Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,474
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,474
In 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned more than $500,000 as the chairman and top lawyer at Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization that he has helped build into a leading spreader of anti-vaccine falsehoods and a platform for launching his independent bid for the White House.
The compensation was almost three times as high as the amount paid to the organization’s president, but it was not Mr. Kennedy’s biggest source of income. Neither was his family’s fabled wealth. Instead, most of his earnings around the same time came from law firms — a total of $7 million for lending them his name, connections and expertise to sue major companies.
Throughout his long public life, Mr. Kennedy has cultivated an image as a man committed to a greater good, the blessing and burden of belonging to one of America’s most storied political families. Whether cleaning up rivers as an environmentalist or railing against the purported dangers of inoculations, he has said he is driven by his family’s legacy of civic duty and sacrifice.
He built his presidential run around similar themes, even as his cousin dismissed the campaign as a “vanity project” and other relatives disavowed his beliefs. On the trail, Mr. Kennedy has delivered a populist message of anti-corporate rhetoric and debunked science while invoking a powerful lineage: his uncles, former President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy, and his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,474
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,474
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
DES MOINES — Donald Trumpwas conspicuously absent at a conservative Christian forum here, where his long-shot rivals for the Republican presidential nomination were asked how they could be role models from the White House. The host brought up Trump’s insulting nicknames: “How do we raise the bar?” he asked.
The next day, Trump swooped into Iowa for his own event — where he lobbed insults, made crude references and casually tossed out baseless and false claims designed to belittle his opponents and critics in vicious terms. Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters “FJB,” an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: “F--- Biden.”
During his speech inside a high school gym in Fort Dodge, former president Trump called one GOP rival a “son of a b----,” referred to another as “birdbrain” and had the crowd shrieking with laughter at his comments on Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who he called “pencil neck” before asking, “How does he hold up that fat, ugly face?” He brought the house down while mocking Biden, at one point baselessly suggesting Biden is using drugs and can’t get offstage “by the time whatever it is he’s taken wears off.”
One of Trump’s introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature declared anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a “disrespectful little s---,” quickly drawing a roaring response. And outside the packed venue, vulgar slogans about Biden and Vice President Harris were splashed across T-shirts: “Biden Loves Minors.” “Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!” One referred to Biden and Harris performing sexual acts.
Trump’s coarseness and cruelty have come to define the Republican Party since his rise to the presidency — and many GOP voters relish and emulate the approach, while others tolerate it. The split-screen on display in Iowa on Friday and Saturday highlighted one of the defining dynamics in the Republican race, in which Trump is the dominant polling leader overshadowing a roster of candidates running more traditional campaigns.
Offered the chance to support other presidential hopefuls who champion similar agenda to Trump in a less abrasive package, Republicans are for now sticking with the former president — underscoring how his personality and shattering of behavioral norms have long been a major part of his appeal. Conservative evangelicals influential in Iowa — the first state in the GOP nominating calendar — have previously set aside some distaste for Trump’s personal behavior as he took up their causes, including appointing antiabortion judges to the Supreme Court, and next year’s caucuses will test whether anything has shifted.
Trump’s rhetoric has alienated voters across the political spectrum and made him a particularly galvanizing opponent for Democrats. Within the GOP, however, it has spread, with others down the ballot and even some of his rivals looking to replicate his shock tactics. Saturday afternoon’s event in Fort Dodge served as a stark illustration of the crudeness, meanness and unfounded accusations that he has helped normalize in politics.
T-shirts on sale at the event neatly summed up that appeal with images of Trump giving a middle finger. “Even my dog hates Biden!” one of the merchants yelled each time someone walked up to look.
The substance and tone of Trump’s event was typical for a candidate who shot to political power with shocking pronouncements, insulting tweets and breaches of basic etiquette that, to supporters, were proof of his pitch as an outsider rather than a standard politician. He gained a political following pushing false claims that the country’s first Black president was born in Africa, denigrated migrants from certain countries, gave cutting nicknames to his rivals and enemies and won despite a recording in which he bragged in crass terms about groping women.
