Category: Uncategorized

 
From Frances Langum:

Everybody knew Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing was going to go before the microphones and lie about “no collusion.” This time truth-tellers were ready for him.

But Downing is speaking directly to Trump and hoping for a pardon for his client, so he says what Trump wants to hear and what Trump will repeat.

Kudos to the volume-blessed protestor who interrupted Downing’s microphone schtick with a nice loud “LIAR! THAT’S NOT WHAT SHE SAID.”

“That’s not what she said” then becomes the story, rather than the lies of a mouthpiece for a criminal. More like this please.

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From Infidel753:

Since the Middle East was my area of specialization in academia, I’m sometimes frustrated at the mistaken or oversimplified ideas about the region which are common among Americans. From time to time I’ve tried to provide some background information to readers of this blog, as with this post on the Syrian conflict — or to give a sense of the achievements and character of a civilization I believe Americans tend to underestimate, as with this post and this one, even if only visually.

But nothing could have prepared me for the latest and most bizarre Middle-East-related idea to emerge from the sputtering synapses of the wingnut mind — declaring Donald Trump a modern version of the ancient Persian ruler Cyrus the Great!

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From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

It’s Not Time For Impeachment (Yet)

Speaker Pelosi is right. It is not yet time to try and impeach Trump.

Right now, the effort would likely be doomed to failure. The Senate Republicans would back Trump and refuse to throw him out of office. And currently, not enough of the voting public supports impeachment.

The Mueller investigation has not been finished — and we don’t know what that investigation will have uncovered. In addition, the House committees have just started their investigations — and those investigations will be even more far reaching than Mueller’s. It only makes sense to see what all of these investigations uncover before trying to impeach Trump.

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From our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:

Trump Sees the US Army As a Big Version of Blackwater

The most charitable analysis is that Trump is a geopolitical moron who only sees dollar signs. The less charitable is that Trump wants to do this to weaken NATO, which benefits his boss in the Kremlin.

Trump may have been listening to Betsy DeVois’s brother, who is a mercenary and has had dubious ties to authoritarian regimes. It’s all about the buck for those guys.

For nations, basing troops overseas is a matter of geopolitical concerns. Forward-based troops allow for quicker reaction in a crisis. They protect our national interest.

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

America is facing a growing poverty in these days.

We are going broke an alarming rate, and we need to do something quickly to change our corporate fortunes.

This is a national paucity of the gravest kind: a base level lack of compassion for the welfare of other human beings. It is trickle-down cruelty flowing from the top; an unapologetic callousness that revels in its contempt for people who are hurting or hungry or vulnerable—and it is changing us.

Though they claim to embrace both the Golden Rule and Jesus’ command to love others as they love themselves, supporters of this President seem incapable of asking (or simply refuse to ask) a seemingly elemental question undergirding both:

“What is it like to be someone else?”

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From Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes:

The Bible: a wondrous book, part of the story of my people, especially the English-speaking world which I believe had the first chance to read it in the vernacular tongue. It has influenced us profoundly. For good or ill, enlightenment or colonization and slavery, we’ve exported it across the world.

What is God? I continue to ask the question, don’t accept anyone else’s ready-made answer.

Is there a power afoot we can usefully call Angels? I don’t see God as a singular Almighty invisibly ruling the world from another plane. There is only Nature, something existent before the Big Bang and now immanent in every physical form. I see evidence of a mysterious influence within everything our own bodies and minds. If and when we are able to tune to it, we may receive useful guidance and messages. No need to wait till science and intellect provide us with satisfactory explanation.

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From Dave Dubya:

The Wall Street Journal reports: “AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, raises more than $100 million a year, which it spends on lobbying politicians for U.S. aid and sending members of Congress to Israel”.

Anyone offended? Not yet? Only if facts are offensive to the hypersensitive. I’m OK with that. I suppose that might make me insensitive.

Look! Over there! It’s a Black Muslim woman speaking her mind! “Pro-Israel” lobbyists and donors use their considerable financial resources to influence US policy – Politicians frequently profess ‘allegiance’ to Israel and expect others to do the same”.

Alert! Shocking! Offensive! Now is the time for legislative action in the name of morality!

Even in America, and in the House of Representatives, Black Muslim women must learn their place.

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From Max’s Dad:

I am not a Renthead. Ive never seen any version of the musical Rent. Not the movie, the live play, the only thing I know about Rent is that ubiquitous Seasons of Love which is a great song I have no idea what is about.

Rent is on its 20th Anniversary Tour with a new cast and came to the area, ok, Lincoln, this weekend. We went.

Rent is a musical in true 90’s style. Its grunge, its hip, its before its time. Does it hold up 20 years later? Yep! At least to this non Renthead.

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From Jonathan Bernstein:

A once-fringe idea is creeping into mainstream politics. Democracy will only benefit.

I’ve been writing about the benefits of a lower voting age for years, but I always thought it was a theoretical question. No longer. On Thursday, the House actually held a vote on reducing the minimum age for federal elections, to 16 from 18. Although it didn’t come close to winning, a slim majority of House Democrats (and a lone Republican) went on record in support of the change.

Wow.

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From News Corpse:

It isn’t fear, but intelligence, that drove Democrats to decline to assist Fox in sabotaging their candidates. It makes no sense to reward a network that spends twenty-four hours a day promoting Trump as their savior, while viciously maligning Democrats and others who dare to challenge Trump’s divine right to absolute power.

Now Fox News is helpfully validating the decision by the DNC by continuing to demonstrate their abject hatred for Democrats. On their website they posted two stories next to each other that tells the tale of of Fox’s blatant political prejudices. One story featured a favorite foil for Fox News, Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She was pictured with a caption that read “Bird-Brained” and was accompanied by an article by an avowed climate denier who criticized her “Green New Deal.”

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