- Julian Sanchez, senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, does not care much for the Trump legal attack on TikTok and WeChat, international Chinese-owned internet media companies. Julian regards the national security rationale as pathetically thin, and the attack itself as self-destructive for the United States.
- James Dobson, my brother-in-Christ is a perpetual family embarrassment. He is firmly anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-same-sex-marriage, anti-liberal. I’m familiar with the pattern. I have family members with whom I have relationships that are mercifully distant and friends who believe that God loves them, accepts them, and shares their hatred of gays, Muslims, and Obama.
Dobson goes a little further, adopting the apparent ethic that false witness in the service of the Lord is a duty on the battlefield of culture war. In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce explains how Dobson valiantly makes the case for my president. Good Christians have a sacred duty to vote for Trump.
- Vixen Strangely, at Strangely Blogged, sees the weird flailings of a desperate candidate. So Trump now accuses of Biden of being against God? Well, nothing else has worked.
- Hackwhackers gets clarity, as a Trump advisor reveals how the administration views democracy. Larry Kudlow says that “voting rights” are a “liberal left wish list.”. The quotes are accurate and in context.
- John Scalzi at Whatever reacts with profane determination at post office sabotage as a form of voter repression. He’ll vote no matter what.
- tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors runs a few laps around main stream internet, gathering reactions to Trump’s attack on postal delivery. I do like that Senator Susan Collins is very concerned. Personal note: like many seniors, I get prescriptions by mail. Like many seniors, I hope to survive this latest Republican dirty trick.
- Jonathan Bernstein crunches a few numbers and applies a bit of logic as my president goes postal. So maybe this new form of voter suppression will backfire on candidate Trump. He makes a case. Still, voter suppression is a moral monstrosity. What counts in a democracy is not the rights of an ideology or party. Democracy is, and should be, about the rights of each individual voter.
- At The Onion, the Trump online store allows fans to own a piece of history, selling decommissioned USPS mailboxes.
- Ant Farmer’s Almanac explains Republican morality in the shortest conceivable post. Shortest ever, but the right length for complete accuracy.
- nojo agrees that, with the Trump administration, we are living through a horribly pressure-filled movie, and argues that we should still be grateful. It could be an even more stress filled movie, with a more deadly plot.
- Frances Langum watches Tucker so you don’t have to. This week Mr. Carlson explains the motivation that is carefully hidden in the deep crevises of the mind of Kamala Harris: that the vaccine for COVID-19 should only be given to people of a certain color. Thank you Tucker. Most of us never suspected what you knew all along.
- Remember when negative references to race were delivered with some deniability? The good old days? So Mike Pence offers his own first written reaction to the selection of Kamala Harris. A Trump supporter proudly posts it: The stakes have never been higher, Al, and we need your help to send a message that this is YOUR Country, NOT THEIRS. Just look at her. Kamala Harris. Your country, not theirs. Not theirs. Not those people. Get it yet?
- Tommy Christopher covers the apology after a Republican mayor in Virginia refers to Kamala Harris as Aunt Jemima. Some of his defenders did him little good, but his apology does not seem to have been the tepid if-I-offended-anyone type we have seen. “I understand what I posted on social media was wrong, offensive, and unbecoming. It does not reflect what is in my heart.” This is followed by a plea for forgiveness and a promise to do better.
- News Corpse watches as a Fox News host is stunned at being told for the first time that schoolchildren can catch, transmit, and occasionally die from the coronavirus.
- Scotties Toy Box listens as Florida Governor DeSantis declares opening schools in the face of the pandemic to be on par with the Navy Seal mission to kill Osama bin Laden. Kind of gives you a warm feeling watching those little patriots bravely marching into danger, risking their lives and their families for their country.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has charts and expert analysis of the true number of US dead from coronavirus. It’s substantially higher than officially reported. Musical accompaniment from back in the sixties (those were the days) has a nice beat and dismal words. Fits the post.
- Professor PZ Myers does not like conclusions, even those with which he agrees, when they come from dishonest manipulation of data. Canada has done a better job of handling the coronavirus than has the madcap Trump administration. But if you can’t make your case with integrity, don’t make it.
- At MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist is enraged at the looting and violence against property that has occurred in Chicago. One object of his anger is a self-proclaimed Black Lives Matter organizer who proclaims the destruction and thefts to be a form of racial reparation. Glenn does quote Jesse Jackson as calling the looting “embarrassing and humiliating.”
Like some otherwise sensible folks, Glenn conflates the BLM movement with the violence. My conservative friend Darrell is more explicit, putting “peaceful protests” in scare quotes and reprinting a dishonest account of additional BLM vandalism by a religious leader, an account that turns out to be another case of lying for the Lord.
Fear can do that. A beloved relative, now departed, was a firm believer in racial equality until 1968 as she watched looting on television and saw the distant glow of flames from the front lawn of her home on the outskirts of Detroit. Scared her right down to her tippy-toes. Her bigotry lasted until her death.
We can hope that more discerning observers will make the necessary distinction. We can begin with a more complete quote of the partial paraphrase in the piece by Glenn Geist. Jesse Jackson stands firm in steadfast support of the Black Lives Matter movement.What say we follow that good example, begin making important distinctions, and apply moral condemnation where it belongs? In addition to the looting and violence, we may want to aim a bit of that condemnation in the direction of the fool who justified the destruction as a form of reparation.
- My long-time conservative friend, Darrell Michaels, is Unabashedly American. He leaves his right-wing perch for a moment to give us an account of his visit to Rome. He includes wonderful pictures of Vatican sights.
Reminds me of my childhood hero. Liberal Democrat, President John F. Kennedy, once autographed a photo for his conservative friend Barry Goldwater. To steal a phrase, I wish Darrell great luck in pursuing his natural talent: photography.
- The Journal of Improbable Research has a government video on Explosion Puffing, a food dehydration process that works better than freeze drying. I’m hoping my president doesn’t hear about it. He’ll think explosion puffing is a weapon to be used against his choice of America’s enemies: China or Iran or Germany or Michigan.
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