Absolutely true. Trump brought the country's entire "swamp" to Washington to add to that which was already there. There needs to be a "cleansing" of this government that has never been seen before. These scumbags need to fear what's coming for them. We have young people growing up in this country who have never known a time without Trump, MAGA, and a Republican totally without regard for decency and the rule of law. It's "them or us" for the future of this country.
Trump just replaced the "swamp" with the "black lagoon". Rife with the creatures that populate it. Miscreants and sycophants that have blind fealty to a narcissistic, incompetent conman. None of whom has a backbone or the foresight to understand that their shelf life is as long as Trump's attention span.
Moreno’s excuse that his daughter asked him not to speak because she was afraid of her ex? Talk about hiding behind a “woman’s skirts”—maybe the only thing MAGA men find abhorrent.
nah, MAGA supporters don't care about that either - Ted Cruz got away with blaming it on his wife and children when he ran to Cancun to get away from that icy winter storm.
If it were your daughter and granddaughter, would you speak out about your son-in-law's abuse and risk their being harmed again -- or possibly killed? A man who would break a baby's collarbone or throw boiling water on a woman or put a gun to her head might put a gun to both their heads -- loaded -- and pull the trigger. Miller is a dangerous man.
As a survivor, like many, when a family member stands up for you it breaks the hold the abuser has on your psyche. Abusers thrive on making you think their behavior is your fault.
I think that's valid though. Miller is exactly the kind of guy who would make her life miserable if her dad stepped up. He's threatened to sue anyone who accuses him of anything for "defamation." He's garbage.
As someone who was in a similar situation, I can tell you that the full throated support and promise of action helped me get out and snapped me out of the brainwashing and fear.
Thank you, Mike! What kind of coward hurts a child? Or throws hot water on his wife? What kind of political organization has members who will openly say that they don't believe women should be able to vote? In a short few months, I've watched too many feel comfortable with expressing rampant bigotry, misogyny, and endorsement of violent behavior. The rest of us need to be speaking out in opposition to this.
Wow. Thank you. Thank you for this powerful piece that speaks truth to power. As you wrote: "If you can read the allegations — a little girl’s collarbone broken, a toddler telling people that daddy’s house is scary — and you don’t feel something turn over deep in your gut, then you are never going to do the right thing on anything."
I want to know how we learned to tolerate it so quickly. Ten years is not long enough to make us so totally numb to this crap. How did we get here? And more importantly, how did they talk women into thinking this sort of behavior is normal and perfectly fine? How did all of this happen? I am bewildered and disgusted and in a state of shock. And the bad thing is, is I don't think we have hit the lowest point yet.
100% Mike. Republicans are the party of pedophiles and abusers of women. Watching that vile, disgusting pig going around on TV networks is sickening and he most definitely not helping himself.
Yes, the Trump/Republican Administration will not condemn abuse of women but they go much further - this is Project 2025: we want them barefoot and pregnant -not competing for manly men jobs or any jobs for that matter. No competition in sports either. They should stay home and have babies. This is anti-feminism at the core of the Trump Administration, and it doesn't condemn spousal abuse because, after all, it was only a woman that got beaten
Great column, Mike. I agree with everything that you said.
But this stood out above everything else: “ Goddamn it, if there is one thing left in this country we can still agree on, can it please be that we protect our kids? That we don’t hand them to predators? Left, right, center — that should unite every last one of us.”
It should, and the far right certainly pays a great deal of lip service to the idea, but that’s pretty much where it ends. I have had more than one gun nut that tell me that his right to own as many guns of whatever type and lethality as he wishes supersedes the right of his fellow Americans, and their children, to stay alive. That gun nut that will tell me that he is a law abiding gun owner, so why should he have to be slightly inconvenienced at all in the owning of as many guns of whatever lethality that he wishes? It’s his rights his rights his rights, but not one word about his responsibilities.
Colt Gray was sentenced last week to life in prison for the murder of some of his schoolmates. His father has 15 years or so in prison to look forward to because of his negligence. How many kids dying is it going to take before we finally understand that a well regulated militia includes licensing, taxing, training, regulating, and restricting gun ownership.The gun owner tells me that he is a law abiding gun owner, so his rights may not be infringed. And my response always is this: EVERY SINGLE GUN OWNER IS A LAW ABIDING GUN OWNER…
UNTIL HE ISN’T.
And if the murder of children at Sandy Hook could not move the gun lobby, what on earth could you imagine that would?
