The Progressive Bubble

22 Comments for “The Progressive Bubble”

  1. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    A reality check: (1) Haley and her son were having lunch at a restaurant along the parade route, and was heckled by someone when she left the restaurant. (2) The number, identity, political leanings of the hecklers, and/or their connection with NYC Pride, if any, is unknown. (3) The “hateful words” described by Haley are not known, and may or may not have been related to LGBT issues.

    Gnosis is a wonderful thing, huh?

    The bottom line for me though, is that heckling politicians is as American as apple pie. Why is this whine important enough to turn into a controversy. Republicans seem to be shocked — shocked, I say — when everyone in sight doesn’t line up to kiss their ass.

  2. posted by Jorge on

    The bottom line for me though, is that heckling politicians is as American as apple pie.

    I wish I had remembered that when those liberal politicians took over my employee luncheon.

    As much as I like Haley and would like to see Trump angry at her treatment, I am forced to disagree in the strongest possible terms with her argument that the country is “better” than this.

    The same parade allowed Chelsea Manning, convicted of leaking military secrets to Wikileaks, to march. Weeks before, the Puerto Rican community was divided (and not evenly) over the prominent role given to convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

    Any condition that would serve to discourage Haley from being booed at a Pride parade would only serve quash any chance to make an important point about the moral cowardice that allows evil people to be worshiped at parades.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      As much as I like Haley and would like to see Trump angry at her treatment, I am forced to disagree in the strongest possible terms with her argument that the country is “better” than this.

      Well, you have to admit that something is terribly wrong when New Yorkers are allowed to act like New Yorkers — loud, opinionated, rude, obnoxious — and nothing is done about it.

      Where Nikki hails from, that kind of behavior would not be tolerated (the worst insult permitted in the deep South is “Why, bless your heart!”), and President Trump should do something about it.

      • posted by Jorge on

        I had not considered that. I feel a little bad for her now.

        I would think that most of the time when members of a Presidential administration who hail from the South visit the city, they would have some kind of advance team or local official meet them and show them around, and pretty much talk about the crowd here.

        A B-list member of a Republican administration attending a LGBT Pride March during a Democratic mayorality is probably not going to have such an escort.

      • posted by Tom Scharbach on

        A B-list member of a Republican administration attending a LGBT Pride March during a Democratic mayorality is probably not going to have such an escort.

        And what makes you think that Nikki was attending the parade? Her account has her eating lunch in the area where the parade was held, and being heckled by patrons as she left the premises.

        • posted by Jorge on

          I guess I misread that.

        • posted by Tom Scharbach on

          Haley twitted this on Sunday evening: “Nikki Haley @nikkihaley We, incl my son, were booed by patrons saying hateful things as we left lunch @ Pride Parade.Our country is better than this. #HateNeverWins 6:33 PM – 25 Jun 2017”

          I checked Haley’s Twitter feed this morning and nothing else was posted about the incident. As far as I know, (1) Haley has given no interviews, talked to no reporters, and issued no statements adding further information, and (2) no one else present at the incident (other members of her lunch group, the patrons mentioned in the twit, or anyone else) has added any further information.

          So, quite literally, the only thing we know about the incident is this statement: “We, incl[uding] my son, were booed by patrons saying hateful things as we left lunch @ Pride Parade.”

          From that meager account, the right-wing outrage machine has developed a story line that progressive gays and lesbians were responsible, and are using that story line to shame progressive gays and lesbians.

          I’d say that this is a case of the cart running away with the horse, unless the right-wing outrage machine has secret knowledge (gnosis) referred to in my earlier comment. It is all foolishness, in my opinion, and not worth the ink.

      • posted by Kosh III on

        “Where Nikki hails from, that kind of behavior would not be tolerated (the worst insult permitted in the deep South is “Why, bless your heart!”), ”

        Provided you are rich and white. If not, you might get a lot worse than that. I’ve lived here most of my life, I’ve seen heard a lot worse. I’ve had strangers say nigger to me just because they assume that because I’m white I’m a racist pos like they are.

        • posted by Tom Scharbach on

          I was being sarcastic, although I’ve heard “Why, bless your heart!” deployed with a venom that makes “F*ck you!” seem tame by comparison.

          I’ve not lived in the Deep South (except for a 3-month period in the summer of 1965, and on various Army bases during my six years in service), but I’m well aware of the ugliness.

        • posted by Tj 3rd on

          We like to project a midwest nice. In the upper Midwest, I had people assume that I was as racist as they were, too many times. Regionally, its often Very racist stuff about blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Arabs, native Indians.

  3. posted by Kosh III on

    Oooo, the poor little snowflake got her feelings hurt. Funny how she didn’t mind inflicting real harm as governor by fighting against equality. Now that she’s in a job where she can do nothing concrete beyond yammering a few platitudes she is somehow now an “ally.”
    Did she suggest anything beyond words about Chechnya? Of course not.
    “Lock her up!”

