Politics over Religion at MD&D

[_Symmachus]

This really strikes home, Symmachus. You are absolutely right about the moral bankruptcy of the LDS Church, which has become just one more prop of the regime du jour. They should have run away from Trump and made a big show of it, but instead they decided to play footsie with him while pretending to take a stand. One wonders how much of that newly "liberated" Utah land they and their wealthy members have their eyes on acquiring. Surely this was one of the deals cut to get their support.

Traitors.

God, I hope it's not that bad, that microscopically petty. But then one can't disentangle the Church's leadership from the prominent families in the intermountain west, and of course you can't unwind those families from the energy sector.

[_canpakes]

It doesn't matter to them how bankrupt one's morals are, if they can prove themselves to be seen as true "conservatives" they are noble and worth supporting.

And in this case, they don't even need to 'prove' this, they just need to declare it so, usually based on some spurious and invented affinity such as claiming the same faith.

[_Stem]

This really strikes home, Symmachus. You are absolutely right about the moral bankruptcy of the LDS Church, which has become just one more prop of the regime du jour. They should have run away from Trump and made a big show of it, but instead they decided to play footsie with him while pretending to take a stand. One wonders how much of that newly "liberated" Utah land they and their wealthy members have their eyes on acquiring. Surely this was one of the deals cut to get their support.

Traitors.

It is odd when I'm sitting in Church and some sort of political discussion breaks out. The sweet old lady who lives down the street might get a little violent-like discussing politics and say a few things much like they did over on MD&D as per the link, in her mind defending to her last breath conservatism, while also in a prudish way find offense and gossip material when a teenager in the neighborhood gets pregnant.

In recent memory the ugliest news that hit the cycle in our ward was a young teenage girl being labeled the usual names of slut and harlot, as if the news that somehow reached the ears of the old ladies in the ward was justification for effectively exiling a whole family (the mom feeling forced to feel an exception who refuses to give in).

It does get pretty disgusting. I suppose the difficulties put upon us all by the failures of the few is sometimes and in some ways just a reflection of the larger monolithic form created by the few leaders who somehow justify this contradicted mind.

We're all fools in a way, I suppose. I don't know that that justifies how it all ends up playing out though.

[_Kishkumen]

God, I hope it's not that bad, that microscopically petty. But then one can't disentangle the Church's leadership from the prominent families in the intermountain west, and of course you can't unwind those families from the energy sector.

Funny that you should pick up that particular piece of the puzzle, Symmachus.

We should all get to know Don Peay, Trump's Utah chairman, a little better.

But the absurd nature of this fictional exercise of kingdom creation has not stopped Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen for Habitat, Utah Chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, and Full Curl Society as well as co-founder of Big Game Forever LLC from seeing this as a model for taking the first steps towards bringing that oh-so-modern concept of feudalism to the United States. And—wait for it—having the taxpayers make significant contributions to the diminishment of their rights and privileges. Want details?

Let’s start with the fact that Mr. Peay believes that our current constitutional construct established under the 10th Amendment where the individual states have control and ownership of wildlife and hold it in the Public Trust is Socialism. Ouch—strong words for a system that was established so that everyone, not just royalty and gentlepersons, could enjoy this public resource without being branded, beaten or hung for simply hunting, trapping or fishing. (Mr. Peay should understand that both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are the functional equivalents of emancipation documents expressly written in response to past abuses and to protect us from future peril.)

See http://www.endangered.org/don-peay-the-man-who-would-be-king-baron/

This "gentleman" really leaned on Utahns to get behind Trump for some reason. He staged an interesting interruption of his interview with BuzzFeed News to slip in the false rumor that McMullin was being financially supported by the Clinton Foundation:

Last month during an interview with BuzzFeed News, Don Peay was interrupted by a Trump-supporting associate who came into the room and announced, "Evan McMullin's campaign is funded by the Clinton Foundation—" (it's not) "—so we need to get that out."

He issued a stern warning to his fellow LDS:

Peay called the editorial "the stupidest thing I've ever seen," and warned more broadly that his fellow Mormons could face lasting political consequences if they reject Trump.

"Mormons run the risk of being a people without a party," Peay said. "If Trump wins in spite of Mormon opposition, we've made ourselves irrelevant ... And if Trump were to lose Utah and it cost him the presidency, where is that gonna put the Mormon people amongst the Republican Party?"

"If you do cost him the election," he continued, "you're an exile for a generation."

See https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/trump-campaign-scrambles-to-lock-down-utah?utm_term=.rvX3q171j#.ubDGpd8dk

Note that the author of the second piece is McKay Coppins, a highly regarded journalist who is also LDS.

So, is it really coincidental that the Mormon senators supported Trump's tax plan, and Trump "liberated" federal lands in Utah from the citizens of our nation to put them in private hands, and then, finally, Trump makes his little visit to LDS Church leadership in SLC?

I'd say not.

[_Meadowchik]

Ultra-conservativism has an obsession with death.

What do you mean?

