Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,683)

The Roberts Court: sluts have fun, whores get paid.

Amateurs play for free. Professionals get paid. Courts decide cases on their merits and treat all parties equally. Roberts, C.J., says his job “is to call balls and strikes,” but baseball is not an apt metaphor, especially after Citizens United. [FN1] SCOTUS allows donors of political cash 1/8

to be cloaked in anonymity. The Brennan Center has reported on the tons of cash that case has allowed. Say “baseball” and “corruption” and a baseball fan might reply “Blacksox.” People tried to…

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Added by Mark Small on December 4, 2023 at 2:52pm — No Comments

Indiana's GOP should disavow Nazis, unlike the slimy bastards in Texas's GOP

Nazis & their ideology are evil. When American forces liberated a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, General Eisenhower ordered “citizens of the nearby town of Ohrdruf [] to view the camp and bury the dead, a practice that was repeated in other camp liberations.” [FN1] 1/5

The Texas GOP executive committee has voted down a ban on Republicans associating with people “who espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.” [FN2] The First Amendment protects…

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Added by Mark Small on December 3, 2023 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Beckwith fears people searching for the truth

“Micah, I sent those riots to Washington. What you saw yesterday was my hand at work” Micah Beckwith [FN1], in a selfie video in his car on 01/07/21 [FN2], claims the “Lord” said this to him. Today Beckwith has a “Meet the Candidates” event at Life Church in Pendleton.1/6

Beckwith’s photo, w/a label of “Lieutenant Governor,” is above photos of three candidates for Madison County offices. Beckwith does not do well when he is on a ballot. He lost in the 2020 GOP primary for INCD5. The…

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Added by Mark Small on December 2, 2023 at 9:26am — No Comments

Pulitzer prize for fiction? Rokita's amicus brief for trump:

IN AG Todd Rokita’s latest email says he joined 19 other attorneys general on an amicus (friend of the Court) brief w/the Colorado Supreme Court. [FN1] Colorado judge held: 1) trump engaged in insurrection, but 2) It’s not clear Amend XIV applies to POTUS. [FN2] Rokita says to 1/9

ban trump from Colorado’s 2024 ballot “smacks” of “underhanded sliminess” [FN3] like 2020's elections. [FN4] It “disenfranchises voters in other States, like Indiana.” [FN5] The amicus brief is wrong to…

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Added by Mark Small on November 30, 2023 at 1:15pm — No Comments

trump is no basis for reality

Ralph Waldo Emerson often is misquoted [FN1]: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” [FN 2] Without consistency, math (e.g., numerical values are constant), language (words have specific meanings) would be impossible. Today, inconsistency impairs civil discourse.1/7

On 11/25 I re-posted meme of pics of Hitler & trump w/caption “Evil doesn’t die It reinvents itself.” One person posted replies: 1) a pic of former Senator Hillary Clinton w/”Evil” as a caption.…

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Added by Mark Small on November 26, 2023 at 12:06pm — No Comments

Reply to a post by Sean Shepard

I shall take your post as directed to me, Sean. I am flattered. I shall be careful to use simple words so that you do not get lost, and shall try to answer your question, but that is at the end.

I) You suggest there “should be some kind of word for denial of what one’s political religion is doing.”

A) Your concept of “religion” probably is limited to a belief built around rhe existence of a “god.” Religion can be such a belief. Some use the word to describe a group of beliefs or…

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Added by Mark Small on November 25, 2023 at 7:48pm — No Comments

"God" gives the FBI an alibi for Jan 6

Micah Beckwith [FN1], in a FB video shot shortly after 1/6/21, says “God” told him: “I sent those riots to Washington.” Any claim that the insurrection was staged to discredit trump flies in the face of “God.” Tucker Carlson can’t say it was an FBI “false flag” [FN2] [FN3] 1/6