At one point Saturday, Trump responded at length to lurid unsubstantiated claims about his sexual activity that were included in a dossier penned by former British spy Christopher Steele in 2016, saying his wife Melania immediately dismissed them as false because she knows he is a germaphobe.
Anticipating another general election matchup with Biden, Trump is criticizing Biden’s policies but also attacking him in highly personal terms as weak or “stupid.” On Saturday he suggested Biden is unimposing to the dictators Trump often compliments, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently met with Biden, is “strong like granite” and musing that Taliban leaders might not call Biden “your excellency,” as Trump says they once addressed him.
“Everything Donald Trump says is either projection or a reflection of his deep insecurities. The American people elected Joe Biden in 2020 and rejected the hateful, divisive extremism of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and they’ll do it again next November,” said Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa.
Campaigning for president again, Trump’s rhetoric has only escalated. Last weekend he likened his political enemies to “vermin,” drawing a backlash as historians noted that dictators including Adolf Hitler used similar language. On the trail, he regularly assails the prosecutors investigating him with more nicknames (“Letitia Peekaboo James,” which rhymes with a racist slur) and labels like “animal.” On special counsel Jack Smith: “You take a look at that face, you say, that guy is a sick man.”
“President Trump is a role model,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in response to criticisms of the former president’s rhetoric. “He’s showing how to completely dominate a primary and general election.”
Trump’s language has rubbed off on his supporters.
“Joe’s gotta go,” said Lori Carpenter, 59, as she left the Fort Dodge event. “And the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” The “ho” was Harris, she clarified, before offering another nickname for Harris that was even more vulgar.
“It doesn’t bother me,” she said of Trump’s insults and crudeness. Her relative, 71-year-old Marsha Crouthamel, agreed.
It doesn’t bother me either because his policies are strong,” she echoed, adding that Trump got a lot of laughs and added, “Sometimes you just gotta excite people a little bit.”
“We’re Christians, and we can look past that,” Carpenter said. “We see the good that he did our country when he was in.” Asked what she thought of GOP rivals arguing they could deliver Trump-like policies without the baggage, she said: “They’re weaker than him.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Damn just how vile of a POS human he is and how many deplorable’s support him is really stunning! Even after 2020 I thought ok maybe they’ll crawl back into their caves but low & behold they are even worse now!
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
The ‘faith-based’ leader for Philly’s Moms for Liberty chapter is a registered sex offender
Phillip Fisher Jr., a pastor and Republican ward leader who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms For Liberty chapter, pleaded guilty in 2012 to a charge of aggravated sexual abuse.
Phillip Fisher Jr., a Republican ward leader and pastor who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia's Moms For Liberty chapter, helps to run a mayoral townhall meeting in August.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
by Chris BrennanPublished Nov. 20, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
Phillip Fisher Jr. is a pastor and Republican ward leader who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms for Liberty chapter.
He’s also a registered sex offender, due to a 2012 felony conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy when Fisher was 25.
Fisher insists that he did nothing wrong, despite pleading guilty to one of 12 counts filed against him after an investigation by the Chicago Police Department, according to court records obtained by The Inquirer.
Fisher was living in Chicago at the time. But he’s from Philadelphia and has since returned and become active in local politics.
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He is the pastor at the Center of Universal Divinity in Olney and works with Moms for Liberty, a national conservative organization that bills itself as a defender of parental rights, by connecting the Philadelphia chapter with other local faith leaders in an effort to grow the group.
He said his conviction is the result of a “railroad job” concocted by the political action committee for Lyndon LaRouche, a fringe conspiracy theorist who ran repeatedly for president.
Fisher, who worked for LaRouche’s organization, called it “a cult” and said he was set up while trying to break free.
His criminal history came as a shock to Vince Fenerty, chair of Philadelphia’s Republican City Committee.