And now, let us talk about the guardians of morality— pastors, priests, and other types of professional Christians. Every year, every single goddamn year, I get around 500 reports in my newsfeed of yet another guardian of morality and man (and occasionally woman) of God getting arrested, or sentenced, or convicted for sex crimes against children. And those are just the ones that show up in my newsfeed. Since we know that this is a vastly under-reported crime, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual numbers are in the thousands.
And for all of the decades of my life, right up to the present day, the unending fecal bleating coming from the religious authorities, especially from the conservative religious authorities, the kind of people that support Donald Trump, for example, is that gay people, transgender people, and drag queens are the threat to children. And if you google that, you will find a few reports every year. Just a few. The political establishment and the religious establishment both repeat the lie, amplify the lie, continue to blame innocent people for the depredations of the political, wealthy, and religious class.
If the goddamn guardians of morality and righteousness don’t give a crap about the kids, why should anyone else? Why would you expect anything better from the political class that they support?
I certainly don’t.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about it, and I’m sure there will be people complaining about this unending theme. I’M FURIOUS ABOUT IT BECAUSE I’M FUCKING ANGRY ABOUT IT BECAUSE I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS GARBAGE FROM THE GUARDIANS OF MORALITY FOR LONGER THAN MANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN ALIVE. But the problem is, it is an unending theme because it is an unending thing. The Catholic sexual abuse crisis goes back 1000 years. The Baptist sexual abuse crisis goes back decades, and probably a lot further than that. And yet we have the current president of the southern Baptist convention calling the whole thing a hoax.
And very few so-called Christians are calling them out for it, just like a few Catholics are withholding their donations to the Vatican, which has done almost nothing about the sexual abuse crisis except payout billions to the victims.
Until this moral rot—GUNS AND SEXUAL ABUSE— is dealt with, unflinchingly, without compromise, and without pretending, it will continue.
Thank you! You have nailed it completely!
Well said, Mr. Nellis. Fawn all over trumpet and you can get away with anything!
Absolutely true. Trump brought the country's entire "swamp" to Washington to add to that which was already there. There needs to be a "cleansing" of this government that has never been seen before. These scumbags need to fear what's coming for them. We have young people growing up in this country who have never known a time without Trump, MAGA, and a Republican totally without regard for decency and the rule of law. It's "them or us" for the future of this country.
Trump just replaced the "swamp" with the "black lagoon". Rife with the creatures that populate it. Miscreants and sycophants that have blind fealty to a narcissistic, incompetent conman. None of whom has a backbone or the foresight to understand that their shelf life is as long as Trump's attention span.
Todd (makes me blanche) wants to take abortion off the table for every woman in every state. How soon can he be disbarred?
Not soon enough!
Seems, political strategy wise, very dumb
Moreno’s excuse that his daughter asked him not to speak because she was afraid of her ex? Talk about hiding behind a “woman’s skirts”—maybe the only thing MAGA men find abhorrent.
nah, MAGA supporters don't care about that either - Ted Cruz got away with blaming it on his wife and children when he ran to Cancun to get away from that icy winter storm.
If it were your daughter and granddaughter, would you speak out about your son-in-law's abuse and risk their being harmed again -- or possibly killed? A man who would break a baby's collarbone or throw boiling water on a woman or put a gun to her head might put a gun to both their heads -- loaded -- and pull the trigger. Miller is a dangerous man.
As a survivor, like many, when a family member stands up for you it breaks the hold the abuser has on your psyche. Abusers thrive on making you think their behavior is your fault.
I think that's valid though. Miller is exactly the kind of guy who would make her life miserable if her dad stepped up. He's threatened to sue anyone who accuses him of anything for "defamation." He's garbage.
As someone who was in a similar situation, I can tell you that the full throated support and promise of action helped me get out and snapped me out of the brainwashing and fear.
Thank you, Mike! What kind of coward hurts a child? Or throws hot water on his wife? What kind of political organization has members who will openly say that they don't believe women should be able to vote? In a short few months, I've watched too many feel comfortable with expressing rampant bigotry, misogyny, and endorsement of violent behavior. The rest of us need to be speaking out in opposition to this.
Wow. Thank you. Thank you for this powerful piece that speaks truth to power. As you wrote: "If you can read the allegations — a little girl’s collarbone broken, a toddler telling people that daddy’s house is scary — and you don’t feel something turn over deep in your gut, then you are never going to do the right thing on anything."
