# Ilhan Omar - A thread about her marriage and immigration history. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 20, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347 "2019-07-20T12:32:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 45
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/882 "2019-09-29T12:14:45Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > ORLY? Cite? > [@Black Panther movie](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/511): > > My friendly advice is that you learn from the best (that’s me) and when your position is untenable, just concede the point—but then quickly and smoothly pivot and tack to an argument where you are in a stronger position, or at least not so desperately behind the eight ball …except you usually skip the “concede the point” bit and go straight to the “smoothly pivot and tack to a different argument” part. > [@](#): > > What I am and what I believe can certainly not be accurately summarized by your simplistic epithets. And **I still have not lied about a damn thing.** Said the liar. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/883 "2019-09-29T12:19:42Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Very few if any people are just “good” or “evil”. I would call the people you’re talking about my political adversaries. But I don’t hyperventilate or stagger over to a fainting couch when they make up ridiculous bullshit or pass it on. I just calmly try to help my team win the PR war. Politics ain’t beanbag, as the saying goes. Ahh, not a Republican ethical compass, no ethical compass at all, gotcha. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/884 "2019-09-29T12:20:26Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I am strongly supportive of the vast majority of the Congressional Black Caucus. Uh, no you’re not. Literally the only time I’ve seen you support the CBC is this post, where you claim you support the CBC. Otherwise you ignore their members except when it’s time to attack them. “Strong support” would look like having far more posts that support members than posts that attack members. As for your noble claims of your own honesty? You’re the same idiot who on the same page declared that you’d be willing to lie about Omar if you supported her views. Nobody’s buying your claims about how honest you are, and maybe you shouldn’t make them so close to claims about how cavalier you are about lying. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/885 "2019-09-29T13:04:15Z")
Learn to read. I never advocated lying about Omar. I said it genuinely looks to me like she is covering up something, but something I don’t believe is any grave sin in and of itself. If it were Emmanuel Cleaver or William Lacy Clay, I wouldn’t pull at this thread because I don’t want to take them down. But I am, as you well know, pissed off at Omar. So if her pre-politics marriage shenanigans are now making things awkward for her, I am happy to do my part to increase the discomfort. No lies involved. ETA: If you’re referring to my saying I would help “sweep it under the rug” if I liked her, I did not mean by lying. Just by protesting “who cares what went on with her marriages, that’s her business”, stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/886 "2019-09-29T13:13:00Z")
The real lie would be if I claimed that “it would be a grave and troubling ethical breach if she violated our immigration laws”, or some nauseatingly sanctimonious bullshit like that. I am being 100% honest about where I am coming from. It’s political hardball, nothing more or less. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/887 "2019-09-29T15:43:06Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I don’t think the stuff that she is accused of around her marriages is “evil”. The stuff I dislike her for is a matter of public record. This is just a convenient way to get her. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I don’t like “the squad” because they attack the mainstream of the party. (Underlining mine.) Your moral compass is broken. I don’t know what to say to you. Maybe go talk with an imaam or something. **Crowmanycloud’s** calling you a Republican and observation of the similarities between these accusations and those used by Republicans against the Clintons and Obamas should give you pause. Your contempt for "the squad” and your willingness to leverage rumors and lies to undermine them betrays a (contemporary) Republican attitude. - Party over principles - Status quo over progress - Those who demand better from people in power are rabble rousers - Those who fight for civil rights and equality must be stepped on If the Democrats need the squad to remind them to be better than the Republicans, it’s not the squad that has the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/888 "2019-09-30T01:05:06Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I never advocated lying about Omar. […] So if her pre-politics marriage shenanigans are now making things awkward for her, I am happy to do my part to increase the discomfort. You are maliciously attempting to portray Omar’s marital history as “shenanigans” and encouraging other people to view it as “awkward” and discreditable, despite the fact that you have no actual evidence of her committing any illegal or unethical acts. Your attempts are motivated only by your (factually unsupported) suspicions about some unspecified “hinkiness” in her personal life, and your partisan dislike of her having criticized mainstream Democrats (although not in the way or to the extent that you obtusely insist on believing she has). Surely you can see how your openly admitted and unjustified slimy smear “tactics” about Omar seriously impair your credibility when you indignantly claim that you wouldn’t actually **lie** about her. :dubious: Uh-huh, right. You probably just imagine that being willing to lie about Omar while claiming not to be willing to lie about her will somehow score you some points in your imagined game of “political hardball” if you can persuade us to believe your claims. You’ve already admitted that you want to harm her politically and don’t care if your insinuations about her are true or not as long as they harm her. Why should anybody believe you when you pretend to care about some vaguely identified boundary between insinuation and outright lying? (To save you the trouble of trying to come up with an answer to that, I’ll point out that it’s a rhetorical question. I for one **don’t** believe you when you pretend to care about drawing a distinction between insinuation and outright lying.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/889 "2019-09-30T01:10:45Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s political hardball, nothing more or less. It’s not political hardball. You are a political nonentity. It’s just shitty fantasizing on your part: “If I had any power or influence at all in the world, gee whiz would I sure be a badass!” ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/890 "2019-09-30T01:16:18Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Chisquirrel, you’re losing the plot. I don’t think the stuff that she is accused of around her marriages is “evil”. The stuff I dislike her for is a matter of public record. This is just a convenient way to get her. So still nothing about any actual wrongdoing? Got it. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/891 "2019-09-30T13:25:18Z")