Fenerty said he was unaware of Fisher’s conviction until asked about it by The Inquirer last week. On Friday, he demanded and received Fisher’s resignation as leader of the 42nd Ward, which includes the neighborhoods of Olney, Feltonville, and Juniata Park.
A national spokesperson for Moms for Liberty did not respond to a request for comment about Fisher’s criminal history.
Sheila Armstrong, another Republican ward leader who chairs the local Moms for Liberty chapter, said she was also surprised. She said Fisher has been active in community outreach events with local and federal law enforcement, and she expressed concern that children were sometimes part of that.
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Armstrong was astounded to hear about Fisher’s criminal past because she had just received from the state Department of Human Services on Thursday a “child abuse history certification” in Fisher’s name so that he could volunteer for an upcoming Christmas Party for an autism nonprofit that she operates.
That certificate said “no records exist” in the state’s database listing Fisher “as a perpetrator of an indicated or founded report of child abuse.”
A DHS spokesperson, asked about the certificate, said “not all criminal convictions involving minors are considered child abuse,” under the state’s Child Protective Services Law.
Fisher is listed on Pennsylvania’s “Megan’s Law” website for registered sex offenders, maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police, in a file last updated in July. That includes some details about his conviction, annual photos he is required to submit, and his home address in Philadelphia.
Involvement in local and national Republican politics
Fisher has been an active participant in local and national politics in recent years.
For Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, he said he helped connect the group with other pastors, a rabbi, and an imam.
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”Given that I am a known and respected pastor throughout the city, I have ties with different religious organizations from Philadelphia to Lancaster,” Fisher told The Inquirer.
The national Moms for Liberty organization held a summit in Philadelphia this past summer, where denying transgender identity for children and removing books from school libraries were major themes.
The summit featured speeches from former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Armstrong, who was part of the planning committee, said Fisher was a volunteer at the summit.
Fisher has supported Trump’s campaigns; a 2020 report by WHYY included a mural in support of Trump that Fisher said was painted on an exterior wall of his church by children he worked with in his congregation.
He was a guest on 1210 WPHT last fall after campaigning with Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
And he helped organize and run a town hall meeting in August for David Oh’s Republican campaign for mayor in Philadelphia.
A criminal case in Chicago
Fisher, in two interviews with The Inquirer, confirmed the details of his criminal conviction.
He repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called his conviction “one blip” in his background. He blamed it all on a dispute about his trying to break away from the LaRouche organization, and said the 14-year-old boy and his parents were part of that group.
“It was a political situation that happened between me and Lyndon LaRouche,” Fisher said. “It was a member of his camp, his party, that made the accusation. They pushed it through. It was really a railroad job.”
Documents from the Cook County Clerk of Circuit Court show that a grand jury there indicted Fisher in January 2011 on 12 felony counts of sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Fisher waived his right to a jury trial 15 months later and was adjudicated guilty on one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor between the ages of 13 and 17.
The charging documents allege that Fisher had oral and anal sex with the 14-year-old boy in January 2011.
Those documents don’t say how Fisher met the 14-year-old, how the case came to the attention of law enforcement, or any defense Fisher offered in the case before pleading guilty.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and given credit for nearly 20 months he spent in jail waiting for his case to come to court, followed by two years of supervised release.
Fisher said he took the plea bargain to get out of the county jail, where he said he experienced violence from other prisoners.
“I actually broke down,” he said. “I said I’ll do whatever I have to do to get out of there.”
Fisher said he went to Illinois “through the LaRouche organization,” in a case of what he called human trafficking.
“At the time, I was the victim,” Phillips said. “What they did was basically trumped up charges to drown out the complaints that I was making on the issues of human rights.”
Two photos published on the website of the visual media company Getty Images corroborate that he worked with the LaRouche campaign, as they show Fisher protesting outside of a town hall meeting about health care at a Chicago church in August 2009 on behalf of LaRouche’s political action committee.