Evangelicals must be held to a premise. “God” [F4] would neither lie nor joke about such things. 1) I’m unaware of any passage of either testament in which the supreme deity says it’s all a prank or practical…

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Added by Mark Small on November 24, 2023 at 12:50pm — No Comments

Slavery, electors and 1824, 1924, 2024

We near 2024’s election for POTUS [FN1] Racism is an issue and is a significant part of other issues. [FN2] Slavery began here in 1619 [FN3], was protected by The Constitution [FN4] and ended , only because secession of the Southern States forced the issue. [FN5] [FN6] 1/9

A century earlier, in Indiana, D.C. Stephenson used racism as part of his sales pitch for Hoosiers to join the KKK, but racism “was part of daily life.” [FN7]. He also used xenophobia [FN8] and hundreds of thousands…

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Added by Mark Small on November 19, 2023 at 1:45pm — No Comments

Fart in a whirlwind, i.e., Beckwith in public office

As the dust settles after the latest meeting of the board of directors of HEPL [FN1], we see a lot of money was wasted & nothing was gained. In May w/o public notice or listing on the agenda, the Hamilton County Council placed Micah Beckwith [FN2] on the HEPL board. 1/7

During the summer Beckwith was joined by three other board members of the far right for a 4-3 temporary [FN3] majority that instituted a new policy. Books were pulled from the teen section to be reviewed for, well,…

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Added by Mark Small on November 17, 2023 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Freedom might have a shelf life

The U.S. is not very “free.” That can be traced back to the early days. [FN1] The Constitution protected slavery until 1865. [FN2] Punishment of speech critical of war has been allowed during times of war. [FN3] On “total freedom” we are as low as 58th [FN4] & as high as 15th. [FN5] 1/7

Rankings aside, we can’t seriously be “Land of the Free,” w/5% of the World’s population but 20% of people in prison. [FN6] We rank 56th for rates of violent crime. [FN7] Not even mentioned as…

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Added by Mark Small on November 14, 2023 at 12:18pm — No Comments

The Constitution and Declarations of War

78 years is the longest the U.S. has not been at war. The Constitution states: “The Congress shall have Power [] To declare War.” [FN1] Our last war ended on 9/2/45. [FN2] Wars and non-wars are bloody messes, but wars are cumbersome, as the Framers intended. 1/7

On 6/29/1787, James Madison said at The Constitutional Convention: “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” [FN3] Leaders of our gov’t & our military like…

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Added by Mark Small on November 12, 2023 at 9:19pm — No Comments

This iteration of the GOP will lie to cling to power

After “stinging losses” in 2022's midterms, GOP [FN1] said they needed “to refine their message on abortion.” More losses this week & a veteran GOP consultant said this should “be a major wake-up call on the abortion issue for us.” [FN2] The GOP seeks power & trains followers 1/5

to shut their minds at mention of catch-phrases so that followers will not think for themselves. Women’s reproductive rights was a prime target. The GOP lied to make the issue simple. But Roe v Wade…

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Added by Mark Small on November 11, 2023 at 11:52am — No Comments

Quoting der Fuehrer not an outlier for Hamilton County group

Nat’l headlines are rarely kind to Indiana politics. An 1897 bill to set the value of Pi was comic. [FN1] Indiana’s dominance by the KKK after WWI was horrendous. [FN2] Even when it comes to “vice,” as in Vice Presidents, we are no better than a #2. [FN3] Yesterday, 11/7/23: 1/10

Nat’l media (again) reported on Hamilton County’s “Moms for Liberty.” [FN4] In June the group quoted der Fuehrer on its “newly launched newsletter, ‘The Parent Brigade’” & drew harsh reactions. [FN5]…

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Added by Mark Small on November 8, 2023 at 8:47pm — No Comments

June 2020? If you want to call them "riots" use the full phrase: "police riots"

