I think evil is addictive. It can start with anger, harsh words and small misrepresentations. There is a rush from saying hateful things and getting away with it. (On the Internet non-famous people can say almost anything and get away with it.) However, to maintain the rush, the rhetoric has to ratchet up and the lies get bigger. Birthers have lied so often that they are unable to even recognize the truth.
We’ve seen birthers escalating over the years, both in their obscene language towards their opponents, their homoerotic fetishes and their violent language. What they say about their opponents pales in comparison to what they say about President Obama and his family. Now they are about as depraved as they can get without graduating from verbal to physical violence.
Case in point is Nathan M. Bickel, writing for his misnamed “Moral Matters” blog in a March 26 article: “US Congress Members Qualify for Execution: Their Criminal Support for Treasonous Criminal ID Fraud Obama,” sporting images of a noose and gallows with accompanying text:
How shall public executions take place for various US Congress members who aided and abetted criminal ID (felony) fraud aka Obama? Will each state hold state capital public hangings for US Congress Members who were informed about aka Obama’s criminality and who failed to act according to their Constitutional oaths of office?
Such imagery and rhetoric is not acceptable in civilized society.
Ironically, the article is headed by a text from the Bible:
“A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.” – Proverbs 19.5
put there by a member of the party of liars and character assassins, the birthers. Bickel says that he is a former Lutheran pastor, but even to his his very conservative branch of Lutheranism, such lies are not acceptable. Here’s an image from Bickel denying the power of Christ to change lives:
I left the following comment at Moral Matters:
I condemn you for bringing into disrepute your church and the Name of Jesus Christ by spreading lies and slander about Barack Obama and specifically a wholly baseless conspiracy theory about fake IDs. I further condemn you for bringing into disrepute your church and the Name of Jesus Christ by your bloodthirsty and murderous imagery in regards to the execution of members of Congress.
Such depraved conduct has no place in civil society, much less coming from someone who describes himself as Lutheran pastor.
I pray for your repentance.
My wish for all Birfers is this: that they live long enough to become wise enough to become ashamed of themselves.
And to see Barack Obama take a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. Preferably the one in the middle.
“Posted by: Pastor emeritus Nathan M. Bickel”. I believe that’s his blog.
This is his twitter: https://twitter.com/TheChristianMsg
I’ll post his linked in in a next comment so I don’t get hung up in moderation.
Nathan Bickel’s linkedin thingy. Note is sez “Websites
The Christian Message
Moralmatters
:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nathan-bickel/4b/38a/a53
Martha’s an embittered, self-righteous harpy, who uses religion to cloak her deluded hatred in a halo of biblical kookiness. Somewhere, at sometime, a man done did her wrong, and she’s never gotten over it–hence her pathological obsession to prove Obama’s father was really Malcolm X.
I see that Matha Trowbridge agreed in the comments though:
” Martha Trowbridge says:
March 27, 2014 at 12:12 am
That Fort Smith Arkansas may be a lovely setting for Bill + Hil, yes?”
At what point do the deranged see license in the rantings of these depraved souls?
Scary to think about.
Is there a state where hanging is still an acceptable form of punishment? I thought we did away with that over a century ago. I find it interesting though that birthers usually mention hanging when it comes to Obama considering its racial connotation.
Corrected, and added to the Birthers A to Z list.
Perhaps the reason that these folk fantasize about how Obama and/or the New World Order or whatever is the conspiracy de jour these days are going to be chopping off heads and staging public executions is that they know that if they were in power, that’s what they’d do. They imagine Obama wants to be dictator because they despise the democratic process.
After all, the electorate twice elected Mr. Obama, so they clearly don’t know what’s good for them. Which explains why some of these Tea Party types are producing “The US is not a democracy” memes.
There is a free eBook over at Amazon titled The Obama Blogs by Robert Sherwood. It opens with; “America is not a democracy, it is a republic,” going on to decry the way we elect our presidents — too much like a democracy.
Run on sentence in the original.
Looks like Washington State………………
http://www.doc.wa.gov/offenderinfo/capitalpunishment/
And New Hampshire where a recent move to abolish the death penalty failed by one vote………….
