Morning Reads – Thursday, August 24, 2017

Sonny Perdue applauded Trump nomination of Sam Clovis as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics, chief scientist in effect. Clovis’ primary qualification for the job is that he was co-chair of the Trump-Pence campaign in the 2016 election. From Clovis’ wikipedia biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_H._Clovis_Jr.
.
“Clovis has described climate research as “junk science”, and in 2014 told Iowa Public Radio that he is skeptical about climate change.
.
In August 2017, CNN reported on the existence of a now-defunct blog that Clovis had maintained primarily between 2011 and 2012. In blog posts accessed via the Wayback Machine, Clovis was critical of President Barack Obama and the progressive movement, accusing Obama of being a socialist and writing that progressives were “liars, race traders and race ‘traitors.'” A USDA spokesperson responded that Clovis “is a proud conservative and a proud American. All of his reporting either on the air or in writing over the course of his career has been based on solid research and data. He is after all an academic.” Clovis has said that homosexual behavior is a choice and that the sanctioning of same-sex marriage could lead to the legalization of pedophilia.”
.
.
Details based on Wikipedia references—First some of the birther-influenced blog posts from 2012 as archived on the website of Sioux City-based radio station KSCJ:
.
“[President Obama] is a dangerous person. He is dangerous in that he does not have the interests of the nation in mind and is more than willing to do anything to advance an ideology that is absolutely opposed to American exceptionalism. Four more years of this man as president could very well mean the total deconstruction of our Constitutional republic. […]”
.
In a September 2012 episode of his online radio program “Serious Civics with Sam Clovis,” Clovis observed that Obama appeared “happy” after the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya that month. “This is something that tells you that he is dismissive of the entire affair and in fact, I would even hate to stretch this out but it’s almost as if it was intentional. As if he is happy that these things have occurred.” Clovis said. “Now I know that’s harsh and I don’t have any evidence to support that. But look at his actions. Right after the event, where does he go? He goes and he does an interview on the hip hop guy who is a pimp and on top of everything else.”
.
On LGBT at a campaign stop during his failed campaign for the Republican Senate nomination in Iowa:
.
“Someone who engages in LGBT behavior — I don’t know what the science is on this, I think it’s still out — but as far as we know, LGBT behavior is a choice they make, Clovis says in a video obtained by CNN’s KFile. “So we’re being asked to provide Constitutional protections for behavior, a choice in behavior as opposed to a primary characteristic.” […]
.
“There’s no equivalency there between the civil rights issue associated between those protected classes and the civil rights of someone who engages in a particular behavior,” continues Clovis. “Follow the logic, if you engage in a particular behavior, what also becomes protected? If we protect LGBT behavior, what other behaviors are we going to protect? Are we going to protect pedophilia? […]
.
In following up to someone questioning if the suggestion legalization of pedophilia next was extreme, Clovis said “I think it’s a logical extension of thought. And if you cannot follow the logic then you’re denying you’re in denial.”
.
Doesn’t the reward of a nomination of an unqualified prejudiced piece of ….. work like Clovis by an unqualified prejudiced imbecile just make you want to rush out to reach out and listen to the other side, like Mike was advocating, or what? My unknown peon remarks here, and those of a cabinet Under Secretary nominee in mass media are like, totally, the same. I get it.