By MICHELLE R. SMITH and RICHARD LARDNER
October 7, 2022
[/url][url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://apnews.com/article/reawaken-america-tour-michael-flynn-910e83b515185751be82868b227ca22e]

BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) — By the time the red, white and blue-colored microphone had been switched off, the crowd of 3,000 had listened to hours of invective and grievance.

“We’re under warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.” Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn, the tour’s biggest draw, invited people to be baptized.

Scores of people walked out of the speakers’ tent to three large metal tubs filled with water. While praise music played in the background, one conference-goer after another stepped in. Pastors then lowered them under the surface, welcoming them into their movement in the name of Jesus Christ. One woman wore a T-shirt that read “Army of God.”

Flynn warned the crowd that they were in the midst of a “spiritual war” and a “political war” and urged people to get involved.
ReAwaken America was launched by Flynn, a former White House national security adviser, and Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark a few months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Attendees and speakers still insist — against all evidence and dozens of court rulings — that Donald Trump rightfully won.

Since early last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party.

In the version of America laid out at the ReAwaken tour, Christianity should be at the center of American life and institutions. Instead, it’s under attack, and attendees need to fight to restore the nation’s Christian roots. It’s a message repeated over and over at ReAwaken — one that upends the constitutional ideal of a pluralist democracy. But it’s a message that is taking hold.

A poll by the University of Maryland conducted in May found that 61% of Republicans support declaring the U.S. to be a Christian nation.



“Christian nationalism, really undermines and attacks foundational values in American democracy. And that is a promise of religious freedoms for all,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, which advocates for religious freedom.
She said the ReAwaken cause is “a partisan political cause, and the cause here is to spread misinformation, to perpetuate the big lie and to have a different result next time in the next election.”

ReAwaken acts as a petri dish for Christian nationalism and pushes the idea that there’s a battle underway between good and evil forces. Those who are considered evil include government officials and Democrats.

It’s “a pep rally on spiritual steroids” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan, who studies evangelicalism.


ReAwaken often appears in churches with speakers addressing attendees from the pulpit. The Batavia show was staged on the grounds of a church, after faith and community leaders in nearby Rochester told organizers they weren’t welcome.

Inside a revival tent set up outside, people sat in white folding chairs packed so tightly the rows between were nearly impassable. From the stage, speakers stirred up fear and hatred. Immigrants are rushing over the border “to take your place,” one said. Homosexuals and pedophiles are classified in the same category: sinful people who don’t honor God. Life-saving vaccines are creating “a damn genocide.” “The enemy wants to muzzle you,” another speaker warned. “He wants to shut your mouth.”

Clark, the Tour’s principal organizer and emcee, opened the Batavia show bellowing: “Good morning, New York! And good morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James!” The greeting was a reference to a letter James’ sent to Flynn and Clark warning them against violent or unlawful conduct.

“I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly,” he said. “At this Reawaken America Tour, Jesus is King (and) President Donald J. Trump is our president.”


The AP and Frontline bought tickets for the Batavia event after Clark invited “Frontline” to attend one of the tour’s shows. Reporters spent two days listening to speakers and observing the events from inside. On the second day, security escorted a “Frontline” reporter from the grounds because, he was told, Flynn believed he intended to cover the event unfavorably. When an AP reporter began interviewing people attending the event at the end of the second day, she was also reported to security.

While smaller in scale, the ReAwaken shows are similar in tone to the rallies Trump holds. Grievance and contempt for government institutions are regular themes. ReAwaken speakers have included Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has spread anti-vaccine misinformation.

For a tour stop scheduled later this month in Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is listed as a speaker.

In Batavia, Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor, and Eric Trump declared in back-to-back remarks that the FBI’s court-authorized search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified records showed how the U.S. government has been weaponized against its citizens.



“Third world Gestapo stuff,” said Eric Trump. After he finished speaking, a group gathered to pray over him.
Other speakers promoted bizarre theories. One claimed President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 because he threatened to expose a plot to enslave every man, woman and child in the U.S. Another said a Hebrew prophet foretold 2,500 years ago the exact date the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion.

More at the AP.

I don't know where to put this, but here is my first post in this thread. Katie Darling is running against House GOP powerhouse Steve Scalise in a strong-R district. Even if she loses she makes some points: 





She wins only in a monumental landslide for Democrats. I like her for challenging the smug reaction of Louisiana and other Southern Republicans.

What are some of your thoughts on parenting? Do you have kids? Do you want kids?

How would you approach the topic of border security and whom you let into the country?

Italy's new right wing leader has taken international news by storm over the past few weeks. Love her or hate her, she is a firebrand personality bound to spark strong opinions on either side of the fence. What are your thoughts on her?

"Mississippi, God damn!" -- Nina Simone.

Quote:JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Years before people in Jackson were recently left without running water for several days, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves claimed to have helped block money to fund water system repairs in the capital city.

Reeves, a Republican, blames Jackson’s water crisis on mismanagement at the city level. The city’s latest water troubles are far from its first, and they have stemmed from decaying infrastructure beyond one water treatment plant. The EPA said 300 boil water notices have been issued over the past two years in the city.

