Christian and Bridget with their now-former friend Why am I unsurprised? The woman who led an ultra-conservative movement against education in Florida, seeking to put gays back in the closet, turns out to have been engaged in a long-term, three-way lesbian relationship with a lover she shared with her husband, the state’s GOP chairman. The crusading co-founder of Moms For Liberty - who demand private Fundamentalist Christian school-style mores in public schools, from grades K-12 - now faces the ultimate public scrutiny of her sex life.
I wish I could muster enough surprise to feel as strongly as you seem to, Karen.
from where I sit, a yawn feels like a more appropriate response because this has become such an old story with these folks. even their kinkiness seems so small-time and boring. it all reminds me of a weekend I spent in a cousin's bungalow in a sordid little bungalow colony in Mount Freedom, NJ in 1959 or so. everybody seemed to operating on the very thinnest edge of civilized behavior because back then, weekend adultery seemed like the go-to strategy for making life a little more interesting.
I get what you’re saying David. This is nothing new with these mendacious hypocrites. And I don’t give a rats ass what their sexual escapades are. It’s the Mom’s for Liberty crap banning books, and “don’t say gay”, while they enjoy their ménage a trios. It’s the hypocrisy that makes me want to throw up. And of course as you say, these people have always been this way. It just seems more dangerous now as they work to take away our freedoms and destroy democracy. And then there is the new Speaker of the House. Mr Christian Nationalist enjoying the porn monitoring app with his son. Ok I’ll stop here.
Exactly. They would like to pass laws to make it illegal for others to do things they do and enjoy themselves. Just another day for conservative Floridians.
It’s always these repressed Republican hypocrites caught with their figurative and actual pants down. And then comes a weeping ask for christian forgiveness.
Yay! My home city made the national news! </snark>. Christian Ziegler pushed the Sarasota County Commission to put a citizen's referendum on the ballot to make the Commission seats at-large seats, rather than by district. He figured the suburban votes would sweep it to victory. It was defeated! He tried again, this time with a special election, counting on low turnout to get the win, and it was defeated again! He chose to not run for re-election after that.
Bridget has been a piece of work on the School Board, so much so that even other conservatives on the board have turned against her, even before this story broke. Our public schools here are some of the best in Florida, and the parents here are pretty involved, usually, except they went to sleep during the last school board election, which is how Bridget got her seat. Nobody is sleeping now.
The next public school board meeting, needless to say, will be must-see TV.
Well, Rick Wilson being a fifth generation Floridiot knows where these folks live, play and. well.. It is a well needed laugh, but the damage they have done is enough to make one scream.
Makes me gag, on the laugh-scream. What leaps out, though, is the proliferation in two short years of 300 Moms for Liberty chapters in 48 states. That is terrifying.
This scandal merely shows just how cynical is the membership of the GOP, to use such emotionally laden issues to stir up public outrage, while secretly practicing a lifestyle that they explicitly condemn. How they can look at themselves in the mirror every day is a mystery.
It's not a mystery at all how these " 'Christian conservative' in public, super kinky in private" Republicans look at themselves in the mirror and sleep (with various companions of various sexual persuasions) at night. They are all amoral, cynical, sociopathic opportunists.
I also think they make no association whatsoever between their own lifestyle and behavior in their private lives, and what they stoutly trumpet, and attempt to impose on others, in public. I think they view their public political stances and 'moral' outrage as just that: stances that are purely marketing, designed to manipulate the voting/buying public to give them more power, influence, and opportunities to grift by choosing their political 'product'--themselves or their party or their doctrine--as opposed to that of other, competing political actors. In other words, for Republicans, not only is money speech, but all political exchanges are nothing but 'free' market economic transactions, in which they feel free to say and do whatever, to gain advantage for themselves in the political marketplace.