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new-hampshire/2014/04/17/new-hampshire-death-penalty-repeal-fails-vote/ZaKJZd1LKxK3FTV2QYfAZI/story.html
If the Cold Case Posse was a real law enforcement organization (which it isn’t, but for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that it is) and Zullo was a real cop and Arpaio really cared about his credibility as the Sheriff of Maricopa County, wouldn’t they have second thoughts before they considered an effort to cozy up to a bunch of crazy, delusional misfits and seditionists found at BR? Shocking!
Birthers are getting the most horrible fate imaginable…well at least to them. Ignored by anyone who “matters” to them, and Obama continuing to be President, despite their best efforts. Now I do see a rope or two swinging in the near future, but that’ll be the few birthers who took it all way too personal, and can’t bear to live with their failure.
Bickel’s masterpiece is the written equivalent of picking your nose and eating it in front of other people — it’s repulsive and whether the gross-out-factor is on purpose or not doesn’t really matter.
If I remember correctly, ★FALCON★ was accusing Martha of being too kooky. (All the Birther infighting is blurring together).
Yeah, I “heart” those folks a lot. They say US is a Republic not a Democracy and then try to edumacate us all on that. They never go anywhere near a dictionary to figure out what those two words mean.
They don’t have even the beginning of a clue that the US is both, not one or the other, and won’t listen to anyone about it. It is just too close to what make them what they are, I guess.
It appears that Bickel graduated from Concordia Seminary, the Missouri Synod Lutheran school (see also: butterdezillion).
“Such imagery and rhetoric is not acceptable in civilized society.”
It’s unfortunate that there might even be a question about it.
I left this comment on Bickel’s article (in moderation):
Very nice post, Doc. It goes to the heart of what’s been troubling me most about the whole birther/RWNJ syndrome.
And that Bickel piece is really something. As I read through it, I got the sense that he was working himself up to an orgasm. Another quote worthy of mention from his piece: “Will the US Military declare a national holiday so that Americans can refrain from work, order their pizzas and sub sandwiches while they make a day of, it glued to their favorite TV Networks TV?”
It’s not just public bloodletting he wants; it’s a military coup of the U.S.A. And fancying a good couch-sitting, with pizza, and with faux news to enjoy the sight of it all….
Bickel identifies himself as a “pastor emeritus” but he doesn’t identify what church gave him this title. In fact, Bickel never identifies where he served, other than to say he spent the duration of his ministry at a “rural mid-Michigan congregation.” Moreover, he never provides an actual, concrete name when he lists his current volunteer activities and past employment. This seems pretty fishy to me . . . almost as if he’s trying to hide something, eh?
Can the Lutheran church defrock this man…..assuming that hasn’t happened already?
“A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.” – Proverbs 19.5
——-
לֹא ת’שָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כּ’י לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהֹוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר י’שָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא
Translation: You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.
Genesis, chapter 20, line 7.
Three, apparently: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution
Interestingly, the one not mentioned earlier is Delaware.
—
Whoops. Sorry about that. I mean Exodus, chapter 20, line 7
Speaking of total depravity, there’s birther Alabama Supreme Court Judge, Roy Moore.
“In comments earlier this year only now coming to light, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court asserted that the First Amendment only applies to Christianity since neither Buddha nor Mohammed created man.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alabama-chief-justice-christianity
Having spent some time in Alabama, I’m happy every day that I don’t have to live there.
The LCMS is not terribly centralized, and if the fellow is no longer a serving pastor, there’s not a great deal they can do about him. Church governance structures and all that.
Those who try to argue “The US is not a democracy” are invariably guilty of defining “democracy” in such a way that there is not a single democracy on the face of the planet. Which would mean that the statement was a truism on one level and also completely erroneous (not to say ridiculous) on another. Often the do this by failing to understand how the English language works; another sign, incidentally, of a conspiracy mindset.
Do I feel another removal from office coming up? And again it’s not Obama’s! 😉
It’s also funny to watch them yammer when a judge strikes down a public vote to not allow gay marriage as unconstitutional, arguing how such a ruling is “against the will of the people”. Which again proves that their claims do a 180 whenever it suits them (if the majority agrees with them but it’s unconstitutional, “will of the people”; if the majority disagrees with them, “we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic”).