> [@Interesting podcast conversation between Sam Harris and Charles Murray (of "Bell Curve" fame)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-podcast-conversation-between-sam-harris-and-charles-murray-of-bell-curve-fame/785052/1799): > > I have perhaps not said, but will say now FTR, that I also welcome immigrants from virtually any other part of the world, as long as they are not Muslim. Holy shit dude, really? Why don’t you post this totally non-bigoted opinion on your crappy Twitter account? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/892 "2019-09-30T13:27:05Z")
Do you teach your children to denigrate and discriminate against strangers based on their religion? Or is this just another thing part of you recognizes is morally wrong, and so you don’t share it with them, but you still cling to it personally? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/893 "2019-09-30T13:36:19Z")
Perhaps he could get you in his head to let him know when an opinion is bigoted? Seemed to help some other poster. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/894 "2019-09-30T16:27:59Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Perhaps he could get you in his head to let him know when an opinion is bigoted? Seemed to help some other poster. I’ll gladly volunteer myself to take residence in anyone’s head who so desires. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/895 "2019-09-30T18:14:50Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’ll gladly volunteer myself to take residence in anyone’s head who so desires. I would take you up on that, but I just remembered you are the most dangerous person on this message board. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/896 "2019-09-30T19:43:35Z")
It’s true. It’s always the quiet ones. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/897 "2019-09-30T20:01:49Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Do you teach your children to denigrate and discriminate against strangers based on their religion? Or is this just another thing part of you recognizes is morally wrong, and so you don’t share it with them, but you still cling to it personally? I don’t know how you could actually be reading this thread and think I have any respect for religion or have any tolerance for the idea that being against religion (including being more disgusted by some religions than others) would be something I think (even “deep down”) is morally wrong. Not only are there abundant recent examples here of my contempt for religion, I have repeatedly made it clear in various threads that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Bill Maher are my heroes. Do I need to paint you a picture? :smack: > [@Kimstu](#): > > You’ve already admitted that you want to harm her politically and don’t care if your insinuations about her are true or not as long as they harm her. The second part is false. If you have sincerely misunderstood my posts this way, please cite whatever it is I said that led you to this misapprehension, and I will help you understand how you misread it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/898 "2019-09-30T20:15:02Z")
So I guess the answer to my first question is “yes”. That’s a shame for your kids. Hopefully they’ll learn from other sources that bigotry is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/899 "2019-09-30T20:21:34Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I don’t know how you could actually be reading this thread and think I have any respect for religion or have any tolerance for the idea that being against religion (including being more disgusted by some religions than others) would be something I think (even “deep down”) is morally wrong. {…} Again, good for you! But, Christians are not Christianity, Jews are not Judaism, and MUSLIMS ARE NOT ISLAM! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/900 "2019-09-30T21:22:37Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > You’ve already admitted that you want to harm her politically and don’t care if your insinuations about her are true or not as long as they harm her. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > The second part is false. No, it’s not. You have admitted over and over that the only basis for your “suspicions” is an evidence-free “hunch” that there are some kind of “hinky” “shenanigans” in Omar’s marital history which you don’t think are even worth being concerned about on ethical grounds. You have absolutely zero evidence that your “hunch” or “suspicions” are actually true. But you nonetheless want to get other people to believe in these unsupported allegations of “shenanigans”, also without any evidence, simply because you are hoping they’ll generate negative PR to damage Omar politically. That definitely qualifies as not caring whether your insinuations are true or not as long as they harm her. If you cared whether they were true or not, you’d have scruples about encouraging other people to believe them without any evidence. Post #327: > [@](#): > > My hunch is that he is actually not her brother, but that the reason she can’t disprove this is that doing so would require confessing to some other immigration-related malfeasance. Post #408: > [@](#): > > I should add too that I don’t exactly think the shenanigans I suspect her of being up to are some kind of huge moral failing. […] It looks to me like she probably did something technically illegal, but not heinous or even unethical. If she were a politician I liked, I would be perfectly content for the whole thing to fade away. Post #410: > [@](#): > > Stirring the shit-kettle isn’t just good for the right. I think it’s arguably even better for those of us Democrats who are trying to keep that wing of the party from gaining power and influence. Post #540: > [@](#): > > I personally don’t think it’s any great ethical lapse […] But I’m happy to use this awkward scenario to damage a politician I oppose for other reasons. Post #588: > [@](#): > > I am happy to see Omar get tripped up by her fishy actions regarding her various marriages even if I don’t care about them on the merits […] And by the way, as I pointed out in post #443, your smug posturing about “political hardball” boils down to nothing more than this: > [@Kimstu](#): > > “Let’s attract more people to moderate centrist liberal-Democrat views by demonstrating that moderate centrist liberal Democrats are manipulative shitheels encouraging unsupported scandalmongering about left-wing progressive Democrats in order to damage their reputation and influence in the party!” > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I will help you understand how you misread it No, what you’ll do is spin some more lies about it. You can save yourself the trouble; I am tired of trying to take your disingenuous manipulative shitheelery seriously. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/901 "2019-09-30T22:03:30Z")
You misunderstood what my “hunch” was about. It was that the “hinkiness” is probably not that she married her brother (something I am now less confident of) but some other more mundane type of manipulation of green card laws that she is furiously trying to cover up. That she is acting like she has something very awkward and embarrassing to hide is not a hunch but an observation. If I could place a wager and there were some kind of omniscience machine to settle it, I would bet everything I have that she is covering something up. It’s just that the thing she is covering up is likely not to be the type of thing I give a shit about in and of itself. But the fact that voters and the DFL are likely to care about it, and it could thus short-circuit her career, _is_ something I care about. Got it now? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347.md?page=44) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347.md?page=46)