Twit, Thanks, JFK, Heroes, Victims, Climate, Trump Trumped, God Speaks

  • We celebrate, as we should, the Army veteran who took down the shooter at a nightclub in Colorado, and the drag queen who helped him subdue the culprit. Their bravery saved lives.
     
    Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger devotes a piece remembering through photos the loss of 5 innocent victims of hate, five who simply wanted to have an evening of fun.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged tells us about an internet site that targets for violence LGBTQ groups, individuals, their friends, and their allies.
     
    Key passage:
    I don’t doubt there is a certain RW element who wants not just queer people, but their allies, dead. And they need to stop acting so afflicted when we point it out.
     
  • At Scotties Playtime a prominent Republican reacts to the shooting, noting that, because she sees no evidence that they were Christians, the murder victims are now in hell. Hell she says, that they deserve.
     
    My reaction to unrelated messages may apply here as well:

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz seems impatient at the contradiction as Republicans lament the hatred they themselves helped to create.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit explains why data analysis developed by the Department of Homeland Security could help predict incidents of domestic terrorism. She then tells us why this essential anti-terrorism tool has not, and likely never will be, used to protect our communities.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good perceives a political pattern: while public figures use their microphones to cheerlead, the right generally, and Republicans specifically, have declared a war of physical violence on the American people.
     
  • Libertarians, like most ideologues, live in a binary world. There are true believers (good) and there are enemies (evil). There are no gradations.
     
    For members of that tribe, there exist only freedom lovers who oppose all governmental interference, and thinly disguised Stalinists who want to put the world into a gigantic re-education camp.
     
    The overwhelming scientific consensus that climate scorch is real, that it is dangerous, and that it is caused by human activity, heavily implies a need for regulation.
     
    So libertarians have no alternative but to reject the entire idea.
     
    Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara has a Thanksgiving message. He lists his personal heroes in the fight against “dangerous gross exaggerations about climate change”.
     
    A key passage:
    Battling against the demonizers who label them “deniers” of climate or science, these important thinkers have begun to turn the tide against the anti-human catastrophists.
     
    I can empathize with resentment at labeling. I resent the demonizers who label me “bald” or “elderly” or “round about the middle”.
     
  • Professor PZ Myers, like Michael A. LaFerrara, is not a climate scientist. But, being a scientist himself, he knows several and studies their work. So what he says about the danger to humanity is factual and fact packed.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life joins Republicans in their reaction to the stunning election results.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony lists some of this month’s losses for anti-abortion candidates and referenda. He speculates that Republicans may modify their no-exceptions stance: Abortion must be opposed except when prohibition will endanger the life or health of the next Republican campaign.
     
  • As returns were coming in last week, Green Eagle had a thought that holds up pretty well this week. Maybe things went worse for Republicans than will be generally recognized for a while.
     
  • Or maybe not.
     
    Although the great red wave turned into a tepid ripple, The Propaganda Professor reminds us that it was not all good news. In fact, the bad news is a portend of possible devastation that poses several direct dangers to the core principles of democracy.
     
  • Hackwhackers has a pretty good idea how Republicans will handle their new slim majority.
     
  • A prophet tells us that God wants the election overturned. In fact, God is actually speaking through her.
     
    Julian Sanchez of Cato Institute seems skeptical:

  • This will be delightful.
     
    News Corpse reports as Herschel Walker challenges Joy Reid to a debate. An-n-n-n-nd guess what happens next!
     
  • I have never really believed in Karma, except perhaps in some extended form over multiple lives. My experience has been that bad people often do bad things in bad ways and never come to regret it. What goes around does not always come around. It sometimes comes out in the wash whitewashed.
     
    I do recall exceptions. One pundit watched Nixon go from King-of-the-Hill to buried in his own avalanche in spectacular fashion and wondered at the proof that God is really at work among us.
    Exception-and-rule rule, I remember thinking.
     