I’m not quite sure how Donald Trump’s “we’re not a democracy” tweets on election night fall into place. Either he meant that majority rule should not make the black guy President or he meant that all of a sudden the Electoral College system was a bad thing (that was when it looked like Obama won the EC while losing the popular vote).
Though it may not seem at all possible, birthers continue to get more shrill, hateful and irrational, an obvious consequence of prolonged frustration over their utter lack of success on all fronts. The lesson learned, of course, is that one can’t make something true that isn’t. Unfortunately, this lesson is completely lost on these sad and pathetic souls.
I don’t think Bickel has a church, does he? He’s no more a pastor than I am. Actually, I’m an ordained minister with a certificate to prove it. High and Mighty Roly-Poly Church of the Near Insane.
Also, Bickel is the most boring individual I’ve ever heard on radio. Good lord, that man is boring.
The infighting yesterday on Birther Report was terrible. I had to slow my car down and stick my head way out the window to see all the wreckage as I drove past.
10 DAYS UNTIL THE BIG OBOT MEETUP IN PHILADELPHIA
If you haven’t signed up and can make it for a nice weekend with about 35 of your fellow Obots, send me a PM on Fogbow for full details. We’re expecting higher numbers than Operation American Spring, so you know.
The other lesson is that Peak Birfer (and Peak Wingnut) are illusory; there is literally no end to this madness.
Hey! Me too… High and Mighty Roly-Poly Church of the Near Insane, Compact of 1953 or High and Mighty Roly-Poly Church of the Near Insane, Compact of 1981?
I agree that evil can be addictive. One of the characteristics of an addiction is that an addicted person has to continually increase the “dose” of the behavior by doing it more often and in larger quantities in order to get the same rush from it. This fake Christian’s disgusting execution fantasy is evidence of that. Another characteristic is that the addict will never, ever satiate his/her appetite for the behavior.* The implication of this is that we will see something worse from birthers in the future as they continue their quest to fulfill their delusional fantasies. And another characteristic of an addiction is that, even though addicts have not been able to satiate their appetite for the addictive behavior in the past, they nonetheless believes that, if they can do it one more time, they will finally get what they want out of it. It’s the equivalent of the birther ‘any day now.’
*The key to giving up an addiction is to learn to live with the unsatisfied appetite.
SPLITTERS!
😀
Doc can you ask Mrs. C to check her Facebook Mail? Thanks.
Done.
I came across Bickel a year or two ago. I never did understand what his deal is, but he seemed to have an issue with the church. Go figure, he doesn’t seem to get along with others.
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/sp-schroeder-to-pastor-nathan-bickel.html
You nailed it. You can tell from the ambiguous nature of his convoluted work history that he’s an odd apple. Of course, most birthers can’t get along with others, so he’s in good company.
That Lutheran ichabod blog is an interesting read, even for for an agnostic. Infighting similar to the Bundy ranch (wo the guns). Poor Doc. I dare not to say “keep the Faith”.
It looks like Bickel’s Wisconsin Synod, which for the uninitiated is to the right of the Missouri Synod.
Birther report has a new article up: “Pastor Eric Philpot says that usurper Obama is an illegitimate president.”
I left this comment:
Philpot is a birther and a truther. The video came via Rudy Davis, who was in attendance and provided copies of Mike Zullo’s affidavit for everybody. Philpot has been a guest on Rev. Manning’s big show as well. Philpot is a well-rounded crackpot.
How does anybody know anything about this case?!
I know obama was asked to provide his birf certificate,
but all anybody got was dots on computer screen!!!
depraved!!
Most people do not expect to have a two-night stand of quick sex, partying and doing drugs one day and then a few years later seeing the person they went down on, speaking at the Democratic National Convention on television. However, that is exactly what happened to me.
Just under five years later, after performing oral sex on Barack Obama twice and engaging in cocaine use with the man, I ended up staring at him on national television, on air in Mexico of all places. Democrats always said Republicans did this sort of thing. Well, I am a lifelong Democrat and faggot, and it was Barack Obama, the Democrats rising young star that, less than five years earlier, had is dick and nut sack in my mouth, not once, but twice in two days.
— Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair – Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder?
by Lawrence W. Sinclair
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to demonstrate so clearly what Doc is talking about.
What’s interesting is not why obama would lie so much: it’s the power, stupid!
What’s interesting is why Kevin Davidson sold out his integrity so cheaply.
Larry Sinclair is a known liar. He’s a felon with multiple aliases, including: Lari, Ashaiti, Avila, Larye, La Rye, Vizcarra, Adams, Larri, Silvis, Mohammed, Gahanan, Fatha, Vizcuaua, Vizgua, Lawrence, Wayne, Larry, Sinclair/Sinclaire.
He’s currently begging for donations to fight his latest legal battle in Colorado.
In other words, typical birfer hero.
Thinking is a good place to start. You might want to try it.
Obviously you weren’t in the White House briefing room when reporters were shown the certified copy from Hawaii…………
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/05/be-sealed/
For the other 315-million Americans who weren’t available or couldn’t fit in the press room all we’re left with is the “dots on (a) computer screen”.
On top of all that there’s the State of Hawaii which certifies that Mr. Obama was born there and that’s all in their records. You might want to read the following:
http://health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords/faq-obama/
Let us know if we can help with any other questions you may have.
Larry Sinclair convicted criminal, con artist and delusional birther hero. How about those multiple lie detector tests that Larry Sinclair failed miserably? He never was able to prove he was ever in the same town as Obama at the same time let alone anywhere near him. The man is a scammer.
What is it with birthers and their obsession with gay sex?
Obama is heterosexual, of course, but I’m having trouble finding the clause in the Constitution which says that homosexuals aren’t eligible to be President.
Or Muslims, for that matter… but they re obsessed with spreading that fiction as well.
Their flailing grows increasingly desperate and increasingly hilarious. The last few days at BR have been especially entertaining. I may or may not have lent them a hand in that particular online improv act.
Perhaps their theory is that, if you’re “born unnatural” (and every good Christian God-fearin’ Murrican just knows, fer sure, that gays are “unnatural”), you can’t be “natural born”…
I submit that we’ll definitely know we’ve passed Peak Birther when they start claiming that Obama is ineligible because his mother had a C-section.
Who paid? And how much?
Aw poor baby, must be a lot of work to be so darn mad. No one cares about a pretend book by a discredited, known liar.
Two term president, elected twice by large majorities. 🙂
Keep coming back, CC. It keeps getting harder to find Birfoons laughably clueless enough to be entertaining.
I’ve been thinking about that.
In some species of frogs, if there’s no girl frogs around, one of the boy frogs will transform into a girl frog. This also happens to a certain degree in prisons.
What I’m saying is, since the Birfers have stopped dropping by to take their drubbings, maybe one of us should transform into a Birfer, so the others will have someone to knock around, for practice.
That happens to Clownfish as well. If the Female fish dies, the head fish remaining will transform into a girl fish. There is alwasy just one girl fish in a colony.
When you realize that, the whole story of “Finding Nemo” takes on a whole new terrifying meaning. Rather than going off to rescue his son and be this story of tender love by a father for his son, the father fish is chasing after Nemo to… SERVE AS HIS FUTURE MATE in order to repopulate their colony!!! AAAAGH!!!
I’ll give it a shot…”Obummer can’t be eligible because, I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM! There!”
How’d I do?
Your argument was succinct, honest and spelled correctly. Call yourself a Birfer, do you?
I ANULL MY VOTE FR 0BAMA BECAUSE IT WAS SOLICITED UNDER FALSE PRETENCES!!!!!
You must not have been over to the Birther Report recently. I think half of them are pretending to be Birthers.
I know…that’s what got me kicked out of BR! 😆
Anybody here read the Larry Sinclair book?
If someone doesn’t have an opinion on Kenya or the LFBC PDF but believes Larry Sinclair’s story about gay sex and drug use with obama, would they still be called a “birther” or have you got another name for that?
If obama admits he’s gay or bi, will you folks be proud of him?