A lie repeated 100 times is a lie. Tomorrow (11/07/23) Indy voters, who’ve not voted early, cast ballots for two offices, Mayor and City-County counselor. Jefferson Shreve, GOP candidate for mayor, says incumbent Mayor Joe Hogsett failed to respond to the 2020 BLM “riots.” 1/10

1 A “riot”: an “assemblage of three or more persons in a public place taking concerted action in a turbulent and disorderly manner for a common purpose...” [FN1] 2 The persons assembled “create a breach of the…

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Added by Mark Small on November 6, 2023 at 11:31am — No Comments

Don't know & don't care: far right's attitude re: gun violence

Two posts this weekend showed Indiana’s far right’s core values. Number 1 is “Don’t Know,” embodied by a man [FN1] who would have fit in w/the 19th Century Know Nothings: Micah Beckwith. [FN2] Example: as he hyped his lectures on The Constitution he warned: 1/8

“stay away from higher education and [its] secular progressive bias.” He gives neither examples of bias nor reasons people should stay away from higher education. That betrays his own bias. A meme he re-posted on 10/28 goes…

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Added by Mark Small on October 29, 2023 at 9:17pm — No Comments

Thoughts & prayers & other bullshit...

A mass shooting occurred this week. People can shake their heads, say “thoughts & prayers” or other bullshit, and go back to bragging about the imitation phalluses they brandish. After all, they remind us: “Guns made this country free!” That, too, is bullshit. 1/6

Factors in the victory over the British: colonies’ alliance w/France, debt the British had incurred in the years prior to and during the revolution, distance between England and the colonies, and the colonists’…

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Added by Mark Small on October 28, 2023 at 2:58pm — No Comments

Beckwith shouldn't lie about the truth!

Micah Beckwith [FN1] posted a photo of Aldous Huxley w/3 paragraphs and a mention of “Tyler Durden.” Beckwith asserts “the left deliberately spreads false information based on feelings.” Beckwith’s posts have an emetic [FN2] effect, so grab a bucket. The post is classic “Becky.” 1/6

1: He asserts w/o specific citation to authorities. He can disavow parts when convenient or claim the whole thing as his.

2: He lies w/o concern for facts. He does this in a post about facts as “the…

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Added by Mark Small on October 28, 2023 at 10:54am — No Comments

Break out your "thoughts & prayers" + thank the most corrupt SCOTUS in history!

Latest from Lewiston, Maine: 20 people died when one of those “lone gunmen” went nuts w/an assault style weapon. We all should be thankful for the NRA bribing public officials on a scale sufficient to ensure at least two other shooters did not cut loose in other places. 1/7

In post-Citizens United America, the NRA does not have to waste its valuable resources & stuff cash into public officials’ pockets. SCOTUS Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sets a great example of efficient…

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Added by Mark Small on October 26, 2023 at 6:52am — No Comments

Beckwith's ignorance knows no limits

Gosh golly! Micah Beckwith [FN1] on FB posted a photo of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presides over trump’s prosecution on charges related to his attempt to subvert the 2020 election [FN2] and said trump “‘does not have the right to say what he pleases.’” 1/11

CNN reports Her Honor’s limited gag order bars trump from making public statements “about witnesses who might testify against him, as well as prosecutors and court staff.” trump still can campaign. Beckwith says “we…

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Added by Mark Small on October 20, 2023 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Beckwith cited a headline from an op-ed that pushes violence

I erred in my 10/15 blog. I wrote Hamilton County preacher Micah Beckwith [FN1] posted “a photo & article, purportedly from a right wing website w/a headline: ‘Leftists Want the Same Massacre Here,’ i.e., Hamas & Israel.” A 10/12/23 op-ed used the photo &the headline 1/10

cited by Beckwith. It was written by Kurt Schlicther [FN2] a Townhall.com Senior columnist, as well as an L.A. trial lawyer, and retired army infantry colonel. [FN3] The op-ed is sick: “our foreign and…

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Added by Mark Small on October 17, 2023 at 6:18pm — No Comments

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