Hence the reason any GOP won't do a thing for the people they represent. Everyone of them is a coward
“Don’t look away” ….GREAT THEME FOR DNC…!!!! Simple & to the point!!!!🎉
Well said Mr. Nellis! And all so true. Thank you.
You could just say misogynists and rapists. That’s his type, because it’s him too.
I want to know how we learned to tolerate it so quickly. Ten years is not long enough to make us so totally numb to this crap. How did we get here? And more importantly, how did they talk women into thinking this sort of behavior is normal and perfectly fine? How did all of this happen? I am bewildered and disgusted and in a state of shock. And the bad thing is, is I don't think we have hit the lowest point yet.
100% Mike. Republicans are the party of pedophiles and abusers of women. Watching that vile, disgusting pig going around on TV networks is sickening and he most definitely not helping himself.
Yes, the Trump/Republican Administration will not condemn abuse of women but they go much further - this is Project 2025: we want them barefoot and pregnant -not competing for manly men jobs or any jobs for that matter. No competition in sports either. They should stay home and have babies. This is anti-feminism at the core of the Trump Administration, and it doesn't condemn spousal abuse because, after all, it was only a woman that got beaten
Great column, Mike. I agree with everything that you said.
But this stood out above everything else: “ Goddamn it, if there is one thing left in this country we can still agree on, can it please be that we protect our kids? That we don’t hand them to predators? Left, right, center — that should unite every last one of us.”
It should, and the far right certainly pays a great deal of lip service to the idea, but that’s pretty much where it ends. I have had more than one gun nut that tell me that his right to own as many guns of whatever type and lethality as he wishes supersedes the right of his fellow Americans, and their children, to stay alive. That gun nut that will tell me that he is a law abiding gun owner, so why should he have to be slightly inconvenienced at all in the owning of as many guns of whatever lethality that he wishes? It’s his rights his rights his rights, but not one word about his responsibilities.
Colt Gray was sentenced last week to life in prison for the murder of some of his schoolmates. His father has 15 years or so in prison to look forward to because of his negligence. How many kids dying is it going to take before we finally understand that a well regulated militia includes licensing, taxing, training, regulating, and restricting gun ownership.The gun owner tells me that he is a law abiding gun owner, so his rights may not be infringed. And my response always is this: EVERY SINGLE GUN OWNER IS A LAW ABIDING GUN OWNER…
UNTIL HE ISN’T.
And if the murder of children at Sandy Hook could not move the gun lobby, what on earth could you imagine that would?
And now, let us talk about the guardians of morality— pastors, priests, and other types of professional Christians. Every year, every single goddamn year, I get around 500 reports in my newsfeed of yet another guardian of morality and man (and occasionally woman) of God getting arrested, or sentenced, or convicted for sex crimes against children. And those are just the ones that show up in my newsfeed. Since we know that this is a vastly under-reported crime, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual numbers are in the thousands.
And for all of the decades of my life, right up to the present day, the unending fecal bleating coming from the religious authorities, especially from the conservative religious authorities, the kind of people that support Donald Trump, for example, is that gay people, transgender people, and drag queens are the threat to children. And if you google that, you will find a few reports every year. Just a few. The political establishment and the religious establishment both repeat the lie, amplify the lie, continue to blame innocent people for the depredations of the political, wealthy, and religious class.
If the goddamn guardians of morality and righteousness don’t give a crap about the kids, why should anyone else? Why would you expect anything better from the political class that they support?
I certainly don’t.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about it, and I’m sure there will be people complaining about this unending theme. I’M FURIOUS ABOUT IT BECAUSE I’M FUCKING ANGRY ABOUT IT BECAUSE I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS GARBAGE FROM THE GUARDIANS OF MORALITY FOR LONGER THAN MANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN ALIVE. But the problem is, it is an unending theme because it is an unending thing. The Catholic sexual abuse crisis goes back 1000 years. The Baptist sexual abuse crisis goes back decades, and probably a lot further than that. And yet we have the current president of the southern Baptist convention calling the whole thing a hoax.
And very few so-called Christians are calling them out for it, just like a few Catholics are withholding their donations to the Vatican, which has done almost nothing about the sexual abuse crisis except payout billions to the victims.
Until this moral rot—GUNS AND SEXUAL ABUSE— is dealt with, unflinchingly, without compromise, and without pretending, it will continue.
So true