Democrats, at least the Democratic party, still see politics as a sincere and moral endeavor. They appear not to have tumbled yet to the fact that these days, *all* Republicans have completely detached from any notion that getting elected to any office and creating a governing majority in Congress or any state or town has anything whatsoever to do with public service, or morality, or truth. Donald Trump has spent his campaign, his four years desecrating the office, and every second since relentlessly disconnecting the Republican party from service, morality, and truth. That is his greatest crime, even greater than his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and fraudulently remain in office.
And I think Republicans are probably either confused or outraged to be called hypocrites for the contrast between their private behavior and their public pronouncements. They have thoroughly internalized their own bullshit rationalization that "everybody's doing it." They actually believe that's true. So when Trump bloviates at a rally about "the corrupt Biden crime family"--a slur that doesn't fit the Bidens but exactly describes The Donald and his own clan--one of the things he's doing is acting like a highly dysfunctional "parent" publicly modeling for his "children", "Hey kids, watch how Daddy deals with his massive sucking insecurity wound and his inadmissable knowledge that he is a lying, grifting, heartless cheater and a loser! Watch Daddy take all his ugly feelings, dump them all on the nearest scapegoat, and emerge feeling powerful and blameless! Watch me and do like I do."
What would psychiatrists call it when a malignant narcissist feeds his own insecurity by recruiting a huge group of admiring and similarly emotionally damaged followers, and proselytizing his own twisted methods for turning sucking insecurity into triumph so effectively that the insanity of one man becomes a mass psychosis? I think we have to recognize that in his deeply twisted way, Donald Trump is a hugely effective teacher. He teaches his followers his personal methods for pushing all feelings of their own loser-hood onto demonized scapegoats. He makes them feel like awesome, morally righteous winners, justified in vanquishing his/their opponents, who are "vermin" only because they have been made to carry the projected sins and shortcomings Trump and his supporters cannot bear to acknowledge in themselves. He has turned them all into addicts of the drug of projection. His supporters stay on the drug because without a steady supply, the self-awareness of withdrawal is too painfully ugly. This is how a maniacal totalitarian leader is capable of taking over a country--unless a critical mass of people see through his Svengali bullshit and organize nationwide to call him to account for his crimes, and to disconnect the totalitarian from political power by legitimately electing his opponent and making it stick. We succeeded in doing that in 2020. We have to do it again in 2024.
the closest thing to what you're talking about is no longer officially used by psychiatrists, but from psychoanalytic theory, especially of the Kleinian School (Melanie Klein was the dominant presence in British psychoanalysis). the term is "projective identification."
now it MIGHT be the case that projective identification specifically occurs in the context of a dyadic relationship, but I'm not sure why that would have to be the case.
fuck it, let's call it "projective identification" so we can feel a little smarter for five minutes.
Ah, innocent as in not making the connection. I don't think they think there is any connection to be made. I honestly think they view their public statements and positions to have a purely marketing function, completely disconnected from reality, truth, morality, or integrity. The older ones are choosing that disconnection consciously. I bet some of the younger ones are too young to realize they should ever have been connected in the first place. I'd be fascinated to see them squirm and stutter or bloviate and distract, if some press person collared a series of them at a Repub gathering, and asked them to define the words "integrity" and "shame".
As Josef Goebbels said “Accuse the other side of that of which you are guilty.” Not surprising at all…for today’s GOP and the clientele it attracts. Why do you think trump is running as a Republican and not as a Democratic candidate?
The R's even have a Goebbels vers. 2.0 (Stephen Miller) who has great ideas for Trump Administration II, including detention camps on the border for all undocumented immigrants. Where have we seen this movie before?
The Zieglers would like some privacy at this time of the sad personal loss of their dirty little secret. And please keep the media accounts of this away from the kiddies because it may make them point and laugh at adult authority.
