That trending National Review piece highlights a major problem for the GOP: old school white Republicans spent 50 years courting the "Cletus" vote, welcoming them to the GOP fold with a handshake over shared white supremacist goals, while sneering at them behind their backs.

Just look at how Williamson talks about the folks who comprise the base of the GOP: "Cletus", "studio audience from Hee-Haw", "midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song", "stupid".

The contempt is palpable, and it always has been.

And while a lot of the old school GOP folks thought Cletus was not smart enough to understand the contempt the party leadership held for them, they really AREN'T that stupid.

Enter Trump, wearing a trucker hat and eager to pander to the Cletus vote.

Instead of cloaking the white supremacy which holds the GOP's base together like paperclips and chewing gum in dog whistles and euphemisms with plausible deniability, Trump said what Cletus has been saying to his friends over beers for years.

If the Republican elite come out swinging for the Cletus vote, as Williamson does here, it might feel good to aptly label their party's problem--and this violent, militantly ignorant faction that comprises the GOP's current base IS a problem--it's going to reduce their votership.

1/This is a rant I had with someone while texting, and I thought it would make an interesting thread:

2/ Jim, If you come across any information, I still desire to hear any information on the state of our beleaguered union.

23 December 2020 #MAGAanalysis #PenceCard

If By Any Other Means...

First a nod to my new friend, @HeloProcurement, Don The Pleb. You'll enjoy the show we did last night, and it's meditating on our conversation that led to today's

MORNING BANTER

Most people could not handle being around me & my wife due to our ruthless banter. In my wife, I found my match. At 1st glance, my wife seems like a sweet choir girl who reads the bible all day, but she can play the dozens w/the best of them & takes no prisoners.

Ive said many times b4, like comedian Flip Wilson said, "When I met my wife she had a Sunday School face & I had Saturday Night thoughts." I was a frat boy running around campus half naked & she was an honor roll student athlete seduced by a bad boy who partied more than studied.

Many mouths drop at the shit I say in stand up, in speeches, articles & on social media, but if y'all could hear da shit my wife says to me, U would be on the floor howling. Supersensitive mafuckas cant crack our door seal. My wife don't give a fuck about my feelings & I LOVE IT.

So here's an excerpt from our recent morning banter. Now to set the stage, I need to give you a picture of my morning routine. I love nature, so in the morning before I have my 1st cup of coffee, I get up & refill all the bird feeders around our property & water the plants.

Oh & by the way yall dont wanna see me in that garden I'm a beast. Ive been trying 2 do a little winter greenhouse activity 2 see if I can grow certain flowers in the winter & I also have a couple of orchids that belonged 2 my cousin that were dying & I'm trying 2 nurse them back

A good theory of consciousness is one that predicts behavior that is unexplained by other current theories of consciousness. Einstein's General Theory was given credence because it predicted the bending of light.

What do current theories of consciousness predict that is outside common intuition about the nature of consciousness?

Many theories of consciousness are elegant, but do they predict anything out of the ordinary?

A theory of consciousness must be expressed in a formulation, consists of interpretations that are valid and predict something unexpected.

A bad theory of consciousness has ambiguous interpretations and predicts nothing out of the ordinary.

Mitten Thread 🥊
#BerniesMittens And Why It Is Such A Sensation.

Do you know those moments at a funeral, or after a person dies, when you start sharing memories and the grief briefly turns to laughter and joy? Well that’s a little bit of what’s happening now.
1/

🥊🧡
#BerniesMittens is a collective expression of our love for a man and a movement. It is our expression of deep-seated hope that we are all willing to #FightForSomeoneWeDontKnow.
Bernie could have been president. Bernie should have been president.
2/

3/ 🥊🧡🔥
So many of us are grieving that. There have been so many events that put the nail in the coffin of Bernie‘s presidency. Twice. Our grief has come in punches since 2016. Our dreams and hopes smashed, over and over.
This time, ....

4/ 🥊🔥
when Barack Obama intervened as he promised. When all the candidates suddenly dropped out. When Jim Clyburn exerted his influence. When somehow the lagging mule won South Carolina. When Covid hit. When Bernie dropped out so he could serve.

5/ 🥊
When Bernie did the right thing because he needed to exert his influence on the Senate to try to help people get what they need. Our grief has been suppressed.
How many times have you bitten your lip or your tongue or banged your head against the wall when ...

