Author: Raymond

 

Burr has the day off. These thoughts, published just after the last national election, are a reminder of what we must do.

Continue reading “What We Must Do in 3 Weeks and 2 Days”

 
From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

Yesterday, the Dow Jones average dropped 832 points. This has Wall Street rattled, and further drops are expected. On top of that, stock in Ford Motor Co. is down 29% and the company has announced that they are laying off 12% of its workforce. Interestingly, the company is blaming Donald Trump’s tariffs.

So, how will the election go if the economy goes south. Despite the fact that Trump has done little to improve the economy, he has been repeatedly taking credit for the (formerly) high stock market and low unemployment. Will he still feel the same way, or will he find a way to blame an economic slump on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or even kneeling football players?

But that isn’t the worst news for Trump.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Over the years, Evangelical zealots have impressed upon me the importance of accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. In their minds, everything else in life pales in comparison to knowing Jesus as your personal Savior. I spent almost fifty years in churches that preached the same message, and my sermons over the course of twenty-five years in the ministry frequently reminded people that Heaven was real, Hell was hot, and death was certain; that the most important decision any of us can make is to repent of our sins and put of faith and trust in Jesus.

I am a decade removed from Christianity, and now the question I ask of Evangelicals is this: why should I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior? I know that my former profession of faith was predicated on facts such as growing up in an Evangelical home, attending Evangelical churches during my formative years, attending an Evangelical college, and being thoroughly immersed in the Evangelical culture, both as a pastor and as a church member, for most of my adult life. If I had not grown up as I did and had all the experiences I had, would I have still embraced the Christian gospel? I don’t know. Maybe. Certainly, a small percentage of Evangelicals are adults when they get saved, so it possible for people not already conditioned by Evangelical belief and practice to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. However, it remains true that most Evangelical adults were either raised in Evangelicalism or transferred from mainline/liberal churches they believed no longer preached the “truth.” The current megachurch craze is fueled, not by lost people getting saved, but by transfer growth. Megachurches are notorious for pillaging the memberships of smaller, more traditional congregations. Much like the Wall Street’s corporate merger frenzy, people from smaller churches or congregations they perceive as “dead,” are joining up with large churches that meet the felt needs of everyone; that have professional musicians and staff; that have cool, hip, relevant pastors. The churches they have left behind slowly die, reaching a place financially — it is always about the money — where they can no longer keep the doors open.

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From PZ Myers:

She sounds awesome. Her existence prompted Michael Kalny, a two-bit racist precinct committeeman, to write to the head of the county Democratic Women chapter with this little rant.

Little Ms. Pritchett- you and your comrades stealth attack on Yoder is going to blow up in your leftist face. The REAL REPUBLICANS will remember what the scum DEMONRATS tried to do to Kavanaugh in November. Your radical socialist kick boxing lesbian will be sent back packing to the reservation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To quote Terry Pratchett, “And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.” I’m not sure what he’d make of someone who used fifty exclamation marks.

Never forget. This is what Republicans are all about: racism, homophobia, misogyny, and oppression.

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From President Donald J. Trump:

Throughout the year, we have seen Democrats across the country uniting around a new legislative proposal that would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives.

Dishonestly called “Medicare for All,” the Democratic proposal would establish a government-run, single-payer health care system that eliminates all private and employer-based health care plans and would cost an astonishing $32.6 trillion during its first 10 years.

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Note: Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post fact checks the President and finds “almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood.”

 
From Earth-Bound Misfit:

I’ll bet that the Saudis think that they’ll get a pass from the United States for killing someone who is a dissident journalist, based, in part, from Trump’s often-stated views that reporters are enemies of the people.

I’ll also wager that their assessment was correct.

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

If you ever say “kinda” or “sorta”, there’s a good chance you’ve been using ‘Pragmatic Halos’ without even knowing about it. Linguistically speaking, ‘Pragmatic Halos’ can include phrases that are not strictly true (but that are neither lies or mistakes) and which are a normal part of honest, error-free discourse.

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From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

Capitalism doesn’t create classes. It eliminates them, by establishing a government that equally protects every individual’s freedom based on individual rights.

Only statism/collectivism creates classes, or castes: e.g., legally enforced group status like aristocrats and peasants, masters and slaves, etc., from which no one can escape. Under capitalism, no one can stop any individual from rising or falling based on his own efforts, so long as his efforts involve only voluntary, non-rights violating agreement, association, and trade with others. (Economic inequality is not classism under capitalism. It is merely a reflection of the individuality and diversity of human nature.)

Today, capitalism doesn’t exist in unadulterated form.

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From Infidel753:

Taylor Swift, the phenomenally popular singer who has previously avoided talking about politics, finally took a public stand this week, endorsing Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee, denouncing reactionary Republican stances on several issues, and urging people to register to vote. This event drew added entertainment value from the fact that the US alt-right and neo-Nazis have long viewed Swift as a kind of “Aryan goddess” icon and fantasized, on no discernible basis, that she secretly leans toward their views. Now that she’s so brusquely burst their bubble, they have one more thing to fly into a rage about.

But what else happened immediately following Swift’s Instagram post? A dramatic spike in voter registrations, especially in Tennessee, where almost as many new voters registered in the 36 hours after she spoke out as during the whole month of September.

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From the Borowitz Report:

“I mean, I couldn’t believe it,” Kavanaugh said. “I had been busting my tail for six hours, and I needed to blow off some steam.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the member of the Court who delivered the bad news to Kavanaugh. “When she told me, I guess I started crying a bit, which I now regret,” he said. “She just kind of closed her office door and went back to work or whatever.”

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