“It’s all projection” yes it is Tom. But what’s truly astonishing is that the hypocrisy and self dealing is no longer hidden. It’s all an open secret, cosplay in full display, while lying in our faces and gaslighting us all. The GOP “glitterati” have no shame. Instead they have arrogance and naked power which they wield mercilessly. Meanwhile rich conservatives keep flooding into Florida, driving up housing costs and rigging the system in their favor. The tragedy unfolds.
So the saying goes: “All judgement is self judgement”. Well at least that’s what I learned in a “self help awareness” workshop once upon a time. Seems to fit.
If the couple in question were the Bidens, I would say that since they don't care about what I do in my bedroom, I don't care what they do in theirs. But these people claim the right to control your and my personal life. And that is why they deserve every possible condemnation, every joke and embarrassment at their expense, and our disgust.
And I think we should claim this is why DeathSantis wears high heels.
I love the reference to Carl Hiassen! I've read several of his books and am working my way through the "Skink" series. He's hilarious! I loved "Squeeze Me"!
Whew. Fun. I always like what you do with facts and hypocracy. It feels like Terry Southern is writing the script for MAGA theater. All of it is so unbelievably mad.
And this makes me want to laugh my head off, but the hypocrisy makes me want to throw up 🤷♂️
I wish I could muster enough surprise to feel as strongly as you seem to, Karen.
from where I sit, a yawn feels like a more appropriate response because this has become such an old story with these folks. even their kinkiness seems so small-time and boring. it all reminds me of a weekend I spent in a cousin's bungalow in a sordid little bungalow colony in Mount Freedom, NJ in 1959 or so. everybody seemed to operating on the very thinnest edge of civilized behavior because back then, weekend adultery seemed like the go-to strategy for making life a little more interesting.
I get what you’re saying David. This is nothing new with these mendacious hypocrites. And I don’t give a rats ass what their sexual escapades are. It’s the Mom’s for Liberty crap banning books, and “don’t say gay”, while they enjoy their ménage a trios. It’s the hypocrisy that makes me want to throw up. And of course as you say, these people have always been this way. It just seems more dangerous now as they work to take away our freedoms and destroy democracy. And then there is the new Speaker of the House. Mr Christian Nationalist enjoying the porn monitoring app with his son. Ok I’ll stop here.
Exactly. They would like to pass laws to make it illegal for others to do things they do and enjoy themselves. Just another day for conservative Floridians.
It’s always these repressed Republican hypocrites caught with their figurative and actual pants down. And then comes a weeping ask for christian forgiveness.
Now THAT would make me gag.
Yay! My home city made the national news! </snark>. Christian Ziegler pushed the Sarasota County Commission to put a citizen's referendum on the ballot to make the Commission seats at-large seats, rather than by district. He figured the suburban votes would sweep it to victory. It was defeated! He tried again, this time with a special election, counting on low turnout to get the win, and it was defeated again! He chose to not run for re-election after that.
Bridget has been a piece of work on the School Board, so much so that even other conservatives on the board have turned against her, even before this story broke. Our public schools here are some of the best in Florida, and the parents here are pretty involved, usually, except they went to sleep during the last school board election, which is how Bridget got her seat. Nobody is sleeping now.
The next public school board meeting, needless to say, will be must-see TV.
Thanks for the local insights, Andrew!
Well, Rick Wilson being a fifth generation Floridiot knows where these folks live, play and. well.. It is a well needed laugh, but the damage they have done is enough to make one scream.
well yeah, there is THAT.
Makes me gag, on the laugh-scream. What leaps out, though, is the proliferation in two short years of 300 Moms for Liberty chapters in 48 states. That is terrifying.
Indeed!
Follow the $$$. Over 2 mill from 2 anonymous megadonors…
https://apnews.com/article/moms-for-liberty-donors-revenue-gop-schools-70d733e024d81f7ad054b0f321e67647
One wonders if one of these "anonymous megadonors" might not be the same POS who funds Clarence Thomas' fab vacations?
Hmm... Now, I wonder...
