Behold Eric Greitens, who is running for office in Missouri by advertising his ability to fire really big guns.
He’s getting millions in donations for his campaign.
Now here’s Daisy Ridley, who attended an event that recognized the victims of gun violence, and wrote this:
Thinking about how lucky I am like……… Serious bit: as I sat in the audience yesterday tears were streaming down my face at the tribute to those that have been lost to gun violence. I didn’t get a great picture of the incredible group that came on stage but they were so brave. It was a true moment of togetherness. We must #stoptheviolence
Weeping at the useless deaths of so many people so strongly antagonized NRA fanatics that they hounded her off instagram.
I want to live in a world where the Eric Greitens are laughed at and don’t have a chance of being elected to office, and the humanism of the Daisy Ridleys is appreciated and praised.
This is not that world.
Someone on Facebook pointed out that Greitens is a Navy SEAL, a Rhodes Scholar, a White House fellow, has a PhD from Oxford, has been named as a great leader and influential person by Time and Fortune, etc., so he shouldn’t be dismissed as a meathead.
My response:
I don’t think Missouri appreciates how many times I’ve launched nuclear weapons in Starcraft. I’d be like a god to them. My imaginary weapons are so much more powerful than this cartoon man’s imaginary weapons! I’ve killed way more of my imaginary foes than he has his imaginary foes!
Given the Democratic Convention militarism, are we sure which party he’s running for?
From what I read, one of the biggest issues in the republican gubernatorial primary was the total suppression of the Black Lives Matter protesters in Ferguson. Never mind the riots were caused by the police. To many republicans, BLM folks are uppity blacks who should know their place, and the police should keep them in line. I recall hearing that back during the Civil Rights protests in the South during the ’60s. Some republicans haven’t learned anything since then.
Urk, blockquote fail
In other words, the whole campaign clip can be translated as “I am giving you moronic rubes the brutish wank you want, vote for me, your Intellectual Better who graciously lowered Himself to you subpar level“
#1
It’s probably just a technical inaccuracy you have there, but the University of Oxford does not award PhDs. Oxford’s doctoral award is the D.Phil. Unless it’s from the much less prestigious Oxford Brookes University, when it would be a PhD.
Whatever the case, people with doctorates from Oxford are not necessarily highly intelligent, thoughtful and capable above and beyond the rest of humanity. Some of ux I wouldn’t trust to open a paper bag without help…
#7
It’s moot anyway, since he has a master’s degree, not a doctorate, at least according to Wikipedia. (Greitens’ campaign website doesn’t say what degree he got at Oxford, just that he got one.) Greitens’ website also proudly shows Dr. Ben Carson’s endorsement. Now there’s something to brag about….
The 2016 candidates for MO governor are … uh, “interesting”…. Koster, a former Republican, versus Greitens, a former Democrat.
Koster might be a little better in a few ways. I don’t know. But you should be extra careful when making assumptions about conservative Democrats like this… Haven’t seen any, but I’m sure his ads would be awfully depressing too, especially if they make any mention of his past or his platform.
The first Greitens commercial I saw (I live in southern IL, less than a mile from the Mississippi river, and we get a lot of commercials for MO elections on our local CBS affiliate) had him firing an AR-15 at something, which explodes in a fireball. He dropped that one a couple of days after the Orlando nightclub massacre, but the general thrust of his ads has been “I was a navy SEAL, I shot things, I like shooting things, and I’ll make sure you can shoot things too.” The thing is, his opponents in the primary (August 2) were so much worse.
There was Catherine Hanaway, whose entire campaign was “Thugs Thugs Thugs! Thugs in Ferguson, Thugs at Mizzou! I’ll put them all in their place!” She’s a former prosecutor, and wants everyone to know how hard she’s been on “thugs.” She’s also seriously anti-choice, and at least one of her main commercials has her firing a shotgun at clay pigeons, or birds, or something. She’s very proud of having helped to implement concealed carry in MO.
There was John Brunner, who is a conservative businessman. His whole shtick is deregulation in every way, shape, and form. Except for regulation of people with uteruses and “thugs,” of course. He’s a “small business owner” and all around smug rich fuck of the sort that should never be allowed near public office.
There was the Republican Lt. Governor, Peter Kinder, whose main tactic was to call the other candidates children while talking about all the awful things he’s done as though they are positives. He’s been a major champion of “religious freedom” bills that allow Christians to discriminate against whoever they wish, he’s major proponent of anti-choice legislation, and basically a cheerleader for every stupid legal thing MO has done. If some awful piece of MO legislation made the national news, you can bet he fought hard for it.
Greitens was apparently a Democrat at one point, and while he seems to have taken a pretty hard right turn, he still seems to be least offensive of the four Republican candidates for governor. I still hope Chris Koster, the Democratic candidate, beats him, but it doesn’t look good. I haven’t see a single ad for the Dems in the gubernatorial race, and MO has had a Dem governor for the past 8 years. Anti-establishment sentiments are running high, so I imagine the Dems will lose this one. Greitens will probably be awful, but hopefully he’ll be too busy masturbating over his guns to do much damage.
Tl;dr version: Greitens seems to be the least bad of a lot of terrible options, and I suspect the Republicans will win the MO gubernatorial race.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry for Greitens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Greitens
Didn’t Jon Stewart kiss Greitens’ arse on The Daily Show? Stewart and Colbert seem to have a penchant for swooning in the presence of “heroes”.
We here in Missouri just voted in the primary for candidates for state offices. Well, I didn’t bother to vote, as there was only one Democratic candidate, and the Republicans were so depressing. I haven’t looked up who won. I guess it’s this guy as the Republican nominee, then, and he may be the best of a bad lot.
The TV ads have been just bonkers. On Monday, there was an attack ad, a response to it, and another attack ad, all back-to-back.
The other candidates, by the way, insisted that this guy was never a Navy Seal. Given the way he grinned after he shot the mini-gun, I’m thinking he never shot one before, nor anything like. (The ad had the wrong sound for the gun, for what that’s worth.)
Yeah, every damn ad featured guns. For every Republican candidate, I mean. (There were no ads for Democrats.) My favorite was the woman who bragged about having passed “concealed carry” – the people of Missouri voted against concealed carry, and the state legislature upped and passed it anyway – she was running on having subverted the will of the people.
Second rate imitation.
Dukakis had a bigger gun.
Vereverum #14, here’s a photo (scroll down).
QED.
Vote Greitens for Warlord!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA
President Camacho….
If I were running against this guy, I’d probably do a totally deadpan ad lamenting that Greitens is a terrible outdoorsman who has absolutely no idea how to fish.
Menyambal #13
The absurdity of the commercials and his politics aside – I can tell you with certainty he was a SEAL, and the likely-hood he has fired that type of weapon before approaches 100%.
Was the gun safer with the clip “out”? No. He apparently had ‘one in the chamber’, because he didn’t visibly chamber a round after inserting the clip. It could have been edited out, but still. It doesn’t look like he knew what he was doing, safety wise.
ivarhusa #20
Not could have been edited out, was edited out. The ejection port was open and empty, and it jump cut to being closed and him firing.
Look peoples, questioning his ability with the weapons he’s using is really kind of silly. He’s a right-wing, gun’s ‘n’ god (probably) pandering asshole, for sure. But he knows how to handle firearms safely and skillfully.