worse than what Turkey does to the Kurds? Russia does to the people of Chechnya? What the USA has done to the Indians?

      Hardly.

      In fact Israel treatment of the Palestinians? Is far more moral and just than the treatment of the Jews by the Palestinians and the arabs.

      Face it.

      The Palestinian national movement is nothing more than ISIS of the west bank and gaza.

      Murder the Jew.

      If the Israeli's behaved like your pals?

      You'd see 100,000 dead palestinians in a war not 2,200.

      You'd see 1.2 MILLION arabs of Israel flee... but they don't.

      they know the truth, you don't

      Delete
  20. All I know is that everyone is paying the price for Zionism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah if only Abraham had drowned Ishmael when he had the chance...

      Then?

      Problem solved.

      Delete
  21. .

    You pays your money and you takes you're chances.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  22. The Nation

    Donald Trump Is Alienating Neoconservatives—and Antiwar Democrats Should Worry

    When it comes to foreign policy, Trump is an apostate. And the more he talks about it, the more popular he gets.
    By James CardenMARCH 7, 2016

    The neocon meltdown over Donald Trump’s astonishing success in the Republican presidential primaries has been one of the more delightful aspects of the 2016 presidential contest. And yet the temptation to indulge in schadenfreude should be tempered by a foreboding for what might happen—not to the Republican Party, but to the Democratic party, should Trump succeed in securing the nomination, as now looks more and more likely.

    Writing in The Weekly Standard, William Kristol denounced Trump as “a proud defender of greed, an unabashed indulger in adultery, a wanton mocker of the meek (the “losers”) of this world.” Brookings Institution scholar Robert Kagan took to the pages of The Washington Post on Sunday and likened Trump’s imminent takeover of the GOP to when “the plague descended on Thebes.” Noted neoconservative scholar Max Boot also got his shots in, telling Vox that he is “literally losing sleep over Donald Trump,” and that he believes Hillary Clinton “would be vastly preferable to Trump.” And Boot is far from alone. On Wednesday he, along with dozens of neocon scholars, lobbyists, and former government officials, signed an open letter denouncing Trump’s foreign policy as “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.” Trump, they charged, “would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world.”

    Progressive commentators have opined that Trump is simply the natural consequence of the Republican Party’s intolerance, which some believe, not without reason, reached a fever pitch during the Obama years. In the Daily Kos, Laurence Lewis writes that the Republican establishment has no one to blame but themselves. For decades, they have played to racism, misogyny, bigotry, and thuggishness, and having loosed the American id, it’s now theirs to live with…it’s a monster of their own making.

    In his Post column, Robert Kagan echoed these sentiments almost exactly: “Trump is no fluke. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein monster…” Perhaps so, but readers might find themselves at a loss to recall the widespread neocon revulsion that swept the op-ed pages when Ronald Reagan blew the dog whistle and denounced “welfare queens”; or when George H.W. Bush teamed up with Lee Atwater in order to introduce Willie Horton to America; nor was there a rising tide of establishment outrage when Mitt Romney politely suggested that illegal immigrants should “self-deport.” Then, of course, there is the case of Sarah Palin, who, during her brief but memorable stint as the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, routinely claimed that Barack Obama liked to pal around with terrorists while attendees at her rallies would shout “Treason!” and “Kill him!”

    Is Trump guilty of employing dog-whistle rhetoric (and worse)? Yes. Is doing so at all unusual in the context of Republican presidential campaigns? No. So what is it, then, about Donald J. Trump that drives the neocons to distraction?


    ReplyDelete
  23. Deuce's head is so far up the Iranian and Palestinian cause he now is official a traitor to the USA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are confused. Israel offers nothing to the US. Israeli interests are not the concern of any American that does not have conflicted loyalties. Being disloyal to Israel does not make an American a traitor.

      I have no conflicts with my loyalty. You on the other hand do,

      Israel’s problems are Israel’s problems. Israel is the single greatest liability the US has and the US has nothing to show for it.

      I would dump Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel so fast it would make your head spin. I don’t care what happens to them. A real American can find plenty much more worthy places, people and projects to spend money in the US.


      Delete
    2. Your opinion that Israel offers nothing to US interests.

      Most of America disagrees with you.

      You have loyalty to Iran and the Palestinians over US interests.

      Israel's problems? Are both their own and shared with the entire western world.

      As for your "Israel is the single greatest liability and the US has nothing to show for it"?

      Pure hatred and ignorance on your side.

      It's interesting you would not dump the Palestinians nor Egyptians, nor Jordanians, nor lebanese, nor anyone but your special trio...

      Delete
  24. .

    Hell, I just learned I'm losing my Dos Equis 'Most Interesting Man in the World' gig after all these years. And to add insult to injury they are bringing in a younger guy to replace me.