Destressing Tips,
The past few weeks/months/year has been rather stressful.
I have a few things I do to destress and clear my mind that I'd like to share. Perhaps one or more of these might be useful?
1) Plenty of Water, a hydrated body/hydrated mind.

The Kikuyu reached a point they hated anybody who talked about corruption. They boycotted reading DN for David Ndiis column that chronicled Jubilee plunder. Seventh thread on Railaphobia – LONG THREAD, YOU CAN DISCARD

If Raila was that bad for giving Uhuru competition, you would imagine that hatred would be over once he decided to support Uhuru. This was the first contradiction. A common accusation again was that he is very selfish; he must be up to something

The Kikuyu accuse Raila of killing democracy in Luoland, yet they hated SK Macharia for supporting Raila in 2013. They even boycotted advertising with Inooro and citizen radio. They hated Tabitha of Keroche and boycotted summit beer – Saying Raila was shareholder

They would say how Luos are slaves of Raila but reserve the severest insults for Kikuyus who don’t support Uhuru. They were happy when Raila was barred from patronizing a Karatina hotel and when NASA was barred from holding a rally in Thika.

The same things done to them by Moi government, they never cared about happening to other people. They never even wanted to hear about corruption. Some Kikuyus openly confessed boycotting Nation newspaper because of David Ndii’s column – it talked too much about corruption.

Reading a Reddit AMA with a former Q believer and he had a really insightful thing to say: “Conspiracy theory thinking hooks the brain because it feels like critical thinking.”

That seems very true from what I’ve observed. The thread is here if you’re interested:

I also thought it was interesting what shook him out of it: a post from Q containing obviously false information about the field he worked in, computers. He realized the technobabble made no sense, so what else was wrong?

As for what got him in in the first place? He grew up a fundamentalist Christian and so was primed with stories about how only they knew THE TRUTH about things like evolution, the end times, etc, and the rest of the culture was just full of powerful lies. Perfect breeding ground

If you want to see a really good in-depth exploration of how someone falls down an internet rabbit hole into extremism (not Q, but related to it in that it’s about white supremacy and far right politics), I’d recommend the podcast Rabbit Hole, from Kevin Roose at the NYT

Was Sent this = Long Winded
Warning: We have received this info yet we ask all of you to discern and take it to the Lord. There is a lot of disinfo right now. We do have faith in the folks who have shared this with us.

1/
#WhatsYourWhy: Day 2 of 7

Cashier

Them: *ringing up items* “You find everything okay?”
Me: “Yup.”
Them: “I like your hair.”
Me: “Hey—thanks.”
Them: *nods while continuing to swipe items*

*beep-beep-beep*

Them: “Is that highlights? Or . . . .“
Me: “Grey?”

*laughter*

2/
Me: “Yup. I’m openly grey.”

*laughter*

Them: “Well, it’s working for you.”
Me: “’Preciate that.”

*beep-beep-beep*

Me: “Can I ask you a question since you got all up in my grey-hair business?”

*laughter*

Me: “You getting the #COVIDVaccine when it’s offered to you?”

3/
Them: *raises eyebrows*
Me: “Ha ha ha that’s not a answer.”

*laughter*

Them: “Wait--you a doctor or something?”
Me: *patting my head* “One with grey hair, yes.”
Them: *laughing* “You funny. But nah, doc. I’m cool on that vaccine.”

“Cool on” the vaccine. Hmmm.

4/
Being “cool on” something means it’s something or someone you prefer not to interact with for various reasons.

Sometimes big.
Sometimes small.

Example:

Friend: “I didn’t love #Bridgerton.”
Me: “WHAAAAAT?”
Friend: “Yeah. But I’m cool on most period shows.”
Me: “Aah. Ok.”

5/
Usually, you don’t ask someone why they’re cool on something (or especially someone.) It’s kind of an unwritten rule. Unless, of course, you’re me.

Ha.

Me: “Yeah? Why you cool on it?”
Them: *shakes head*
Me: “Hmm.”
Them: “It’s no point.”

No point?

