Things of this magnitude
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has said flags in the state will fly at half-staff for Rush Limbaugh, the hard-right talk radio host who died this week aged 70.
Is that a thing? Lowering flags for random entertainers?
DeSantis, a controversial governor known to some as a “mini-Trump” and widely thought to have presidential ambitions, called Limbaugh a friend.
What’s that got to do with anything? Do governors usually get to lower flags for their friends? I thought flag-lowering was meant to be an exceptional thing with some connection to public service.
Appearing with James Golden, longtime producer to the leading “shock jock”, the governor told reporters: “When there’s things of this magnitude, once the date of interment for Rush is announced, we’re going to be lowering the flags to half staff.”
What magnitude? He was a rude angry right-wing hack. A talented hack, maybe, but still a hack.
Golden called him “a second-generation founding father”.
“The seeds that he planted,” he said, “are going to sprout in America and continue to grow for generations and generations to come, and America will be great again, not just because of Rush, [but] because of men like – and women – but men like this governor.”
What seeds are those? The seeds of loud angry hostility to and contempt for anyone who isn’t a loud angry hostile white guy?
DeSantis has previously ordered flags to be at half-staff to honour law enforcement officers killed on duty, members of the US navy killed in a mass shooting in Pensacola and the liberal supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others.
Those all seem appropriate. A venomous talk radio star, not so much.
According to the Dept. of Veteran’s affairs:
“An easy way to remember when to fly the United States flag at half-staff is to consider when the whole nation is in mourning. These periods of mourning are proclaimed either by the president of the United States, for national remembrance, or the governor of a state or territory, for local remembrance, in the event of a death of a member or former member of the federal, state or territorial government or judiciary. The heads of departments and agencies of the federal government may also order that the flag be flown at half-staff on buildings, grounds and naval vessels under their jurisdiction. “
I thought Rush was entertaining back in the 80’s and 90’s when he (and others) didn’t take himself so seriously. I got bored with him after the Bush Jr. campaign promoting, even though Bush Jr. was an actual Republican. I guess his success went to his head like so many other egomaniacal dipshits, but when he started promoting and defending Donnie Dipshit I lost all interest and respect for him. Donnie Dipshit was a Democrat until 2009 ffs, and only a Republican in as far as he got support from them. I find people who profess to admire Donnie Dipshit of two types, the ones who don’t understand how much of an utterly repulsive, sadistic, destructive, selfish bastard he is, and those who do. I believe Rush was of this second type, and it made me question his intelligence and think he simply became a corrupt, bought-and-paid-for propagandist. There isn’t much evidence to the contrary. I found him irritatingly boring at some point during the Bush Jr. administration and haven’t been able to listen to him live since. What I know about him in the last couple decades is from secondhand sources, and his shenanigans were never surprising to me. In the early days he was insulting, misogynistic, racist, and harshly critical of people he thought didn’t fit his idea of what Americans should be like — basically a narrow minded ideologue, but at least a tongue-in-cheek entertaining one, however offensive and harsh he was. Then at some point he started believing his own bullshit, after he found out other people believed his bullshit and took him seriously. He was a curiosity, but not very bright and not of very high moral character. He did have a few good qualities that Donnie Dipshit will never have, but that describes most of us.
Well, I expect the bugger’s rushed to limbo, at least. It’ll be hell him for there, having to converse with people like Plato, Aristotle et al.