This scandal merely shows just how cynical is the membership of the GOP, to use such emotionally laden issues to stir up public outrage, while secretly practicing a lifestyle that they explicitly condemn. How they can look at themselves in the mirror every day is a mystery.
It's not a mystery at all how these " 'Christian conservative' in public, super kinky in private" Republicans look at themselves in the mirror and sleep (with various companions of various sexual persuasions) at night. They are all amoral, cynical, sociopathic opportunists.
I also think they make no association whatsoever between their own lifestyle and behavior in their private lives, and what they stoutly trumpet, and attempt to impose on others, in public. I think they view their public political stances and 'moral' outrage as just that: stances that are purely marketing, designed to manipulate the voting/buying public to give them more power, influence, and opportunities to grift by choosing their political 'product'--themselves or their party or their doctrine--as opposed to that of other, competing political actors. In other words, for Republicans, not only is money speech, but all political exchanges are nothing but 'free' market economic transactions, in which they feel free to say and do whatever, to gain advantage for themselves in the political marketplace.
Democrats, at least the Democratic party, still see politics as a sincere and moral endeavor. They appear not to have tumbled yet to the fact that these days, *all* Republicans have completely detached from any notion that getting elected to any office and creating a governing majority in Congress or any state or town has anything whatsoever to do with public service, or morality, or truth. Donald Trump has spent his campaign, his four years desecrating the office, and every second since relentlessly disconnecting the Republican party from service, morality, and truth. That is his greatest crime, even greater than his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and fraudulently remain in office.
Yes to all.
And I think Republicans are probably either confused or outraged to be called hypocrites for the contrast between their private behavior and their public pronouncements. They have thoroughly internalized their own bullshit rationalization that "everybody's doing it." They actually believe that's true. So when Trump bloviates at a rally about "the corrupt Biden crime family"--a slur that doesn't fit the Bidens but exactly describes The Donald and his own clan--one of the things he's doing is acting like a highly dysfunctional "parent" publicly modeling for his "children", "Hey kids, watch how Daddy deals with his massive sucking insecurity wound and his inadmissable knowledge that he is a lying, grifting, heartless cheater and a loser! Watch Daddy take all his ugly feelings, dump them all on the nearest scapegoat, and emerge feeling powerful and blameless! Watch me and do like I do."
What would psychiatrists call it when a malignant narcissist feeds his own insecurity by recruiting a huge group of admiring and similarly emotionally damaged followers, and proselytizing his own twisted methods for turning sucking insecurity into triumph so effectively that the insanity of one man becomes a mass psychosis? I think we have to recognize that in his deeply twisted way, Donald Trump is a hugely effective teacher. He teaches his followers his personal methods for pushing all feelings of their own loser-hood onto demonized scapegoats. He makes them feel like awesome, morally righteous winners, justified in vanquishing his/their opponents, who are "vermin" only because they have been made to carry the projected sins and shortcomings Trump and his supporters cannot bear to acknowledge in themselves. He has turned them all into addicts of the drug of projection. His supporters stay on the drug because without a steady supply, the self-awareness of withdrawal is too painfully ugly. This is how a maniacal totalitarian leader is capable of taking over a country--unless a critical mass of people see through his Svengali bullshit and organize nationwide to call him to account for his crimes, and to disconnect the totalitarian from political power by legitimately electing his opponent and making it stick. We succeeded in doing that in 2020. We have to do it again in 2024.
the closest thing to what you're talking about is no longer officially used by psychiatrists, but from psychoanalytic theory, especially of the Kleinian School (Melanie Klein was the dominant presence in British psychoanalysis). the term is "projective identification."
now it MIGHT be the case that projective identification specifically occurs in the context of a dyadic relationship, but I'm not sure why that would have to be the case.
fuck it, let's call it "projective identification" so we can feel a little smarter for five minutes.
we deserve it!