  4. posted by Wilberforce on

    These days, both sides are horrible. And there is simply nowhere to go. As usual, Republicans have used bait and switch, pretending to care about working class issues, immigrants taking American jobs and the rise of terrorism, in order to swap in supply side economics.
    Progressives, meanwhile, are in bed with large financial interests, doing pr for cheap immigrant labor and ignoring terrorist culture.
    They have totally gone off the deep end. It is a sad sad day for liberalism.

  5. posted by Lori Heine on

    It’s important for us to put on the big-kid pants and begin taking care of ourselves politically, instead of bootlicking for one party or another and letting ourselves get jerked around.

    Nikki Haley is a politician. She’s out for herself. They all are, regardless of which party they represent.

    IGF is bootlicking for the Republicans again. What a surprise.

    I will explain this latest attempt to manipulate “the community.” The GOP now realizes it can’t afford to simply write us off anymore. Thus, when some rude people heckle a Republican politician near a Pride parade–it spells OPPORTUNITY! The PR machine in each party is always churning.

    Conservatives can no longer convince most people that we’re all perverts who want to steal their children. So the latest effort is to show us “all” as deluded little leftist twits on the Democrat plantation. It probably has more to do with manipulating our straight allies than it does with influencing us.

    When we are to be told what to think, we come to political blogs. Like this one.

    Jerk us this way, jerk us that way…jerk-jerk-jerk.

    Most of the commenters here are smarter than that. The jerking around will never totally stop, but we’ll have at least somewhat less of it to put up with if we call the jerkers out on their BS.

    In my non-pixel life, everybody knows that I’m a feisty old lady who–when politics are brought up–will say things people don’t want to hear. This means that I hardly ever get bothered with political conversation anywhere but online. I love it. It has lowered my blood pressure and greatly enhanced my peace of mind.

  6. posted by Jim Michaud on

    I’m bemused at l’affair Nikki. Isn’t this the starboard side of politics acting like quite the “snowflakes” themselves? I mean really. A bunch of pushy, obnoxious and loud New Yorkers happened to boo Ms. Haley. Whoa! Stop the presses! Whiny victimhood isn’t one of the left wing’s better traits. And it’s a real stomach turner to see the right wing co-opt that.

    • posted by JohnInCA on

      “Co-opt”?

      It’s a human trait. Not left-wing, not right-wing. Just human. Pretending it’s a trait attached to any particular “wing” of humanity is just self-delusion.

      • posted by Jim Michaud on

        True, it’s a human trait. Mea culpa.

    • posted by Tj 3rd on

      Heck, I got heckled at a San Francisco pride event. Another reason to keep pride local. Granted, the first time was probably a homeless man. Yet, the second time was (i think) because I had a Amnesty International T-shirt.

  7. posted by TJ on

    1. Was this heckler working as an agent of the Pride committe or the “gay left”? or just some big city fellah with a gripe against politician?

    2. Civility and tact are worthy values. They get dumped – too often – because people see talk radio and tv talking heads and think, “oh, thats how debate works”. This presidential campaign certainly saw a quick erosion of these values.

  8. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    LGBT progressives are intent on turning allies who aren’t on the left into opponents so they can then rail against them even more.

    I don’t know Haley, I haven’t followed her career in any depth, and I have no idea if Stephen has information to back up his supposition, but underlying this observation is the assumption that Haley would turn on her “gay-supportive” political convictions about gays and lesbians — becoming an opponent rather than an ally — for no other reason than that she was heckled by a few individuals that she knew or perceived to be gay and lesbian.

    If Stephen’s supposition is right, Haley isn’t much of an ally, and certainly not an ally that anyone with a brain in their head should count on.

    The few Republican politicians that I count as “gay allies” — Ohio Senator Rob Portman comes to mind — are built of sterner stuff. Once they get it, they stick to it. If Stephen’s supposition is right, Haley may not only be a snowflake, but she may be a cream puff as well.

    Never count on a cream puff to have your back in a fight.

    • posted by Jorge on

      If it’s a small enough attack to bounce off without dealing much damage, then any kind of serious retaliation would reveal her to be a snowflake.

      If damage is dealt, however, so, too must retaliation. It then becomes incumbent upon the gay community to either repent or offer up a scapegoat, that they may avoid being justly caught in the crossfire.

      Although, since the gay community itself has a rather strong snowflake quality to it, I’d be very concerned about doing something that would draw any kind of retaliation. People seem to want the Trump President to mention gay Pride month and the Trump Secretary of Education to look for LGBT harassment or they’ll go into hives. There’s a price for such gestures, and it starts with some semblance of decent and logical behavior.

  9. posted by Tj 3rd on

    Meanwhile, a bill to prohibit housing discrimination was introduced in Congress……a good opportunity for members of both parties to work together….

  10. posted by TJ 3 on

    Meanwhile….the Trump Administration is going to allow openly transgender people to serve. This reform was started in the Obama Administration and it looks like the Trump Administration is going to continue the policy, albeit with a delay (which, may or or may not be a good thing).

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