Irony Mike strikes again!
Two days after revealing that he spent the last three months raising $606,000 and has $1.4 million on hand to resist any challenge to his power, Senator Marion Michael Rounds tries to distract us from the repeated un-American statements of his Dear Leader by invoking bogeymen paid to resist:
Irony Mike joins the Trumpist slogan brawl here with words completely detached from what he and Donald Trump are actually doing wrong. Rounds invokes blind patriotism, suggesting that anyone who complains is somehow anti-apple pie and anti-chislic and thereby granting his followers indignant cover for ignoring the actual substance of any complaint. He then complains (ahem) about “radical nonsense” and “professional resisters” without giving concrete examples of either.
The real problem that our junior Senator ignores is that he’s committing the same rhetorical and moral sin as the current occupant of the White House: using his bully (ahem) pulpit to blanket-dismiss any criticism not with logic and evidence directed to policy statements but with hateful, marginalizing labels directed to fellow citizens, fellow elected representatives of the people who deserve far more respect than to be told simply to get out of the country.
Here is the fundamental difference between me (and Billie, and Alexandra, and Nancy) and Mike (and Donald, and John, and Mitch):
I believe with all my heart, not because I’m kissing up to anyone, that the words Mike is saying are irresponsible, vile, and wrong. He’s misusing language and his elected office to avoid honest debate and make excuses for a powerful, racist bully. Mike Rounds is the real radical, speaking nonsense, and getting paid by us while he resists good sense!
Yet I don’t tell him to leave South Dakota or America. I don’t play the exclusion card. Disgusting as I find his public sins, I recognize Mike is a South Dakotan and an American, just like me, and he has just as much right as I do to keep talking, no matter how dishonest or vile or wrong his political statements are. I’ll pile plenty of labels on Mike—hypocrite, sycophant, confabulist—but I’ll do so while paying close attention to his exact words and holding him accountable for his errors in those words.
Donald Trump shows his critics no such respect. Trump recklessly uses exclusion and loathing to protect himself from criticism… and Senator Rounds uses his thin Twitter patriotism to distract us from that unacceptable behavior.
We need a better President. Senator Rounds’s specious deflection on behalf of the current President shows we also need a better Senator.
There comes a point when one can no longer tiptoe around the pile of dogpoop in the middle of the carpet. Rounds has demonstrated that he does not recognize that such a point exists. He rolls in it, licks it, and spreads it on others, calling it candy.
In the midst of his incoherence, he totally missed the point…. Drumpf is 100%, wingnut owned RACYST!!! And then he lies about being racyst.
Boy, you can’t get much more cowardly than Smiley. I urge Rounds to read up on his Catholic social doctrine, especially the areas of social justice and opposing racism.
Marion doesn’t seem to know what “Racist” means. A true South Dakota value.
You can love something and still be critical of it. e.g. If every Vikings fan who screams for the team to play better was told to leave Minnesota, the state would be half empty.
When Roundy speaks of “radical nonsense from professional resisters” is he talking about white supremacists? Nazis? Confederate flag carriers? Draft dodgers? KKK? Chinless Wonder McTurtle?
Any of those might be described as professional resisters of the US Constitution and isn’t that the only thing that matters?
Certainly none of them are patriots.
Rounds has faked for years about his patriotism. If he was such a patriot, why didn’t he slap on the uniform? Rounds was to busy being a fake. trump..er…Rounds likes to be standing and then asking the crowd if all the veterans would stand. That way he can continue to lie like trump and make people believe he is a veteran. Dude could’ve signed up for Vietnam and served. Just more stolen valor from a real dickhead.
I wish politicians would think before they tweet. This part of his tweet needs to be explained” “We’re tired of radical nonsense from professional resisters.”
First, who is the “we?” He appears to be saying he’s not up to his job if he includes himself in that “we.” As a Senator his job is to listen to all sorts of people who are supporting and resisting policies and laws. He might not like what they are saying, and he might think some things are “radical nonsense,” but he signed up to listen to people with all sorts of ideas he may not agree with. If he can’t do that in a polite way that respects the humanity of people seeking redress of grievances, he needs to resign. He’s not carrying out his oath of office.
A further item, which is a little peevish. People who use “we,” tend to be whiny cowards. Another variation of this is “many people say….”, which is what we hear all the time out of the person Rounds is defending with his tweet. It’s as if they don’t have enough confidence in what they are saying that they have to gather up a delusional posse in order to spit out what they are thinking. People have a lot more respect for a politicians who speak honestly. People who use the royal “we” are telling us what they are saying is BS.
Then I wonder what he means by “professional resisters.” That actually includes just about everyone, since at some time in most people’s lives they have an issue that they feel so strongly about that they spend a lot of time and effort to convince their representatives to resist some policy or piece of legislation. Maybe Rounds meant by “professional resister” the lobbyists that skulk the halls of the Capitol Building trying to kill this or that piece of legislation. Maybe he means Mitch McConnell, who refuses to bring legislation to a vote, resisting the will of the people.
“We must aim higher….” How about this, Sen. Rounds. Why don’t YOU aim higher? Why don’t YOU start leading by example. Why don’t YOU become less of a coward, and address the racism coming out of Donald Trump’s tweets. That would be aiming higher and focusing on what unites us. But that would take political courage.