It's the apocolypse obsession, be it prepping for ww3 or the Second Coming or hoping Trump will destroy the system so it can be built up into the conservative dream. In each case, destruction is welcomed and death is an accepted casualty.

[_Kishkumen]

More on Don Peay:

Did Don Peay’s organizations essentially buy Utah Division of Wildlife?
byRalph Maughan

Big donations followed by big returns in policy and Utah government dollars-
The Salt Lake Tribune has been following the Utah legislature’s big payout (or payback) to Don Peay and his hunting organizations. The stories presented by the Tribune are breathtaking in the showing close correspondence between him personally or his organizations giving a large contributions to the Division of Wildlife (DWR) and to Utah legislators’ election campaigns, and then getting a favorable response to his preferred policies, plus the granting back of large donations from the State to Big Game Forever, supposedly so it could lobby to keep wolves out of Utah. This is a state where there never more than a scattered wolf or two.

In 2012, Peay and Ryan Benson got $300,000 of state money for anti-wolf-related lobbying. According to the Tribune, “Big Game Forever submitted the . . . bid to do this lobbying on July 28, 2012, and won the one-year contract four days later.” Donations back to sponsors came quickly thereafter.

There was no oversight. What did they do with the money? Regardless, it looks like they will get the money again this year.

http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2013/03/19/did-don-peays-organization-essentially-buy-utah-division-of-wildlife/

[_Kishkumen]

Don Peay with Trump's boys:

http://kutv.com/news/local/utah-sportsman-hunts-with-trumps-sons-calls-them-authentic-blue-collar-kids

Utah outdoorsman who has waded into hunting fields, political races, and fund-raising has now signed on to help Donald Trump---and went gunning for pheasant in Iowa with two of Trump's sons.

"These kids are the real deal," said Don Peay, founder of a group known as Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, in an interview with 2News. "They're authentic. Everyone wants to think they are these spoiled kids from New York. They don't shy away from the fact they have a great life; but they're kind of blue collar kids. They like to hunt, they like to fish, they like to camp."

Don Peay shilling for Trump in Deseret News:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865661720/My-view-Trumps-family-values-are-Utahs-values.html

Pay very close attention to this quotation:

They ended up having a great time in Utah as they skied at Sundance, fly fished in the Provo River and went snowmobiling in Utah’s great outdoors. Don Jr. also spent a lot of time with the Utah legislature and western land policy makers and gave a great speech at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo where he received two standing ovations.

[_Kishkumen]

It was none other than Don Peay who called in to KSL Radio to chat about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing at Trump's inauguration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8BVyEeiVMU

Peay says it was Don Jr.'s idea during his September trip to Utah to have the choir sing for the inauguration.

[_Kishkumen]

Peay's interest in stealing public land and handing it over to private energy companies:

Ties to the Energy Industry

In 2004, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife supported a land swap between the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Hunt Consolidated, a Dallas-based oil company. This deal effectively shut the public out of nearly 80,000 acres of public lands. The Utah based sportsmen group, Desolation Canyon Coalition, said at the time, “there is something inherently wrong about denying the public access to public lands.” On October 4, 2004, the Salt Lake Tribune said of the land swap:

“Helping drive the trade from the other end has been Don Peay, whose Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife organization is hugely influential on Capitol Hill – and is a past beneficiary of Hunt Oil financial contributions.”

Salt Lake Tribune, October 4, 2004

That’s certainly not the only instance where Peay has run opposite of mainstream sportsmen groups. Asked to comment on a study that highlighted a decline in mule deer population in a heavily industrialized area of Wyoming, Peay said, “there are a lot of biologists that are full of bull****. They make up a lot of convenient lies to support their own agenda.”

http://westernvaluesproject.org/taxpayer-dollars-down-the-drain-utah-group-favors-privatized-hunting-energy-industry-over-hunters-anglers/

[_Kishkumen]

Keep in mind that the LDS Church runs private hunting preserves staffed by missionaries:

ELBERTA, Utah County — Every morning before sunrise, Clair Huff slips into his blue jeans, pulls on his boots, grabs a baseball cap and heads out the door to work with his charges. As a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he's shed the traditional dark suit, white shirt and tie.

His responsibilities don't include teaching people about church doctrine, improving their health or distributing food and clothing to disaster victims.

In fact, he doesn't deal with people much at all. His flock is literally that . . . a continually changing group of feathered friends: pheasants, geese, chukkars, doves and ducks. Instead of knocking on doors, he spends his time bush-whacking in the thick brush along the southwest shores of Utah Lake, looking for the perfect place to nurture his birds by planting numerous stands of corn, rye and other grains.

For more than two years, he and his wife, Beth, have been serving God in a most unusual way.

They operate a private hunting preserve owned by the LDS Church.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/770568/Tending-the-flock.html

Is it possible that the LDS Church has in mind buying some of the stolen federal lands and creating from this land more private hunting preserves? Could Don Peay have played a role in making this happen for the LDS Church by brokering a deal with Trump through Don Jr.?

It looks highly possible.