In the photos, Fisher held a large poster with a picture of then-President Barack Obama defaced to add a mustache like the one made infamous by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Fisher confirmed for The Inquirer that he is the person in those photos.
Fisher is registered on a sex offender list kept on a website maintained by the Illinois State Police, which includes his photograph and information that the victim in the case was 14 years old.
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
It's pretty sad how lackadaisically people are treating them and this moment.
It really is. And once again it is the GOP "leadership" that is failing us.
That Mike Lee fucker is pushing the bullshit "FBI inside job" shit related to January 6th. Fucking unreal.
How many FBI agents were dressed up as MAGA? How many FBI agents were provoking the crowd? Fucking unreal that you can't admit your own government had something to do with January 6th.
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
Damn just how vile of a POS human he is and how many deplorable’s support him is really stunning! Even after 2020 I thought ok maybe they’ll crawl back into their caves but low & behold they are even worse now!
Support for Trump is growing each and every day because your good ol' boy Biden can't help but fuck it up. You should be blaming the Democrats but instead you vilify Republicans.
I was arguing with some dipshit on TikTok yesterday about Jan 6th. It's just unbelievable.
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
Oh I don't know, arrest him?
Yeah that would have gone over real well...one security guard vs 50 insurrectionist morons
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
It's pretty sad how lackadaisically people are treating them and this moment.
It really is. And once again it is the GOP "leadership" that is failing us.
That Mike Lee fucker is pushing the bullshit "FBI inside job" shit related to January 6th. Fucking unreal.
How many FBI agents were dressed up as MAGA? How many FBI agents were provoking the crowd? Fucking unreal that you can't admit your own government had something to do with January 6th.
I don't know. How many? Do you have any.... you know... proof or examples?
And how exactly would undercover agents be a defense for the violence?
It's pretty sad how lackadaisically people are treating them and this moment.
It really is. And once again it is the GOP "leadership" that is failing us.
That Mike Lee fucker is pushing the bullshit "FBI inside job" shit related to January 6th. Fucking unreal.
How many FBI agents were dressed up as MAGA? How many FBI agents were provoking the crowd? Fucking unreal that you can't admit your own government had something to do with January 6th.
Show me proof that any undercover agents made the MAGA crowd go wild. I have been looking and believe me I would be easier to sway than most. Unfortunately those fools didn't need the help of any spooks. It's quite clear that had Trump not lied and incited the group to go march to congress that the whole thing would never have happened. Again if you have proof that the US government somehow made an already wild mob of people march on and storm the capitol, in order to make the guy that lost the election and his crazy supporters somehow look worse, please share with me.
Comments
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
How R.F.K. Jr. Has Turned His Public Crusades Into a Private Windfall
The causes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed have brought him admiration, criticism — and tens of millions of dollars.
By Susanne Craig
In 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned more than $500,000 as the chairman and top lawyer at Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization that he has helped build into a leading spreader of anti-vaccine falsehoods and a platform for launching his independent bid for the White House.
The compensation was almost three times as high as the amount paid to the organization’s president, but it was not Mr. Kennedy’s biggest source of income. Neither was his family’s fabled wealth. Instead, most of his earnings around the same time came from law firms — a total of $7 million for lending them his name, connections and expertise to sue major companies.
Throughout his long public life, Mr. Kennedy has cultivated an image as a man committed to a greater good, the blessing and burden of belonging to one of America’s most storied political families. Whether cleaning up rivers as an environmentalist or railing against the purported dangers of inoculations, he has said he is driven by his family’s legacy of civic duty and sacrifice.
He built his presidential run around similar themes, even as his cousin dismissed the campaign as a “vanity project” and other relatives disavowed his beliefs. On the trail, Mr. Kennedy has delivered a populist message of anti-corporate rhetoric and debunked science while invoking a powerful lineage: his uncles, former President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy, and his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
continues.....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
DES MOINES — Donald Trumpwas conspicuously absent at a conservative Christian forum here, where his long-shot rivals for the Republican presidential nomination were asked how they could be role models from the White House. The host brought up Trump’s insulting nicknames: “How do we raise the bar?” he asked.
