slade's Link
LOL. Freegay is getting rough. Lookout guys run for cover.
The Rock........ Outside of his political bent and bent it was, I can not and will not comment.
He was wrong about many things. That actually puts him right in good company with most folks here on many things.
I always enjoyed josh and thought he was intelligent and had a lot to offer. I do believe that Trump drove him off the rail for some reason. So much so that his disdain for Trump made me question what his real beliefs were. I thought he was a conservative but I think he was actually an establishment conservative and even when Trump did some conservative things he just couldn't stomach it coming from an outsider.
God bless, Steve
Where would you be today if Hillary Clinton and josh had their way if she had won?
The Rock
The fact that joshua is no longer active here is a failure on his part and on those whom engaged in rank provocation. And, believe me, it was a 2 way street. However, the absence of a good man is like darkness and darkness serves as both agent of and monument to evil. There is no couching or qualifying that. It just is.
The Rock
Just because someone disagrees with you in no way makes them a fraud, nor a liar. It just means they disagree with you.
He dislikes Trump, obviously, but mainly because he doesn't believe Trump is a conservative, and he's right on that.
Trump has certainly done some conservative things, esp. with his court appointments. That said, I don't think Trump has a political philosophy. From my perspective, he's more of a pragmatist than anything.
Respecting another point of view is merely an act that those secure enough in their own convictions have no hesitancy in conveying when and where applicable; it's called honest engagement and it's an endangered species in some parts if some of the running commentary is an illustration of prevailing thought.
The continued need to devalue those who posit along those lines also underscores a fundamental inability to accept differing viewpoints unfiltered; it seems the need to attach a motive, often a lowest-common denominator type is a necessary vehicle to give legitimacy to less than honorable treatment of those who dissent from "the herd."
That type of comportment reflects poorly on the purveyors, not on the target du jour.
Josh remains a good man and a valued voice of reason. For those who feel some form of apology should be offered for being of that mind I would humbly state; "don't hold your breath."
I didn't support Trump in the beginning but he has been nothing short of great since in office. He has balls and is not beholden to anyone. There is literally a handful of people who would have recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The rest of the hand wringers are worried about offending Muslims. Like that is hard to do....
Donald Trump has presented himself, regardless of this populists B.S as a conservative. He fights the left and mocks them as recently as last nights rally, calls out fake news and wants to dismantle all things liberal. Those who can not see that may very well be the root of our problems. What the fuq do want from the man? You should call CNN for a interview they will welcome you with open arms. Now we are back to Donald Trump as the only topic here questioning his position and supporting the position of one bent on destroying him but who was "a good a man".
What a fuqn joke.
The Rock
Remember the arguments when he said he would not vote for Hillary or Trump, and we pointed out that such a vacuous position was in essence just taking your marbles and running home. Funny - cause we called that too!
December 21, 2017 'He Said We Were Good': Why Trump's Message Resonates with Evangelicals By Anne-Christine Hoff
Despite Donald Trump’s sometimes boorish behavior, his approval ratings remain stubbornly high among evangelicals. According to an analysis of Pew Research surveys conducted in February and April 2017, Trump’s approval ratings are at 75% among evangelical Christians, almost twice as high as among the general populace. While some Democrats might express surprise at evangelicals’ support for a man whose extravagant lifestyle would seem to eliminate him as a conservative hero, a closer look reveals the alignment between Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the Biblical values of evangelicals.
Evangelicals are by and large a churchgoing group. According to Pew Research Center, among white evangelical Protestant registered voters interviewed in 2016, eight in ten said they attended church once a week, and 63% said they attended religious service at least once a week. While the values of evangelicals are anything but uniform, University of Stirling historian David W. Bebbington boiled the evangelical belief system down to four core ideas, what he called the “quadrilateral of priorities”:
The need to be born again; The supremacy of biblical authority; Salvation through the death and resurrection of the Son of God; Active sharing of the gospel through evangelism.
When looking at Trump’s rhetoric, for example, in his Poland speech on July 6 and his inaugural speech in January, certain patterns emerge that align closely with the Biblical worldview of Christian evangelicals.
1. You are good. You are loving. You are courageous.
In the Obama years, we commonly heard negative things said about America and Americans. We could do better on healthcare, for example. We needed to overcome our inherent racism. The lecture of Attorney General Eric Holder under the Obama administration and the attendance of representatives from the White House at the funeral of Michael Brown, for example, signaled to some the administration’s embrace of a narrative that America was guilty and in some ways, irredeemably so.
Trump’s Inaugural Address, on the other hand, asserted a very different view of Americans:
“So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words:
You will never be ignored again.
Your voices, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.”
Trump’s simple allusion to the courage, goodness, and love of all Americans was to many evangelicals a gentle reassurance that the highest office in the land no longer viewed us as bad. Trump even went further than to simply exculpate us from guilt. He called us courageous and good and loving. Such a view is in close alignment with the evangelical view that while all humans are sinners, through Christ’s love we are redeemed and made clean no matter the color of our skin or our gender. Such a positive perception of our identity as Americans was not lost on evangelicals in no small part because they closely aligned with the Biblical view of our redeemed spirit as a result of our faith in Christ.
2. Everyone deserves redemption. (Except for Trump according to our Seven Mountain Nationalists)
In his inaugural speech, Trump continued to develop this theme that everyone deserves redemption regardless of his or her external identity. Once again, his reference to Detroit, a city nearly 85% black, and Nebraska, a state nearly 90% white, and his assertion that the children from both places are God’s children resonated powerfully with evangelicals.
“And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky; they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the same breath of life by the same almighty Creator.”
Such a message was inclusive enough to even include Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables,” whom the once favored-to-win Democratic nominee reviled and slandered as racist, homophobic, and sexist for supporting Trump.