Just wondering.
Sick comes quickly to mind.
It’s always good to be honest.
Why?
If Sinclair admits he’s a mentally unstable seditionist, and not to be trusted, would you still believe his bullpucky?
I’d certainly commend him for coming out, yes. 🙂
(In fact, lying about one’s sexual orientation is, IMO, the most acceptable lie from a politician ever, given how medieval a lot of Americans still are about such things. I wonder why you never obsess over somebody’s favourite colour or pop singer like that. Is it an impeachable offense to deny you like Justin Bieber?)
Firing squad at dawn if you ask me. On the other hand why waste the ammo?
I’m not a fan of Joss Stone either, but I seem to keep getting her shoved down my throat lately. Is it too late to organize a double hanging?
It wouldn’t affect my opinion of him, to be quite honest. I don’t care about a President’s personal life, so much as the job they’re doing.
Wait until you see MY new book, detailing how Conspiracy Commerce raped and barbequed Mexican toddlers for years with his friend Newt Gingrich.
Compelling reading, I tells ya.
Hey, you better not be competing with MY new book, which details how it was Hillary who had the affair with Monica Lewinsky and Bill took the heat to cover up the fact his wife is a lezbo. And I know becasue they indulged in foursomes with me and Liberace.
And I bet that stained dress was a forgery made in Kenya!
“Sexual Orientation Obsessive” comes to mind.
Why would I not be proud of someone who is gay or bi? Why should I care?
P.S. I capitalized the President’s last name for you. That probably drives you crazy.
Gay or bi? What is this, the 1950s? While it may come as a surprise to the fossils of birtherstan, being gay or bi doesn’t carry the stigma that it once did.
An illiterate bigot can’t comprehend something that simple.
Remember, according to the bible, being gay is on par with eating shellfish. I see people eating shellfish – right out in the open! – all the time. Shellfish-eaters even have parades and bacchanalian celebrations, and no one seems to mind too much.
A man lying with another man doesn’t seem so bad to me. But eating some poor, defenseless little Dungeness crab? That’s murder. Tasty, tasty murder.
Here is something for you to think about – every history book from this day forward will list Barack Hussein Obama II as the 44th President of the United States. From now until the end of time, he will be known as the 44th President of the United States. Forever. And nothing you do or say will ever change that.
Or having tattoos.
🙂
I’d rate about 75% of the tattoos I’ve seen as abominations.
Here’s a puzzler:
Why is it that the least intellectually curious people, those most inclined to reject empirical facts, are the ones most likely to keep using the phrases “just curious,” or “just wondering,” or “just asking questions?”
Why it’s almost as though they’re being deliberately dishonest!
Really? It doesn’t make any difference to me…however, if you’re wanting the President to ask you out on a date or something I think he’s already taken. If you’re really interested in dating a gay black man, I’m sure there’s some out there that might be interested in you. You might try here http://www.gayebonydating.com/
I have never met a group more interested in a black man’s sexuality than the birthers. Maybe they ought to shoot a little lower than the President for their first black gay lover.
Birthers do seem obsessive when it comes to sex and Obama- and of course his family.
Not only do they create fantasies about Obama, but his mother and father are also included in their sexual fantasies.
Sick, sick, sick.
Thinking some more on it- ‘gay’ is just another one of the many scarey words used to defame Obama
gay
commie
muslim
kenyan
affirmative action
community activist
Anything to avoid just saying “don’t vote for him- he is black”
Can someone please explain to me how “community activist/organizer” is a bad thing? I’ve seen examples of the negative connotations attached to everything else on that list, the last one baffles me.
Let’s just say the neighborhoods these people (and you, and I) grew up in neither had nor needed “community organizers.” It’s a new dog-whistle for “black.” Or for the word they want to say, but only say among themselves.
It’s cannibalism if you’re a “Crustacean.” Just ask Mr. Krabs.
I had Mr. Krabs over for dinner just the other day. With fava beans and a nice chianti…
Yes. Yes I can.
A cabal of far right wingers, including I believe Karl Rove and Roger Ailes, seems to have thought long and hard about controlling the debate by controlling definitions and terms since Reagan’s day.