As Reeves climbed Mississippi’s political ladder, he cited his opposition to financially helping the capital as evidence of his fiscal conservatism. Jackson-area lawmakers say the troubled water system is one example of Jackson’s status as a political punching bag for Republican officials, who control the Legislature and the state Bond Commission.


“We operate under the golden rule here,” said Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson. “And the golden rule is: He who has the gold makes the rules.”

In Jackson, 80% of residents are Black, and 25% live in poverty. Repeated breakdowns made it unsafe for people to drink from their tap, brush their teeth and wash their dishes without boiling the water first. At a September news conference, Reeves said water service was restored to most of the city only after the state “stepped in” to provide emergency repairs. He also said that he didn’t anticipate a need for the Legislature to approve more debt for Jackson’s water system.

The specter of another weather-induced water stoppage looms large for some Jackson residents. “Winter is coming,” said Brooke Floyd, a local activist. “He’s saying it’s fixed. But it’s not fixed.”
Water service was also cut off in parts of the city due to a winter storm in 2010. By June 2011, Reeves was locked in a Republican primary campaign for lieutenant governor. As the tea party movement thrust government spending to the center of political debate, his opponent lambasted him for signing off on bond debt increases.

With election day just weeks away, Reeves — who was the state treasurer — appeared on a conservative talk radio show to push his track record as a tightfisted “watchdog” over state legislators eager to borrow. The host, Paul Gallo, wanted to know why Reeves had voted to approve most bond projects as a member of the state Bond Commission. His voting record didn’t tell the whole story, Reeves said. For instance, take the millions in bonds the city had requested to repair its crumbling water and sewer infrastructure.

“I’ve never voted against that because it’s never gotten to the Bond Commission. We are talking to the city of Jackson,” Reeves said. “If we are not comfortable, we never bring it up for a vote.”

The Bond Commission decided not to consider issuing bonds for Jackson water projects that had been authorized by the Legislature, Reeves said.

“Let’s just say there is an economic development in a town that doesn’t have a lot of political power,” Gallo responded. “The Bond Commission can just refuse to take it up? ... Isn’t that the same thing as a negative vote?”

Quote:KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin paved the way Tuesday to annex more of Ukraine and escalate the war by claiming that residents of a large swath overwhelmingly supported joining with Russia in stage-managed referendums the U.S. and its Western allies have dismissed as illegitimate.

Pro-Moscow officials said all four occupied regions of Ukraine voted to join Russia. According to Russia-installed election officials, 93% of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87% in the Kherson region, 98% in the Luhansk region and 99% in Donetsk. Possibly explaining the lower favorable vote in Kherson is that Russian authorities there have faced a strong Ukrainian underground resistance movement whose members have killed Moscow-appointed officials and threatened those who considered voting.

In a remark that appeared to rule out negotiations, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council by video from Kyiv that Russia’s attempts to annex Ukrainian territory will mean “there is nothing to talk about with this president of Russia.”

I hope that I don't seem to toot my own horn, but 10,000 posts (granted, they are terribly and probably infamously uneven in quality, and I hardly claim to be better reading than anything on even the fringe of the literary canon. Then again, Mike Royko is no longer around. I can only imagine how he, as a Ukrainian-American, would skewer Vladimir Putin. He is one of my models as a writer.

Here's my first, really a discussion of the theory as it applies to life (Yawn!):

Quote:People who went through the Great Depression and the Second World War (meaning generations before Boomers) often came to recognize that strong beliefs themselves could be dangerous. The fascists really believed in what they did -- even their mass murders, pseudo-medical experiments, and of course racial supremacy. Communists certainly believed strongly in the 'need ' for world (Socialist) revolution. People who believed nothing strongly would not drift too far from the American Dream circa 1950 -- doing one's job, getting well paid for it, and finding meaning in life solely in material gain and indulgence. Even family life was predicated upon uncritical acceptance of unfulfilling jobs that put food on the table and a car in the garage.

Boomers took this all for granted and saw the faults. Not knowing the Crisis of 1940 they could be more reckless in their views of the world.

Quote:Economic inequality typically intensifies during a 3T. The culture becomes more attuned to the idea that top-down economic growth (often known as "trickle-down") succeeds in creating wealth that the culture deems unsuited for criticism for ethical failures. Immigration (employers preferring to get labor on the cheap love to import workers) rises during a 3T, and the part that goes into employment depresses wages. Social cohesion and institutional trust weaken except in Big Business.

So what happens? Business promotes debased culture because such is profitable. Labor unions weaken. Education becomes vocational in focus. Hustles flourish, and toward the end of the 3T a bubble economy develops. The bubble devours capital, depressing investment in plant and equipment while feeding a speculative boom. In the Double-Zero decade as well as the 1920s the bubble was real estate.

"The Good Lord isn't making any more real estate" becomes a rationale for pricing real estate into the stratosphere. But anything can be priced into the realm of absurdity. The last buyer gets stuck with something supremely costly but suddenly worth far less. Stock market crashes as severe as those of 1929 and 2008 ensue.