The next day, Trump swooped into Iowa for his own event — where he lobbed insults, made crude references and casually tossed out baseless and false claims designed to belittle his opponents and critics in vicious terms. Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters “FJB,” an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: “F--- Biden.”
During his speech inside a high school gym in Fort Dodge, former president Trump called one GOP rival a “son of a b----,” referred to another as “birdbrain” and had the crowd shrieking with laughter at his comments on Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who he called “pencil neck” before asking, “How does he hold up that fat, ugly face?” He brought the house down while mocking Biden, at one point baselessly suggesting Biden is using drugs and can’t get offstage “by the time whatever it is he’s taken wears off.”
One of Trump’s introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature declared anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a “disrespectful little s---,” quickly drawing a roaring response. And outside the packed venue, vulgar slogans about Biden and Vice President Harris were splashed across T-shirts: “Biden Loves Minors.” “Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!” One referred to Biden and Harris performing sexual acts.
Trump’s coarseness and cruelty have come to define the Republican Party since his rise to the presidency — and many GOP voters relish and emulate the approach, while others tolerate it. The split-screen on display in Iowa on Friday and Saturday highlighted one of the defining dynamics in the Republican race, in which Trump is the dominant polling leader overshadowing a roster of candidates running more traditional campaigns.
Offered the chance to support other presidential hopefuls who champion similar agenda to Trump in a less abrasive package, Republicans are for now sticking with the former president — underscoring how his personality and shattering of behavioral norms have long been a major part of his appeal. Conservative evangelicals influential in Iowa — the first state in the GOP nominating calendar — have previously set aside some distaste for Trump’s personal behavior as he took up their causes, including appointing antiabortion judges to the Supreme Court, and next year’s caucuses will test whether anything has shifted.
Trump’s rhetoric has alienated voters across the political spectrum and made him a particularly galvanizing opponent for Democrats. Within the GOP, however, it has spread, with others down the ballot and even some of his rivals looking to replicate his shock tactics. Saturday afternoon’s event in Fort Dodge served as a stark illustration of the crudeness, meanness and unfounded accusations that he has helped normalize in politics.
T-shirts on sale at the event neatly summed up that appeal with images of Trump giving a middle finger. “Even my dog hates Biden!” one of the merchants yelled each time someone walked up to look.
The substance and tone of Trump’s event was typical for a candidate who shot to political power with shocking pronouncements, insulting tweets and breaches of basic etiquette that, to supporters, were proof of his pitch as an outsider rather than a standard politician. He gained a political following pushing false claims that the country’s first Black president was born in Africa, denigrated migrants from certain countries, gave cutting nicknames to his rivals and enemies and won despite a recording in which he bragged in crass terms about groping women.
At one point Saturday, Trump responded at length to lurid unsubstantiated claims about his sexual activity that were included in a dossier penned by former British spy Christopher Steele in 2016, saying his wife Melania immediately dismissed them as false because she knows he is a germaphobe.
Anticipating another general election matchup with Biden, Trump is criticizing Biden’s policies but also attacking him in highly personal terms as weak or “stupid.” On Saturday he suggested Biden is unimposing to the dictators Trump often compliments, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently met with Biden, is “strong like granite” and musing that Taliban leaders might not call Biden “your excellency,” as Trump says they once addressed him.
“Everything Donald Trump says is either projection or a reflection of his deep insecurities. The American people elected Joe Biden in 2020 and rejected the hateful, divisive extremism of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and they’ll do it again next November,” said Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa.