:D
I'm not sure I can agree they're ALL that innocent. a few might be so unconscious they don't even SEE the obvious contradictions.
but christ, they sure can COMPARTMENTALIZE.
I certainly didn't intend to imply that any of them are innocent.
I meant innocent about the fact that their behavior contradicts their expressed "values."
Ah, innocent as in not making the connection. I don't think they think there is any connection to be made. I honestly think they view their public statements and positions to have a purely marketing function, completely disconnected from reality, truth, morality, or integrity. The older ones are choosing that disconnection consciously. I bet some of the younger ones are too young to realize they should ever have been connected in the first place. I'd be fascinated to see them squirm and stutter or bloviate and distract, if some press person collared a series of them at a Repub gathering, and asked them to define the words "integrity" and "shame".
that is certainly true.
As Josef Goebbels said “Accuse the other side of that of which you are guilty.” Not surprising at all…for today’s GOP and the clientele it attracts. Why do you think trump is running as a Republican and not as a Democratic candidate?
The R's even have a Goebbels vers. 2.0 (Stephen Miller) who has great ideas for Trump Administration II, including detention camps on the border for all undocumented immigrants. Where have we seen this movie before?
Goebbels no less..
The Zieglers would like some privacy at this time of the sad personal loss of their dirty little secret. And please keep the media accounts of this away from the kiddies because it may make them point and laugh at adult authority.
Well said!
“It’s all projection” yes it is Tom. But what’s truly astonishing is that the hypocrisy and self dealing is no longer hidden. It’s all an open secret, cosplay in full display, while lying in our faces and gaslighting us all. The GOP “glitterati” have no shame. Instead they have arrogance and naked power which they wield mercilessly. Meanwhile rich conservatives keep flooding into Florida, driving up housing costs and rigging the system in their favor. The tragedy unfolds.
So the saying goes: “All judgement is self judgement”. Well at least that’s what I learned in a “self help awareness” workshop once upon a time. Seems to fit.
Very interesting thought.
Holy moly, TC. I haven't laughed this much in a
long time. I've been waiting
for someone in Florida to
start peeling the rotten rind
off the GOP there.
Wonder how all those schoolboard mom and dads
are feeling about the hook,
line and sinker they've swallowed, as well as the
dimwitted Moms for Liberty.
Golly, what a conspiracy theory, or books, that would
make. The real story behind
Pizzagate. Secret Libraries
of MfL.
Our AG here in AR just trashed the ballot neasure
to secure reproductive freedom. He said he couldn't
understand that title, or the
language within that would
guarantee a female the right
to terminate a pregnancy
from conception up to 18
weeks of gestation. It went
on to determine the reasons
why. AR currently has a no
abortion, for any reason law.
90,000 signatures are required for each ballot.
It will be a very close time
limit to get this on the 24
ballot, but we're going to
give it another try, with very
simple language he might
understand.🙄
If the couple in question were the Bidens, I would say that since they don't care about what I do in my bedroom, I don't care what they do in theirs. But these people claim the right to control your and my personal life. And that is why they deserve every possible condemnation, every joke and embarrassment at their expense, and our disgust.
And I think we should claim this is why DeathSantis wears high heels.
TC, this sounds like a great movie pitch. What’s the ending?
Don't know right now, but I remember Carl Hiassen once saying that the facts in his novels weren't fiction.
I love the reference to Carl Hiassen! I've read several of his books and am working my way through the "Skink" series. He's hilarious! I loved "Squeeze Me"!
Squeeze Me was his best.
I really need a new Hiassen book for Christmas.
I see he has a "middle age" book out called "Wrecker." Time to introduce a grandson to Hiassen humor!
“Listen Maggie, what happens in Sarasota was supposed to stay in Sarasota; didn’t you get the memo?”
Whew. Fun. I always like what you do with facts and hypocracy. It feels like Terry Southern is writing the script for MAGA theater. All of it is so unbelievably mad.
Everything Trump touches...