Trump by name......

No, I think defining "mainstream" that way would be a circular argument. When I think "mainstream," I think "the typical standard, or typical example, and that which gets the most readership or listenership." Or something to that same effect. To put some rubber-meets-the-road perspective on that, my home state of Arizona, where I have lived half of my life, has gone to the Republican presidential candidate every time beginning in 1952, except once. Bill Clinton 1996 was the one exception. That's a record of 16-1 in favor of whoever is the Rep candidate in the last 64 calendar years. You would think, then, that this would be a white supremacist paradise -- yet I don't know of any white supremacists in this State who aren't in prison. At all. To be sure that I didn't sleep through some great event I did a Google search, and all I found is articles to the effect of: "Currently the KKK is not considered active in Arizona." And this despite all the national media attention over our border militia and former sheriff.

So, no, I do not consider white supremacists "mainstream" within the Republican Party. Of course they exist, but so do non-racist Republicans.

 

No, he doesn't. Sheriff Joe wasn't breaking the court order for racist reasons. He was breaking the court order because he disagreed with how to enforce laws. I am very aware that that distinction is lost on a lot of people, but their failure to see that distinction betrays their own bias.

To the first -- I absolutely believe people are saying that all Republicans are racist!!

To the second -- Pfftt, that's ridiculous. Does every bill get 100% support of either side? No. And do you not have friends who follow a "cafeteria" style of politics -- "I agree with this position but not with that position" ? I sure do. In point of fact, I think every single one of my friends disagrees with something in their political party. I admit that I disagree with some points of my party, and I always have.

 

And that, in part, is why it was incredibly stupid for Trump to call a convicted sheriff a great hero, or whatever his words were, and to hint that he's going to pardon Joe.

It was also incredibly stupid because Joe needs to fulfill his sentence. For 20 years he shouted loudly that crime does not pay, and "do the crime, do the time," and jail is not supposed to be fun or comfortable, and all that. For 20 years he purposefully made jail uncomfortable and un-fun specifically with the message "don't come back!!!" Pink underwear, pick outerwear, bologna sandwiches with stale bread, "tent city" in the summer -- it was all real, and it done for the specific and explicit lesson that you're not supposed to break the law. We even had billboards in Phoenix reminding us that if we ever break the law, we will go to jail, period, and we will hate it. "You don't like jail? Don't break the law," was the explicit message. It was in our face all the time.

And what'd he do? He broke the law.
I'm sorry, Joe, but you have to take your own medicine. You have to serve your time. Trump is wrong and he is a fool for suggesting otherwise.

I expect that my extremely politically-active Republican Black friend (my first aikido teacher, in fact) would deny that the Republican Party as an institution is racist, but allowing for something else to be inserted in its place -- yes, that's it exactly. You know, last fall, wasn't there a wide-spread gloom across the USA because a huge number of people disliked both Hillary and Trump, yet felt they had to vote for one or the other? That was cafeteria politics at its worst.

 

Do you really fear nuclear war?
I don't. And yes, I'm aware that North Korea is threatening to drop a missile off my coast line just to prove that it can, but, really -- I don't think for a minute that we're going to have a nuclear war. I have every confidence that the USA would obliterate North Korea from the map, and I have every confidence that whats-his-name the dictator does not want to die that way. End of fear. (shrug) Maybe I'll be proven wrong -- I live in the 5th largest city next to a major Air Force base, so I absolutely believe a bomb will land on top of me, so I will die if I'm wrong. But I just don't think it's going to happen. (shrug)

I heard half of it straight through. Dude is a terrible speaker. Terrible. Awful. The worst. He cannot communicate to save his life -- we are witnesses of that fact. It hurts to hear it over the radio.

But -- I love his confidence. He's failing, but he has so much confidence in himself that he keeps on going. Come on, I gotta respect that inner drive. Isn't that what we put on motivational posters? Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times but kept on going, and look what happened because he kept on going 10,000 times, right?