Campaigning for president again, Trump’s rhetoric has only escalated. Last weekend he likened his political enemies to “vermin,” drawing a backlash as historians noted that dictators including Adolf Hitler used similar language. On the trail, he regularly assails the prosecutors investigating him with more nicknames (“Letitia Peekaboo James,” which rhymes with a racist slur) and labels like “animal.” On special counsel Jack Smith: “You take a look at that face, you say, that guy is a sick man.”
“President Trump is a role model,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in response to criticisms of the former president’s rhetoric. “He’s showing how to completely dominate a primary and general election.”
Trump’s language has rubbed off on his supporters.
“Joe’s gotta go,” said Lori Carpenter, 59, as she left the Fort Dodge event. “And the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” The “ho” was Harris, she clarified, before offering another nickname for Harris that was even more vulgar.
“It doesn’t bother me,” she said of Trump’s insults and crudeness. Her relative, 71-year-old Marsha Crouthamel, agreed.
It doesn’t bother me either because his policies are strong,” she echoed, adding that Trump got a lot of laughs and added, “Sometimes you just gotta excite people a little bit.”
“We’re Christians, and we can look past that,” Carpenter said. “We see the good that he did our country when he was in.” Asked what she thought of GOP rivals arguing they could deliver Trump-like policies without the baggage, she said: “They’re weaker than him.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/11/19/donald-trump-insults-vulgarities-republicans/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
It's pretty sad how lackadaisically people are treating them and this moment.
That Mike Lee fucker is pushing the bullshit "FBI inside job" shit related to January 6th. Fucking unreal.
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
They just ignore the main videos of assaulting police, etc., and focus on some people calmly walking around the hallways. I remember seeing video of that viking/shaman moron in the house chamber I believe and the security guy was very calm just telling them to please not damage anything, etc. What the fuck else was he supposed to do?
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/moms-for-liberty-philadelphia-pastor-sex-offender-20231120.html
The ‘faith-based’ leader for Philly’s Moms for Liberty chapter is a registered sex offender
Phillip Fisher Jr., a pastor and Republican ward leader who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms For Liberty chapter, pleaded guilty in 2012 to a charge of aggravated sexual abuse.
by Chris BrennanPublished Nov. 20, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
Phillip Fisher Jr. is a pastor and Republican ward leader who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms for Liberty chapter.
He’s also a registered sex offender, due to a 2012 felony conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy when Fisher was 25.
Fisher insists that he did nothing wrong, despite pleading guilty to one of 12 counts filed against him after an investigation by the Chicago Police Department, according to court records obtained by The Inquirer.
Fisher was living in Chicago at the time. But he’s from Philadelphia and has since returned and become active in local politics.
He is the pastor at the Center of Universal Divinity in Olney and works with Moms for Liberty, a national conservative organization that bills itself as a defender of parental rights, by connecting the Philadelphia chapter with other local faith leaders in an effort to grow the group.
He said his conviction is the result of a “railroad job” concocted by the political action committee for Lyndon LaRouche, a fringe conspiracy theorist who ran repeatedly for president.
Fisher, who worked for LaRouche’s organization, called it “a cult” and said he was set up while trying to break free.
His criminal history came as a shock to Vince Fenerty, chair of Philadelphia’s Republican City Committee.
» READ MORE: Moms for Liberty: What it is and who’s behind the group
Fenerty said he was unaware of Fisher’s conviction until asked about it by The Inquirer last week. On Friday, he demanded and received Fisher’s resignation as leader of the 42nd Ward, which includes the neighborhoods of Olney, Feltonville, and Juniata Park.
A national spokesperson for Moms for Liberty did not respond to a request for comment about Fisher’s criminal history.
Sheila Armstrong, another Republican ward leader who chairs the local Moms for Liberty chapter, said she was also surprised. She said Fisher has been active in community outreach events with local and federal law enforcement, and she expressed concern that children were sometimes part of that.
Armstrong was astounded to hear about Fisher’s criminal past because she had just received from the state Department of Human Services on Thursday a “child abuse history certification” in Fisher’s name so that he could volunteer for an upcoming Christmas Party for an autism nonprofit that she operates.