    Bummer.

    I may switch back to Bud.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somebody with a bigger dick than a 2 incher, finally ! and a phony ring finger glove !

      That old novelty had worn thin.....

      Delete
  25. .

    What's wrong with this picture? Kyle Odom, another one of Idaho's home bred nutjobs, tries to kill a pastor in Coeur d'Alene. He is being pursued under an open attempted murder warrant when he decides to go to D.C. and throw computer parts at the White House. He goes to Boise and boards a plane with no issues.

    He was not on the no-board list because he wasn't on the terrorist list. He only had a warrant out for him for attempted murder. At the same time, that 6 year old kid is still on the terrorist list even though he has been unsuccessfully trying to get off it for years.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  26. Quirk
    I understand you have one the lifetime achievement award.......3 times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      It would have been more but party insiders changed the rules on superdelegates last year to assure they controlled the nominating process.

      .

      Delete
  27. I couldn't figure out where the Trump Steaks came from seeing that the brand had gone broke 8 years ago. 8 year old steaks ?

    Nah

    Turns out they came from Bush Brothers (no relation to W/Jeb!) somewhere down the street, and they hadn't gotten all the old labels off properly, and somebody noticed.

    If The Donald doesn't get his act together and do better than this, I'm not voting for him.

    I e-mailed and suggested he hire that infamous Quirk fellow from Detroit to handle the campaign's Fraud Marketing Division.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Replies
    1. Granted Sanders is an old fraud but he's a piker compared to Quirk.

      In important affairs, stick with the pros.

      Delete
    2. Hah ! See Q's comment above.

      He knows.

      You need a real pro to fool the American People all the time.....

      Delete
  29. Inspiring News Item of the Day -

    Penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to visit man who nursed it......DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      A man nursed him. Is that actually possible?

      .

      Delete
  30. .

    US arrogance knows no bounds. Now, 3 US zoos kidnap 18 elephants from Swaziland. Their explanation? It's for the elephant's good. To which I say, bullshit.

    The zoos wanted to make a buck. The king of Swaziland wanted to make a buck. And the elephants are screwed.

    US zoos secretly fly 18 elephants out of Swaziland ahead of court challenge

    Three American zoos have pulled off an audacious clandestine operation to fly a group of elephants out of Swaziland despite a legal challenge to block the transfer, enraging conservationists who claim that removing elephants from the wild for display in zoos is cruel and outdated.

    The 18 elephants – three males and 15 females ranging in age from six to 25 – were sedated, loaded onto crates and placed on a large cargo plane that arrived in Swaziland at around 7.30am local time on Tuesday. Pictures taken at the scene show several large crates, ostensibly for elephants, being picked up by a crane and placed onto trucks.

    The elephants will be split among three zoos – the Dallas zoo, Sedgwick County zoo in Kansas and Henry Doorly zoo in Nebraska – where they will be put on exhibit and used for breeding purposes.

    The unannounced move, which was previously scheduled for May, has stunned an animal welfare group that was due to argue against the transfer in a US federal court on 17 March. The group, Friends of Animals, has now admitted defeat in its bid to prevent what it calls the “stolen 18” from being taken from the wild and placed into zoos...


    .

    ReplyDelete
  31. Hillary netted out about 19 delegates, yesterday.

    While Bernie was winning Michigan by 2 points, she was winning Mississippi by 66 percent.

    Bernie has, virtually, a zero chance of catching up in earned (pledged) delegates,

    not to mention total (pledged plus super delegates.)

    ReplyDelete
  32. .

    .

    You state the obvious.

    Everyone knows the Dems' nominating process isn't democratic. The way they use their superdelagates guarantees the establishment candidate will win. The fix was in before this started.

    But it's been fun watching Hillary squirm. That low life trick on the auto bailout she tried to play on Sanders showed us the true Hillary. Fortunately, the voters in Michigan saw through it.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      ... she was winning Mississippi by 66 percent.

      Naturally. It is Mississippi after all.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
    2. Yeah, undemocratic.

      The Candidate that will get the majority of the votes will get the nomination.

      We wuz robbed, I tells ya.

      Delete
    3. I doubt seriously that there is a school system in all of Mississippi as ramshackle, and disgracefully underfunded as the Detroit School System.

      Delete
    4. .

      Nice Straw Man

      No, I take it back, it's an idiot eff'n straw man.



      :o)

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      Besides, don't sell Mississippi short.

      .

      Delete
  33. .

    Is Trump guilty of employing dog-whistle rhetoric (and worse)? Yes. Is doing so at all unusual in the context of Republican presidential campaigns? No. So what is it, then, about Donald J. Trump that drives the neocons to distraction?

    They are afraid that once he becomes president he will demand too big a cut.

    What?

    It's how they think.

    .

    ReplyDelete