I’m sure they promulgated the widespread use of “Democrat Party.” I also think they’re behind the besmirching of the good and decent word “public” and have used their media to gradually substitute “social programs” and the like. You know— if it’s done for the public, it is actually socialism.
And “entitlements;” what is worse sounding than ‘entitlement?’ “Big Government has entitled a faceless, undeserving horde to pick your pocket, Joe Six-Pack!” Never mind that in the case of Social Security and Medicare you’re damn right we’re entitled to it, because we paid in to it all our lives.
“Public” is also thrust against “private” to their ends. Do you want your information made “public” or do you want it to be private? Private good. Public bad. Like secondary schooling, doncha know.
Back to the topic, the term “community organizer” as an epithet is quite rich: It calls up both “communist” and “organized labor.” Evil incarnate. With just a pinch of anti-semitism for flavor, if you’re old enough to recall that the Jews were once blamed for the ‘scourges’ of communism and trade-unionism. And today, of course, “community” means “urban” equals “ghetto” and therefore “black” (or brown, same difference).
This isn’t academic, and it isn’t funny. They’re very very smart people, and they have read 1984 like it was a how-to manual.
Chicago is pretty bloody disorganized considering who passed through to community-organize it.
But seriously folks, has anyone read Larry Sinclair’s book?
You missed one of their most successful misnomers: death tax.
Sure I will, Larry, as soon as you actually pass a lie detector test, and your lawyer puts on a pair of pants.
And birthers wonder why people laugh at them…
—-
Nice summary, Thomas. I’d add Lee Atwater, who had a lot of influence on Ailes and Rove. And of course, there’s Frank Luntz. Here is a nice blurb I think you’ll like, found on Wikipedia re Luntz:
“In a January 9, 2007, interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Luntz redefined the term “Orwellian” in a positive sense, saying that if one reads Orwell’s Essay On Language (presumably referring to Politics and the English Language), “To be ‘Orwellian’ is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening… and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever.”
I think you’re old enough to remember the early days of the civil rights movement in the south. The terms then were “uppity” and “agitator”. The dynamic hasn’t changed…..just some of the words.
Other than you? Not many would be my guess.
Hah, what an Orwellenian remark!
No. I prefer fiction that has some aspect of believably to it.
Given that Larry Sinclair is a confirmed liar, a convicted criminal, that he failed a polygraph test regarding his allegations about the President, and that he can provides no proof or even witness testimony to support his allegations, can you give anyone any reason to entertain his stories? Given that life is short and there are millions of books to read, can you give anyone any reason why they should read this book, instead of another?
Not me (I value my time), but I have read this:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11164.html
Immediately following the farcical “press conference” referred to in this article, the known criminal Sinclair was arrested by US Marshals.
Wow, who wouldn’t trust a real American who used the patriotic alias “Larye Vizcarra Avila” and “Mohammed Gahanan.” TO AMAZON!!
Clipped from the Politico article linked above:
Public records and court filings reveal that he has a 27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit. The record includes forgery charges in two states, one of which drew Sinclair a 16-year jail sentence. The Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office also has an outstanding warrant for Sinclair’s arrest for forging an acquaintance’s signature and stealing her tax refunds.
. . .
His story has generally been ignored by the mainstream media, because he’s been unable to substantiate his allegations.
. . .
In prison, according to state records filed in federal court, Sinclair was disciplined 97 times for infractions including assault, threats, drug possession, intimidation, and verbal abuse, most recently in 1996.
. . .
…the website Whitehouse.com reportedly offered Sinclair $100,000 if he could pass a polygraph test verifying his claims. He took them up on it, and the site said in a press release that the polygraph organizers said his results “indicated deception.”
. . .
But seriously, CC… this is the guy you admire, and whose word you believe? It it just birds of a feather, or a man-crush, or what?
I see Sinclair’s lawyer is that fine upstanding citizen and ex-attorney, Sibley!
What conclusions do we draw about a man from the company he keeps……
In this case I think we can conclude that both parties are idiots.
—-
Exactly! Downright poetic expression of Luntz’s “genius”.