Mr. Pay, Rounds is showing his tell with his made up “we” thingy. His new daddy trump has a tell as well. It’s the word “sir”. “‘Sir’ alert: This one word is a telltale sign Trump is being dishonest” https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/16/politics/sir-trump-telltale-word-false/index.html
All of these crooks and liars have a tell, that’s why their crooks and liars. They could never be poker players because they’re to easy to read.
Rounds like trump is a coward.Neither one had the intestinal fortitude to even put on a military uniform.They will ,however molest a flag and hide behind a flag and shout patriotic platitudes as long as someone is there to protect them.They are disgusting creatures.
Jerry, Liar-in-Chief’s tell is that his mouth is open.
Donald nailed it. That’s what I thought too, what the heck does professional resisters even mean.
Rounds wants his power for another six years, so gotta get the Trump lovers turned on.
This evening I learned the intent of Trump’s Sunday racist Tweet about the 4 congressional women of color.
In the 2016 presidential campaign Trump’s cries was “lock her up”, that he still uses to this date.
This evening’s rally in North Carolina Trump used “Send Her Back” to whip up his base. Get used to hearing it for the next two years.
I also heard some of that speech, Roger. Has anyone else noticed that he’s begun using Hitler cadence and rhythm in his speech patterns?
Like no one will notice, Don the Con. You’re so clever. By half!
Rounds/trump this is from Woody Guthrie “All you Fascists Bound to Lose”. We know what he is and what they stand for and that is a long long way from patriotism, Rounds and company are the bogeymen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ
Joseph Goebbels..er..Stephen Miller, must be writing trumps Nazi speeches. SEND THEM BACK…SEND THEM BACK!!!
Here’s a real patriot, immortalized forever…. https://the-immoral-minority.com/south-dakotas-city-of-president-erects-statue-of-barack-obama-with-daughter-sasha/
Conservatives: judging who are real Americans and who aren’t by the color of their skin since Dred Scott.
Todd Epp gets Senator Rounds to elaborate:
Senator Rounds appears to be describing himself and Senate Republicans in 2015 and 2016., or John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in 2010:
Rounds needs a mirror and some memory pills.
Cory makes a reasonable point about Rounds’ hypocrisy. While consideration of hypocracy is a valid criticism of a politician it seems troubling when current criticism of objectionable conduct is dismissed merely because the current critic took the opposite stand in the past. That kind of analysis seems almost more of effort to distract attention from the objectionable conduct than to seek to change the conduct.
For example, although Trump’s immigration policies are cruel and distructive of real familes and children’s lives, Trump apologists assert that Obama had similar or worse policies. While the truth of such assertions is demonstrably false, even if true it does not justify a single current Trump policy. Current leaders should never get any kind of pass for their reprehensible behavior simply because some past leader also engaged in evil or stupid conduct.
Here, the fact that there was categorical Republican obstruction of Obama’s efforts cannot be a defense to categoprical obstruction of the efforts of Trump or current Republicans. That said, the theme that Democrats have engaged in any similar Trump obstruction as the past Republican obstruction of Obama is just as demonstrably false as any claim that Obama’s policies on immigration were as cruel or worse than Trump’s policies.
@Cory- lol, “anti-chislic”.
(Rounds bends the knee)
We (royal) appreciate that gesture, and now We will hear no more “nonsense” about the soybeans… will We, Mike?
Will be back to read the rest of this post and the comments later, but for now I want to just say how unworthy I feel when I read the greatness of “anti-chislic.” Since my wienie-ass teeth sometimes break when eating hard chislic, I suppose you’d like me to go back to Norway because that makes me a “radical anti-American?” (I’m also anti-lefse, so I guess me and AOC should just move in together).
What BCB said reminds me of the comments some Roman Catholics make when confronted with the ongoing pedophilia by their clergy: “Oh, but the church does so many good things!”
Yes, it does, but this is not a scorekeeping operation where the RCC builds up so many positive points and so gets to subtract from that stockpile without consequence.
The same is so for both political parties and for Rancid Racist, although his point status is so far in the negative I have run out of numbers.
Democrats don’t get points to expend without consequence due to GOP bad behavior. If that were the case, GWB, Boner and Chinless Wonder McTurtle would have the GOP far, far below the line into negative territory. In the meantime, Obama’s ethical 8 years put the Democratic Party over the top on the plus side.
The gist of my comment is– Roundy, shut up. You got nuthin’.
Rounds evaded EB5 accountability and liability, perhaps, just like Trump obstructed justice. Trump the liar he is, refused to be interviewed by the Mueller investigation leaving them to subpoena him and fight a long court battle. They had enough evidence of his malicious intent for obstruction. His negotiated written answers to written questions, which his lawyers answered, just like Mike Rounds, danced around the facts.
“Mueller indicated in his report that intent wasn’t a toughie when it comes to Trump. That’s why he didn’t push to interview him — his team decided they had enough evidence to show the intent element of obstruction.
Mueller makes a point that Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation took a turn soon after he fired FBI Director James Comey, when Trump “became aware that investigators were conducting an obstruction-of-justice inquiry into his own conduct.” This is when Trump started to “launch public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private, the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation.”” https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/439880-the-thorny-part-of-obstruction-of-justice-is-proving-intent-now-thats-a