Quote:When all is said and done, I think that the Obama and Eisenhower Presidencies are going to look like good analogues. Both Presidents are chilly rationalists. Both respect legal precedents more than they trust legislation and the transitory will of the people in states. Both are practically scandal-free administrations. Both started with a troublesome war that both found their way out of. Neither did much to 'grow' the strength of their Parties in either House of Congress. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama won only one state that Eisenhower lost in either 1952 or 1956 (North Carolina); in 2012 he did not win any state that Dwight Eisenhower ever lost. This is amazing in view of the partisan identities of the two Presidents.

It may be premature, but I expect historians to hold Eisenhower and Obama similar in quality.

Despite the great differences in curriculae vitae, Eisenhower and Obama seem to have something very much in common: both are members of Reactive generations. 60-ish Reactives (George Washington, John Adams, Grover Cleveland, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower) may be the best sorts of leaders that Reactive leaders can be: cautious, mellow, respectful of precedent, and more trusting in legality than in the contemporary passion. Even if Barack Obama is one of the youngest Presidents ever elected and won't reach or surpass 60 as President (barring an amendment to undo the 22nd Amendment) he seems to act like someone in his sixties.

(The worst Reactive leaders are amoral, angry, cynical, bigoted leaders with an agenda of seeking revenge against real and imagined personal enemies -- like Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong, puppets of tyrannical leaders such as Vidkun Quisling and Mátyás Rákosi, and such brutal functionaries of tyrants as Andrei Vishinsky and  Lavrenti Beria). When all is said and done, I think that the Obama and Eisenhower Presidencies are going to look like good analogues. Both Presidents are chilly rationalists. Both respect legal precedents more than they trust legislation and the transitory will of the people in states. Both are practically scandal-free administrations. Both started with a troublesome war that both found their way out of. Neither did much to 'grow' the strength of their Parties in either House of Congress.

The definitive moderate Republican may have been Dwight Eisenhower, and I have heard plenty of Democrats praise the Eisenhower Presidency. He went along with Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregationist practices, stayed clear of the McCarthy bandwagon, and let McCarthy implode.


 
gray -- did not vote in 1952 or 1956
white -- Eisenhower twice, Obama twice
deep blue -- Republican all four elections
light blue -- Republican all but 2008 (I assume that greater Omaha went for Ike twice)
light green -- Eisenhower once, Stevenson once, Obama never
dark green -- Stevenson twice, Obama never
pink -- Stevenson twice, Obama once

No state voted Democratic all four times, so no state is in deep red.

(This site uses the very old red for Democrats and blue for Republicans... I do not make waves about that in that website).

To be sure, one would expect any winning President to win almost entirely states that FDR won in 1936 (all then voting except Vermont and Maine), that Nixon won in 1972 (all but Massachusetts), or Reagan won in 1980 (all but Minnesota).  But the overlay between Obama and Eisenhower fits far better includes all four such states that FDR, Nixon, and Reagan won in nearly-complete wins of the entire USA. As another coincidence, Eisenhower was the first Republican to win Virginia since 1928 (24 years) and Obama was the first Democrat to win the Old Dominion since 1964 (44 years) -- and both won the state twice.   


Now, Carter vs. Obama:

If anyone has any doubt that the Presidential Election of 1976 is ancient history for all practical purposes:

Carter 1976, Obama 2008/2012    



Carter 1976, Obama twice  red
Carter 1976, Obama once pink
Carter 1976, Obama never yellow
Ford 1976, Obama twice white
Ford 1976, Obama once light blue
Ford 1976, Obama never blue

....As you can see, Carter lost a raft of states (among them California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine) that Democratic nominees for President have not lost after 1988, and some states (Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Mexico) that Democrats have not LOST in Presidential wins. On the other side, Carter was the last Democrat to win Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, or Texas. Barring a major realignment of the states in partisan identity or an electoral blowout, Republicans are unlikely to win more than a state or two in white and Democrats are unlikely to win more than a state or two in yellow for the next couple of decades..

World War I and Prohibition, 3T:

The Birth of a Nation
Intolerance
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Kid
Nosferatu
The Gold Rush
The General
The Jazz Singer
Metropolis
The Passion of Joan of Arc

Great Depression and World War II, 4T:

City Lights
King Kong
It Happened One Night
Gone With the Wind
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
Double Indemnity

American High, 1T:

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
All About Eve
Sunset Boulevard
Singin' in the Rain
On the Waterfront
Rear Window
The Searchers
12 Angry Men
Psycho
Lawrence of Arabia

Consciousness Revolution, 2T:

2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
The Godfather
Chinatown
Jaws
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Taxi Driver
Star Wars trilogy
Apocalypse Now
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Culture Wars and Long Boom, 3T:

Back to the Future
Do the Right Thing
Goodfellas
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Mulholland Drive
Brokeback Mountain

Millennial Crisis, 4T:

The Dark Knight
The Social Network
The Wolf of Wall Street
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
La La Land
Moonlight
Get Out
Parasite
Dune

Here's a catch-all thread for Japan, a leader in economics, technology, and culture. Discussions of a recent assassination belong in another thread which involves a Korean cult.