Some may recall that clever pundits and journalists were once skeptical that any Trump supporters actually existed. The Russian-American satirist Oleg Atbashian wrote a clever piece on this phenomenon back in March 2016 before the election called “Some of my best friends are Trump supporters.”
When the electoral map is fluid, when things are happening rapidly in real time, and when no reliable historical data exists, we rely on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. In the absence of such, the writers simply fill the gap in their knowledge with their own prejudices, similar to how medieval mapmakers marked unexplored areas with “here be dragons.”
In retrospect, it did seem that Clinton’s Democrats marked vast stretches of territory with the words “Here be dragons.” The idea that our current Commander-in-Chief thought highly of these “dragons” as worthy, righteous people garnered even more support for the president from evangelicals.
3. We are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values.
Under Obama we were often told that the United States was a secular multicultural nation where people of many different creeds and colors came together to make a rich American tapestry. Trump presented a very different image of our nation. According to him, we are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles and this foundation is at the core of our free society.
Trump asserted the historical foundations of our religiosity at a speech he gave at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia in May 2017:
“When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they prayed. When the Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our Creator four times, because in America, we don’t worship government, we worship God. That is why our elected officials put their hands on the Bible, and say, ‘so help me God’ as they take the oath of office.”
In Trump’s America, we the people have a soul and a spirit. We are good and loving people, and we have the right to defend our identity as at our core our identity is linked to our belief in a loving God.
4. America has a soul worth preserving.
Such a vision, of course, fits neatly into the worldview of evangelicals. A loving God created each one of us and gave us a soul. Trump’s Poland speech extended this theme as he projected his worldview that the West is engaged in a grand struggle between good and evil. Here Trump’s central and recurring idea of the everlasting soul of a nation rising against the Zeitgeist to assert its place and identity resurfaces.
As Mark Bauerlein wrote in his excellent analysis “We Want God,” religious Americans understood the message of Trump’s Poland speech clearly because even though some in the mainstream media presented it as being subliminally racist, “It wasn’t a dog whistle. It was an acclamation.”
Trump states, “Poland is the geographic heart of Europe, but more importantly, in the Polish people, we see the soul of Europe.”
Later, he goes on to say, “I’m here to hold Poland up as an example for those who wish to summon the courage and the will to defend our civilization.” According to Trump, our civilization is under threat and we are engaged in a battle that we don’t even realize is taking place.
“Our own fight of the West does not begin on the battlefield -- It begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls.”
In the same way that Bebbington boiled evangelical beliefs down to four core values, I would argue that the values espoused in Trump’s rhetoric can be boiled down to four main principles:
We are good people with a good history.
We are deserving of redemption;
We are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values;
We have a soul that is worth preserving.
My prediction is that as long as Trump’s message remains consistent, evangelical Americans will continue to overlook his personal and political failings and remain instead Trump’s most ardent supporters, for Trump was one of the few who said they were good when for so long they had been told they were bad.
.@POTUS to troops: "Every American heart is thankful to you and we're asking God to watch over you and to watch over your families." #Christmas pic.twitter.com/IYaVBLUFYc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 24, 2017
I think the leftist movement has done great harm to our nation but so has the so called conservatives...I am conservative as far as conserving the original intent of the constitution. But, the Neo conservatives have hurt our country in my opinion. I believe there is the Right Wing, Left Wing and then there is the truth. The truth dont always line up with the political parties in DC. We should be able to agree to disagree, though I can be very opinionated I hope I don' t disrespect others that post here.
God bless, Steve (Happy New Year)
I'm was no different than josh in the belief that Ted Cruz was the best pick for the nominee. I was no different than josh feeling apprehension when Trump won the nominee. I was no different than josh thinking the real Trump was going to be predicted by his past instead of his campaign promises. I was no different than josh when I thought the only candidate that couldn't beat Hillary was Trump. In all honesty, every single concern josh had about Trump, I did too. And, I truly believe if you are a conservative American and, you were being honest, you'd say that sums up the way most of you felt too. The only difference was, once given no other choice, Most chose to take the better of the choices we had. Most chose to be optimistic versus driven to be proven right. josh can't claim that. Which is a sign of true weakness to me.
That's the one thing that begin to truly bother me about josh. It was apparent he would have rather seen Trump be what he said so, he could be vindicated. Versus seeing him do as he has done and, be proven wrong. That's more ego than I care to accept or let slide. Because the cost would have been severe if we had gotten an established politician. Especially if it were Hillary. It's one thing to be wrong. Its entirely another to be self absorbed to the point your ego supersedes the best interests of America's future.
I hope he returns to right this worng. I doubt he will if Trump continues to do what he is doing. I can guarantee you though that he will return if Trump turns liberal. Its his personality. So, acknowledging his wit, his thought process, the fact he was right about a lot of Trump's past, the fact we had the same concerns, etc..... means little to me if he is incapable of admitting his own faults. I have enough of those people I interact with on a regular basis, that having one more to deal with is not really an attractive alternative for me. I simply feel no remorse due to his absence. Nor, do I care if he returns.
IF he ever comes back, I'm fine with that too. I just don't think that anyone who expressed himself the last three months he was here, could expect anything but the treatment he got. When he did as Spike said by turning on people that simply choose to be an optimist, I lost a lot of respect for him when he couldn't accept that. And, I lost even more when he refused to admit as things were, that he was wrong. His ego was simply too big to do so. And, I truly don't respect anyone who can't admit when they are wrong. It is the strength of human nature. Its supreme weakness. Miss him I don't as things left. His unwavering bias is just not that important to me. It was affecting everything those that miss him, claim he was. Honestly, he had become no different to me than some of the crap slingers that frequent here now.
God Bless men