    The Palmer Report applies Karma to a stunningly bad week in TrumpLand.
     
    It’s a time for mixed metaphors as the goose of a turkey gets cooked.
     
    I dunno. We’ll see.
     
  • In Nan’s Notebook, Nan is happy that 14,904 people have signed a petition sponsored by a Christian organization protesting a prospective second Trump presidency.
     
    Don’t know if she actually intended this implied criticism to include all of us:
    FINALLY! A group of believers that have seen through the Great Façade!
     
    Intended or not, we may deserve it.
     
  • Frances Langum considers a hyper-dumb question by Fox host Jesse Watters and discerns more evidence that the suits at Fox are dumping Trump and dumping on Trump.
     
  • A Trump advisor is in despair:


    The first explanation from Trump enthusiasts is that Donald’s dinner with Kanye did not include white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
     
    Then mr Trump explains that Kanye brought in a couple of friends. Trump had no idea who they were, had never heard of them, had no conversation with them, and then after eating wordlessly they left.
     
    tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has other sources who were there. Apparently, Kanye and everyone else confirm the dinner was more eventful.
     
    Included is this:


    And this insight from tengrain:
    And when you’ve lost Byron York, there’s not much left in the bottom of the barrel.
     

  • Infidel753 cites evidence that reports of rapes in Ukraine by out of control Russian troops are largely inaccurate. The troops are not out of control. Those sexual abuses are encouraged, often ordered, by Russian military leadership.
     
    He suggests that such practices parallel those inflicted by other authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, and are frequently used to enforce religious taboos.
     
    He does not exclude Christians.
     
  • When advised that the Vatican might not be happy with Soviet attacks on Catholics, Stalin is said to have laughed. How many divisions does the Pope have?
     
    As the Human Rights office of the United Nations announces an investigation into Iran’s brutal reaction to popular protests, the casual observer, which is to say me, might be tempted to respond derisively. It seems like a Susan Collins level of sputtered concern.
     
    What possible difference can an investigation make when it merely targets already obvious brutality? Even worse, what actual significance when conducted by those with no power to enforce? How many divisions do investigators have?
     
    At The Moderate Voice Brij Khindaria explains the significance.
     
    Not every authoritarian regime is assured of remaining in power indefinitely. An official UN finding could increase the stakes for those who might not only lose power, but could then be hauled into an international court.
     
  • YellowDog Granny posits a reasonable speculation of how God created Dog.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is instructed by my Brother-In-Christ that he would once more become a Bible believing Christian if only he would interpret the Good Book with greater maturity.
     
    Bruce is graced with a gentle, thoughtful humor. But his friendly jibes infuriate my fellow Christian, who leaves in an angry cloud of pure huff.
     
    People of faith often share the affliction of arrogance. I wince when I see my own replicated so blatantly.
     
    We need not give up our faith to accept the wisdom offered by others. Bruce is frequently a worthy source.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has useful holiday advice:

  • Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo rip apart Justice, Supreme Court leaker, and frequent guest speaker at gatherings of right-wing ideologues, Samuel Alito:
     
  • Tommy Christopher covers, in hilarious detail, the WeddingGate scandal. Reporters for national media outlets vent their rage on camera at not being invited to the ceremony.
     
    Included is a wonderful debate about whether a private wedding is truly private if pictures of the couple are allowed before the event begins.
     
    Key passage:
    Is there a power in the universe that wants to argue with a bride on her wedding day?
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL’s husband Khashayar has a terrific recipe for a sweet potato frittata. Directions in the podcast are not that hard to follow, but she puts it in print as well.
     
  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac comes up with a topical definition of the word Fascismo.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil lists seven things he wishes would go away forever. The 7th strikes me as a bit extreme, but it is endorsed by Elvis, so there is that.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress provides useful advice on how to answer the little girl you babysit that, no, you are without a boyfriend, but that it is way cool.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has cats who like to watch snow.
     

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