That certificate said “no records exist” in the state’s database listing Fisher “as a perpetrator of an indicated or founded report of child abuse.”
A DHS spokesperson, asked about the certificate, said “not all criminal convictions involving minors are considered child abuse,” under the state’s Child Protective Services Law.
Fisher is listed on Pennsylvania’s “Megan’s Law” website for registered sex offenders, maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police, in a file last updated in July. That includes some details about his conviction, annual photos he is required to submit, and his home address in Philadelphia.
» READ MORE: Why Moms for Liberty was designated an ‘extremist’ group by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Involvement in local and national Republican politics
Fisher has been an active participant in local and national politics in recent years.
For Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, he said he helped connect the group with other pastors, a rabbi, and an imam.
”Given that I am a known and respected pastor throughout the city, I have ties with different religious organizations from Philadelphia to Lancaster,” Fisher told The Inquirer.
The national Moms for Liberty organization held a summit in Philadelphia this past summer, where denying transgender identity for children and removing books from school libraries were major themes.
The summit featured speeches from former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Armstrong, who was part of the planning committee, said Fisher was a volunteer at the summit.
Fisher has supported Trump’s campaigns; a 2020 report by WHYY included a mural in support of Trump that Fisher said was painted on an exterior wall of his church by children he worked with in his congregation.
He was a guest on 1210 WPHT last fall after campaigning with Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
And he helped organize and run a town hall meeting in August for David Oh’s Republican campaign for mayor in Philadelphia.
A criminal case in Chicago
Fisher, in two interviews with The Inquirer, confirmed the details of his criminal conviction.
He repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called his conviction “one blip” in his background. He blamed it all on a dispute about his trying to break away from the LaRouche organization, and said the 14-year-old boy and his parents were part of that group.
“It was a political situation that happened between me and Lyndon LaRouche,” Fisher said. “It was a member of his camp, his party, that made the accusation. They pushed it through. It was really a railroad job.”
Documents from the Cook County Clerk of Circuit Court show that a grand jury there indicted Fisher in January 2011 on 12 felony counts of sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Fisher waived his right to a jury trial 15 months later and was adjudicated guilty on one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor between the ages of 13 and 17.
The charging documents allege that Fisher had oral and anal sex with the 14-year-old boy in January 2011.
Those documents don’t say how Fisher met the 14-year-old, how the case came to the attention of law enforcement, or any defense Fisher offered in the case before pleading guilty.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and given credit for nearly 20 months he spent in jail waiting for his case to come to court, followed by two years of supervised release.
Fisher said he took the plea bargain to get out of the county jail, where he said he experienced violence from other prisoners.
“I actually broke down,” he said. “I said I’ll do whatever I have to do to get out of there.”
Fisher said he went to Illinois “through the LaRouche organization,” in a case of what he called human trafficking.
“At the time, I was the victim,” Phillips said. “What they did was basically trumped up charges to drown out the complaints that I was making on the issues of human rights.”
Two photos published on the website of the visual media company Getty Images corroborate that he worked with the LaRouche campaign, as they show Fisher protesting outside of a town hall meeting about health care at a Chicago church in August 2009 on behalf of LaRouche’s political action committee.
In the photos, Fisher held a large poster with a picture of then-President Barack Obama defaced to add a mustache like the one made infamous by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Fisher confirmed for The Inquirer that he is the person in those photos.
Fisher is registered on a sex offender list kept on a website maintained by the Illinois State Police, which includes his photograph and information that the victim in the case was 14 years old.
That information is also listed on the National Sex Offender Website maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice.
While Fisher’s background came as a shock to people who work with him, he noted that the information was always publicly available.
“I never went out of my way to hide anything,” he said. “I’m in the database. It’s an easy search.”
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Senate Chamber.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
And how exactly would undercover agents be a defense for the violence?
Keep embarrassing yourself by defending lies.
There are no kings inside the gates of eden