*beep-beep-beep*

They were at a vigil when the issue came to light
The pastor of the church heard the testimony of one of the men of the church earlier that week and decided to allow him to share with the brethren
The man took the microphone and explained how he had

survived for two years without a job!
As soon as he said "Without a job" the congregation gasped!
It was impossible to even contemplate that the man was out of job for a second
He always dressed corporately and drove a good car
Everybody saw him as one of the gainfully employed

members of the church
The man explained further that a week after he lost his job in a stock brokering firm, his wife found him crying and promised him she would ensure his shame was covered
The man said at the end of every month, his wife would hand over her ATM card to him and

they would both go shopping for the family and for themselves
She knew he would eventually catch a break but she was determined not to let him suffer simply because times were hard
The man talked on and on about his wife's support
and love
While the talk was going on, the

assistant pastor watched the man with awe
When the man was done, a lady raised up her hand in the congregation
She said she wanted to ask a question
She was the assistant pastor's wife
When she was given the microphone, she said she didn't see any wisdom in what the man's wife

I have a theory about 2020.

Bear with me...I’ve done the math and it checks out, but I have no way to prove it, so it’s purely theoretical.

At this time.

1/

Here’s the thing...it wasn’t supposed to be this bad.

There are safeguards, you see? Many times when things were going dark, heroes, mostly reluctant heroes, would appear from elsewhere to save us. To set things right.

But this year, they didn’t...why?

2/

When things go bad., it’s because someone messed with the timeline, and someone else has to set it right.

A thousand alternate timelines have been stopped before they could happen, because these chronsl plumbers showed up to fix the leak before it floods the house.
3/

The general public never knows what they have fixed because the alternate timeline has disappeared, vanished, into a limbo none of us ever touch.

But this year, something happened.

4/

You can’t break the laws of reality forever.

Eventually, the gatekeepers find you.

And their revenge is terrible.

5/

Vormithrax is basically the Lobos of Cataclysm. He plays the game with challenges that'd make it impossible for other people to survive even for a few minutes.

While his challenge runs are stunning, it is annoying that there *is* a meta.

In each, "normally I'd ___ but I can't do it so easily now, so ___"

What usually happens is someone watches a Cataclysm video, gets it, and then dies.

Then dies and dies and dies, having tons of fun in the process.

And then they learn the meta.

Grind slings to level crafting, search bushes to level survival. Make a knife spear. Stop making a knife spear, they nerfed it.

And before you know it, every game starts the same way. Like a video game, not an apocalypse simulator, or a story generator.

1/9

Comment: good morning world. Just thinking as typing here. It's not a habit starting doing this, yet bear with me please. It can happen.
To me, this isn't issue of right or left (to extremes) per se. Yet, is there a failing?
I think so.
Sat, thinking...it occurred-->

2/9

that i am looking to find solutions. And following, that I am and think alone. (Its the way it is here.) So, not being in a constant or really, anytime chat to talk of. I wonder ... as i am here-and-now, what can be done?

We're in it, aren't we!
Indeed we are.
Viewing -->

3/9

this and that somewhat more than reading. I get a picture of say, excited distress in many. Okay, not all? But meaning here, it doesn't take to act to be the way i may have you envisage it. Not violently. I just think of a state to this. But, who does it encompass?

Well-->

4/9

if I'm on the right line to thinking. Then this is a true and utter MF. Not just contemporary from what I glean. Though exceptional today.
If we, those who are concerned to resolve peacefully. If we don't get a grip. I think it's then Nature makes humanity walk the plank.-->

5/9

It won't matter where or who one is. I think this is clear.

Anyhow, we're also clever in the main. Categorizing individuals, groupings and all that. It won't cut the mustard now. But i see differences, i do.
Now and again, more and more frequently, it occurs that -->

Without getting into the ins and outs of the ‘Is Christmas pagan?’ debate, it’s worth dealing with some faulty assumptions people often make about the ‘Christianisation’ of pre-Christian traditions (buckle up for the thread…)

First of all, language people use in this area can be quite emotive, e.g. talk of Christians ‘usurping’ or ‘sanitising’ a pre-existing pagan festival. There’s a tendency to ascribe a collective agency that never existed to ‘the Church’ or ‘Christians’ when it comes to Midwinter

That wasn’t how it worked; there was no centralised programme of reforming popular festivities. The Church introduced liturgical celebration of Christmas to northern pagan cultures; how those Christianised cultures then dealt with Midwinter festivities as a whole varied widely

The minds and behaviour of early medieval people weren’t software programmed by a Church that exercised total control. The Church showed sporadic interest in popular celebrations, but its main concern was Christian rites and belief - not suppressing all pre-Christian legacies

(By the way, it’s always a bit perilous to apply the term ‘pagan’ to pre-Christian legacies, because we know so little about pre-Christian religion we have no reliable way of distinguishing between *specifically religious* pre-Christian customs and others)