Rosemaries' Baby, Part II
 

I have a couple friends who are among his confidants. Would you like me to arrange an introduction?

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

That wasn't Gwink. That was Ted Cruz.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

whoa....ggg with the 1-2 punch.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Josh Marshall totally nails it.

eta: IMHO, one of Obama's biggest failings as a President has been to chart a tepid, centrist course between Republican economic policies that are completely counterproductive and moderate Democratic policies that are weak tea at best.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2014...o-ben-affleck/

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I agree with this much: until the Democrats actually endorse policies that will lead to wage growth and income inequality, they are screwed. OTOH, There are a lot of underemployed people out there who used to be middle class but are now working for minimum wage, or their children are out in the workforce working for minimum wage (or close to it) because they can't find work in their field of study.

I think the relatively large number of voter initiatives to increase the minimum wage, even in states where the Republicans walked away with the election is strong proof that there is more concern about the bottom rung than Josh thinks there is. I know an awful lot of people who find themselves there, and 6 years ago they weren't. The Democrats ignore them at their peril.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

It's nicely written, but she's actually my sock.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Eh. A bit ironic to write an article saying Affleck shut down a conversation when it's Affleck's blow up that creates the opportunity for the publication of the article, no?

I'm a bit sick of conversations saying we should have the conversation rather than actually having it. I've got a friend who is an Islamic feminist scholar. Yes, she gets fundy death threats. She may be among their most feared enemy in many ways, much like they hated Mahfouz and those like him who wrote engagingly about the interactions among faiths. She also gets shat on pretty regularly and virulently by Western feminists, though, whose reaction to the idea of Islamic feminism tends to run somewhere between dismissal and Maheresque derision. The Maher's of the world aren't very useful to the discussion because they've already made their mind up.

If you're interested in following more regular conversations about women in the Muslim world, on twitter I maintain a list called "WoMENA" that follows women writers and journalists in MENA. The gang at FP Interrupted, a group of women journalists and foreign policy experts, also does a weekly summary of their articles and publications every Friday. The discussion in those places about things like rape and sexual assault during the Egyptian demonstrations tends to be a lot more substantive and less full of pithy little bits of prejudice.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Actually, I don't think this is a failing of Obama so much as one of Democrats at the state level. We've been whipped at the state level, where we've not just had the possibility of a Democratic congress redistricted out of existence, but we've also had lots and lots of austerity programs directly counteracting the good being done at the federal level in running the economy. And it is the congressional tilt to the right that puts pressure on Obama to move to the center.

Democratics being democrats at the state level is the most urgent need, and to the extent we can get a President who can help and feed that its a good thing, but it's going to take something a little broader than that.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Sure, swearing at and assaulting a reporter during prayer is the Christian approach. Another story of the Christians-in-Name-Only who make up the Republican party's core.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

2. The GOP takeover started at the lowest levels of government.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Yeah, she doesn't say anything about Islam, only about Affleck.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I'm very confused about the words that your fingers are creating. Is your point really that we are having a conversation about what Ben Asshat refused to discuss because people who want to have the conversation have pointed out that Assfleck (and people like him) refuse to have the conversation, thus crediting Assflack for the conversation? That can't possibly be what you're saying, because that would be fucking ridiculous.

Jesus fucking Christ, man. Get past Maher. Forget him already. The woman in the article has things to say. I don't understand why they should be ignored because Western feminists are dismissive or you're sick of people wanting to have the conversation without having it.

The point of the article to me seems to be that people plug their ears when it comes to critiques of (sections of) Islam because it rubs liberals the wrong way to criticize people who are constantly shit on for the acts of a few that tend to be attributed to the whole. In fact, that seems to be exactly what happened on this board.

I am not on or interested in twitter.

You can't help but sound like a superior dickhead even when you're trying to be helpful, can you?

I checked out the website's archives and it looks like interesting reading.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

What you propose requires:

1. Overturning Citizens United;
2. Curing short-termism on Wall Street (the cause of job cuts that creates the income inequality); and
3. Bringing labor arbitrage under control.

Two of these things are beyond any party's reach.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

My point was more that framing it in Affleck/Maher terms didn't make a lot of sense.

She has lots of interesting points about life as a woman in Pakistan; there are other interesting discussions about life as an muslim, even a feminist muslim, elsewhere.

And, TM, yes, sometimes I sound like a dickhead. You too. Welcome to the PB.