Discussion: How Did Sebastian Gorka Go From The Anti-Muslim Fringe To White House Aide?

Hear, hear!

The days of shoddy, ideologically driven scholarship will be over once Falwell is put in charge of higher ed! Seriously, though, the main requirement for working for the Shitgibbon-in-chief seems to that you have demonstrated contempt for the norms and standards of your chosen field. His whole life he has been told he is wrong about an issue because he didnā€™t actually learn anything prior to voicing his opinion. But in his heart he knew he was right, and so by God, he only wants people who have been labeled heretics in their chosen field. They must be right, since he is right!

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There are plenty of highly educated, even politically liberal Westerners that confuse what theyā€™ve read and heard on the news with reality. Islam is an Abrahamic religion just like Christianity and Judaism, and is full of exactly the same mixture of blarney and self-righteousness. As we know from those religions we are more exposed to on a daily basis, it all comes down to how it is practiced. We have Christians that blow up federal buildings and hack off limbs of young African boys, and we have Jews that bulldoze Palestinian houses and kill innocents. Thought experiment. Organize a ā€œPiss on Christā€ day in your town or city and see if you get death threats. Donā€™t really do this. Andres Serrano did a similar experiment already.

Regarding burqas, no, you canā€™t under the Constitution ban religious clothing. Full stop. What you can do is ban clothes than function in a certain way, e.g., those that completely conceal the face, but then we here in Minnesota would have even rougher winters than we do now.

In summary, no, we canā€™t discriminate against an entire religion, especially one a billion people strong.

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Trumpā€™s like Lou Costello with Woody Allenā€™s delivery when heā€™s lyingā€¦

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Only heā€™s not trying to be funny and he thinks a lot of the shit heā€™s told and repeats is real.

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ā€œHe opines on everything from the Koran to Mohamad to jihad to Islamic history to contemporary politics but does so in a way that is inaccurate, sloppy, superficial, bigoted and ideological,ā€ Safi said.

So, heā€™s fitting right in with the rest of the Cabinet and staff?

Me to, on NPRā€™s The World. He just seethed and oozed slime all over. He was also very rude and condescending to the host as a spewed his garbage about the ā€œbackbone of Americaā€ (Wyoming) and ā€œthe Chattering Classesā€ (everyone on the east or west coasts).

He is a really poisonous toady.

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How is banning a religiously required garment not bigotry toward that religion?

I donā€™t like burqas but I donā€™t have to wear one. Until some woman in a scarf or buqua comes up and hands me a note that says Save me, all these bans are good for are for punishing women who canā€™t leave their houses if they canā€™t wear the prescribed clothing.

So you are condemning them to being confined. One would think that it would be better propaganda for Western values to let them be as free as the rest of us to do what they feel they must.

And it always ends up with a bunch of men discussing this - which is exactly the same kind of thing that requiring the burqa is in the first place.

We cannot impose this change on them - they have got to want the change.

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ā€¦Trump do love his stupid peopleā€¦

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With all do respect:

  1. Who are these ā€œhighly educated, even politically liberal Westernersā€ exactly? Just 'cause you find Bill Maher hilarious doesnā€™t mean you agree with everything he says.
  2. How vast is ā€œvastā€? On the one hand, since the 30s weā€™ve never let in ā€œyugeā€ numbers of anybody. In fact, during the 40s, we refused entry of Jewish refugees even though we hadnā€™t filled our own ridiculously low quota. On the other hand, whereā€™s the connection between the number of immigrants and the incidence of non-domestic terrorist acts?
  3. Ah ā€¦ Seattle :slight_smile: I hear they even have a SOCIALIST city council member whoā€™s ā€¦ gasp ā€¦ an immigrant!
  4. Last time I looked around here, adults have been having ā€œhonest discussions over a full range of issuesā€ for over 200+ years.
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The GOP (erstwhile Dixiecrats) has never come to terms with losing the right to own slaves. These are white supremacists who truly welcome the idea of once again buying and selling black people (or its equivalent). They rage against the loss of the south and want the machinery of government to enforce their racist agenda. Crazy as it may sound, Civil War II may be in the offing. There may come a day when the US is in armed conflict with itself; Bannon would love nothing more.

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Thank you for an outstanding piece, the sources here are incredible.

Well when a Presidential candidate that runs as a white nationalist gets elected to office you can kind of expect this kind of trash getting government jobs.

I have never been of the flag-flying type, I am now thoroughly disappointed, of the millions of mean spirited people that I have to call compatriots. I always been in agreement with Samuel Johnson : ā€œpatriotism is the last refuge for a scoundrelā€.

It is actually closer than itā€™s been since 1860. Both sides are not budging. If the Trump gov goes after California, there will be a real constitutional crisis and that is what a lot of the ratwing wants and theyā€™ve pushed and pushed and pushed to the point where Iā€™m willing to give them the war they are begging for.

Luckily weā€™re the majority.

We now have people with viscerally repugnant anti-muslim beliefs operating in the highest office of the land.

Someone try to explain to me why this isnā€™t precisely like the installation of the brutally antisemitic fascists in Reich Chancellery.

All warmed over Nixonian crap and media clichĆ©s that were tired 30 years ago. A bobble-head version of Henry the Kā€¦

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And he spent plenty of time in London and in Hungary.

Iā€™m wondering if the following quote from his dissertation is correct:

ā€œan undeserved since of quasi religious legitimacy.ā€

If so, Iā€™m surprised his dissertation was actually accepted. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it was in Hungarian, and the error is in the translation.

Ok I went and looked. The error is TPMā€™s.

WHERE DID THIS GUY COME FROM?
Donā€™t know but he looks like he could use a still softener.

Yet another Putinist/Stalinist with direct ties to the Eastern Bloc.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/style/weddings-katharine-cornell-sebestyen-gorka.html

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