The Official World Politics Thread - All Breaking News here.

At one point, Jones said Blackburn called him with a favor to ask.

“When her sister got married she called me to officiate the wedding,” recalled Jones, saying he’d wedded her sister Karen to Nashville news anchor Dan Miller. He said that years later he also performed the wedding ceremony for Miller’s daughter.

Around the same time, he recalled, he told Blackburn it was a dream of his to give the opening prayer to Congress, and she happily obliged.

“At the time I did the invocation, the time Ms. Marsha invited me to do that, the League was a whole different ballgame. It’s not what it is now,” he said, stating both he and the League of the South were “secessionist” but not racist and saying he’d long argued with Hill to stress the Christian rather than white roots of southern pride.

Blackburn’s campaign didn’t push back on Jones’ description of their relationship.

Jones wrote a piece about his prayer in Congress for the Southern Patriot, The League of the South’s newsletter, saying he’d been asked not to mention Jesus on the House floor but ignored that request.

Jones’ prayer was fairly innocuous, but many of his other views are considerably more controversial.

Jones told TPM Martin Luther King Jr. was a “devout womanizer” who “had no morality,” while Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were “good, righteous men” — why his homeschool program gives off a day for Lee-Jackson Day but not King’s birthday. He blamed the north for starting the Civil War — “Lincoln kind of set up the firing on Fort Sumter to make it look like the South fired the first shot” — and said while he opposed segregation, “resolving Jim Crow laws would have been a lot better if the individual states and localities had been encouraged to make the adjustments rather than forced to a one-solution-fits-all type adjustment” by the federal government.

His most controversial views are about slavery, which he said was an immoral practice but described as “basically cradle to grave security” for many southern blacks.

“You go to an antebellum historical site up in Nashville and they say, ‘The slaves lived in these little one-room cabins and all they had to play with was a hoop and a stick…’ They don’t mention the fact that the white sharecroppers lived exactly the same way, had exactly the same deprivation of substance,” he told TPM. “It’s like they’re trying to paint slavery as this wrong, this burden.”

Jones said most slave-owners treated their slaves well and provided them medical care.

“I’m not going to to defend slavery. But I say look at the historical facts, don’t paint something with such a broad sweeping brush,” he said.

Jones says he feels “really bad” about the SPLC’s view that he was part of a “hate group” — “I am not a hater” — and talked about his efforts to create an integrated church and allowing non-Christian families to join his home-schooling program.

“I realize my views aren’t necessarily in the mainstream but they’re not caused by any animosity or hatred towards anyone. They’re views I think can legitimately reconcile people with one another. Christ has called us to a ministry of conciliation and that’s what I hope to do with my life,” he said.

Blackburn, who in her Senate campaign launch video declares she’s “politically incorrect — and proud of it” — has long taken some controversial stances of her own on charged racial and religious issues, though nothing like Jones’ comments.

Her early Senate campaign has hit hard on attacking the NFL players who’ve knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality against black people. A member of the Trump presidential transition team executive committee, she says she believes in Trump’s “immigration ban” and wants to “build the wall.”

In 2015, she called a Tennessee state curriculum for seventh graders that includes a section in Islam “reprehensible” and warned of “indoctrination.” And in 2009, she helped lead the charge against President Obama’s openly ? safe-schools chief partially, signing a letter from House Republicans that claimed he was “pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools.”

But those views aren’t nearly as controversial as Jones’.

Those who have long monitored the League of the South were split on whether Blackburn should have known about Jones’ ties.

“I have no idea how ignorant Marsha might be but there’s many public references to the League and what they stood for that predated her invitation,” The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich told TPM. “I don’t know why she brought him in but it’s abhorrent that she did. … It’s completely unacceptable she’s showered him with this high honor. You have to wonder about Blackburn’s own views.”

Jones remains a leader of the Southern National Conference, a group that wants “Southern State governments creatively solving our own problems without interference or dictates from sources outside our respective States.”

While Jones said he doesn’t oppose a weak federal government, he wants the South to have significantly more sovereignty. “Let communities, let states figure out for themselves what will work for their community. That’s where secession comes in,” he told TPM.

Edison, N.J. this was put in peoples mailboxes

fortyacres wrote: »

D. Morgan wrote: »

fortyacres wrote: »

why do people think Bernie Sanders was gonna win.

the midwest and the south will never vote for an old Jewish dude with socialist proclivities .

and people are stuck on a candidate that LOST , shes out of here , retired but people still cryin about her instead of focusing on the future.

Whether Bernie was going to win or not in any competition the participants deserve a fair chance to win. When it comes to the DNC Bernie wasn't given a fair shake.

The ? you saying about who the midwest and south will never vote for is the same ? the whole campaign season people across the whole country said about trump never winning and look what happened.

I personally wasn't surprised trump won just cause I know how this country is.

im pretty sure Trump would still be more appealing than Bernie Sanders because of the nature of the people from those areas and what appeals to them.

I don't disagree with that. Still Bernie deserved a fair shake from the DNC.

Bernie may have lost to trump as well but we'll never know because of the ? up ? the Hilliary and the DNC pulled. Hilliary and the DNC have no one to blame but themselves.

As I've said from the very beginning ? 'EM ALL!!!! Democrats, republicans, Hilliary and trump.

Trump still butt hurt rex called him a ? ?

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-says-unsure-if-rex-tillerson-will-remain-secretary-of-state-1770909

No prison time for Berghdal, he is dishonorably discharged.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/03/politics/bowe-bergdahl-sentenced/index.html


Fort Bragg, North Carolina (CNN)Bowe Bergdahl received a dishonorable discharge from the US Army but will avoid prison time for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009, a military judge ruled .


The judge also ruled that Bergdahl's rank be reduced from sergeant to private. Additionally, he will be required to pay a $1,000 fine from his salary for the next 10 months.

"Sgt. Bergdahl has looked forward to today for a long time," Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl's civilian attorney, said at a news conference after the sentence was announced.

"As everyone knows he was a captive of the Taliban for nearly five years, and three more years have elapsed while the legal process unfolded. He has lost nearly a decade of his life."

5th Letter wrote: »

fortyacres wrote: »

5th Letter wrote: »

fortyacres wrote: »

why do people think Bernie Sanders was gonna win.

the midwest and the south will never vote for an old Jewish dude with socialist proclivities .

and people are stuck on a candidate that LOST , shes out of here , retired but people still cryin about her instead of focusing on the future.

Y'all say this but then someone always brings up "but but but her emails" can't have it both ways.

maybe because its a funny meme to say that

It's "funny" to someone else when they bring up Hillary's issues too..

But she is not the President.

Mr.LV wrote: »

5th Letter wrote: »

fortyacres wrote: »

5th Letter wrote: »

fortyacres wrote: »

why do people think Bernie Sanders was gonna win.

the midwest and the south will never vote for an old Jewish dude with socialist proclivities .

and people are stuck on a candidate that LOST , shes out of here , retired but people still cryin about her instead of focusing on the future.

Y'all say this but then someone always brings up "but but but her emails" can't have it both ways.

maybe because its a funny meme to say that

It's "funny" to someone else when they bring up Hillary's issues too..

But she is not the President.

Right, so what's the point in some folks saying "but but her emails" when speaking on the president's ? ups?

StoneColdMikey wrote: »

Elzo69Renaissance wrote: »

Janet Yelen is out of there....lets welcome inflation

Eh i read the new guy is more of the same.

He's a male Yellen smh

Expect the dollar to remain in the craphole.