Jefferson’s ‘Wall’ is Embedded in the First Amendment. Protect It.

found online by Raymond

 
From Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

No one is suggesting that displays can’t be built and funded on private property by private funds, and displayed to the public. But using public property, which is theoretically owned by everyone, and taxpayer funds effectively forces people to sanction and pay for religious ideas they may not agree with.

And if a Christian display is allowed, shouldn’t Muslim displays also be allowed? Or atheist displays? Or anyone with conscientious beliefs of any kind? We’d all be fighting for our own piece of government property, and access to our neighbors’ wallets. We’d have a free-for-all, effectively politicizing private beliefs. Isn’t this precisely what the First Amendment’s implied “Wall of Separation between Church and State” is intended to protect us against?

We can only guess what Jefferson would think about the Bladensburg cross. But it is hard to believe he would sanction taking money from private citizens to pay for it.

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Our Modern-Day Herbert Hoover!

found online by Raymond

 
From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:

Recently, Donald Trump was bemoaning the scenario where one of his opponents could label him as a Herbert Hoover-type. He may have had a point in expressing that fear. There are many differences between the two men: Hoover was a far more affable man, and he did show leadership ability we have yet to see the likes of in Trump. He believed that government had a role to play in people’s lives (albeit on a limited basis), and he never dreamed of trying to profit from it. Yet there are a number of similarities. Trump’s inaction during his bogus government shutdown has led to 800,000 federal employees being shut out of work, plus over 1 million more who were government contractors have also been permanently deprived of a paycheck. Though Trump finally relented and agreed to end his grandstanding shutdown, relief could only be temporary, and that idiot could impose another one after February 15…

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When It’s This Cold, What Is Left to Say?

found online by Raymond

 
From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:

I know you’re waiting for me to make a political point, so let’s see…

Anyone ever notice how much Governor Tony Evers looks like the Snow Miser?

The governor has declared a state of emergency because of the weather. We’re not going to criticize Evers, although we’ll bring it up every time he mentions Global Warming. However, if Governor Scott Walker had done this at this point in his first term, he would have been accused of creating “a police state.”

Someone else pointed out on Facebook that the bad weather started when Evers took down the “Open for Business” signs. That’s about as scientific as some of the theories I’ve heard about the snow and cold.

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Kimmel Asks Kids to Explain ‘Global Waming’ and Climate to Trump

found online by Raymond

 
From Tommy Christopher:

Trump wrote on Twitter Monday night. “People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!”

Live with Jimmy Kimmel host Jimmy Kimmel read Trump’s tweet aloud on the air Tuesday night, and asked “Is he dumb or just pretending to be done?”

“I think we give him the benefit of the doubt and say he’s actually dumb,” Kimmel replied to himself, and set out to remedy the situation with a filmed piece in which two adorable children named Apollo (8 years old) and Kaitlynn (10 years old) explain things like the greenhouse effect and the difference between climate and weather.

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Brexit—Are We Nearly There Yet?

found online by Raymond

 
From Neil Bamforth at MadMikesAmerica:

Theresa May is now going back to the EU to tell them that the deal they had agreed to has to be changed in order for it to have any chance of being passed through Parliament.

If the EU declines – as they are saying they will – then there will quite possibly be no deal, and we will ‘crash out’ of the EU.

The consequences of such a scenario are, in truth, unknown to anybody. That, of course, is not preventing both sides from publicizing their ‘beliefs’ as the gospel truth.

‘Remainers’ say it will be disastrous and chaotic. ‘Brexiteers’ say it will be fine and we will just carry on as normal under WTO rules. Normal? Normal?? Well, one thing is for certain, there is nothing ‘normal’ about all of this, and that’s for sure.

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Davos Panel Goes Rogue On Economic Inequality: Tax The Rich!

found online by Raymond

 
From Frances Langum:

A panel on inequality tells the billionaires at Davos what they DON’T want to hear: “Pay your damn taxes.”

This wasn’t what Davos had in mind.

The panel was billed by the organizers as “Economic inequality continues to drive a populist backlash against a status quo that favours elite. How can policy changes and technological innovations change this dynamic?”

In other words, not how do we change policy to bring economic equality, but how do we stop the populist backlash against the status quo?

This panel wasn’t playing at that.

Historian Rutger Bregman was adamant: the wealthy need to stop avoiding taxes.

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The Art of the Cave

found online by Raymond

 
From Infidel753:

Hair Furor Agolf Twitler has just learned the hard way that a shutdown is not a winning strategy for him, and that he’s way out of his league messing with Pelosi. In any case, having caved the first time, he’ll have that much less credibility if he tries the same thing again.

In three weeks, rather than launch another shutdown only to crash and burn again, he may well go the state-of-emergency route. Such a move would make him look tough and decisive (in the eyes of his idiot base, but that’s all that matters to him), and even though it would be tied up in the courts for months, he could still postpone the day when it dawns on the Trumpanzees that there’s never going to be any wall.

Or maybe by then he’ll have bigger issues to deal with. Like a forklift driving up to the White House every morning with the day’s pallet of subpoenas from various House committees.

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Do you have any idea how hard it is not to use the F-word when talking about Donald Trump? It’s damn near f-ing impossible. #FactsMatter #HowToTrainYourDragon

found online by Raymond

 
(Hilarious)
 
From Helen Philpot with Margaret and Helen:

Margaret, I know you don’t Tweet unless you are talking to your parrots. And for what it’s worth, I told you those things would outlive us. I know you thought I was stupid to get on the Twitter. Well, I should have listened to you, honey. I came. I tweeted. And I got covered in shit. Probably because Twitter is chock-full of assholes who don’t know the difference between your and you’re.

Now before all you NitTwits out there write me off, read on for a little bit. There are some things that are good about Twitter. Most are not easy to find, but they’re there if you are willing to work a bit. I’ll explain…

On Friday, a jackass named Roger Stone whined that the FBI had raided his home leaving himself, his dog, his wife (in that order) and even his neighbor forever traumatized. From his description, it’s hard to believe he was able to pull it all together in time to make a speech, do a few radio interviews, and then finish it off with a couple of cable news shows, all while hoping someone would ask him about how he once took out personal ads referring to himself as a body builder with a hot wife looking for muscular studs for threesomes. Yep. True story. Stone is a real asshat.

But I’ve gotten off track. This really isn’t about Roger Stone. However, I would like to take a second to point out that while he was kicked off Bob Dole’s campaign for his little trio fetish, he was eventually hired again by George W. Bush and, of course, Donald J. Trump. In fact, given enough time I can probably prove that while not every asshole is on Twitter, they are all on a Republican payroll somewhere.

Anyway, back to the point of this story…

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In Ominous Development for Trump, Roger Stone Gets Mueller Tattoo

found online by Raymond

 
From Andy Borowitz:

Minutes after being released on bail, Stone was reportedly driven to a tattoo-removal specialist in Jersey City, who spent nine hours removing his notorious back tattoo of Richard Nixon to make room for the newly minted Mueller tat.

News of Stone’s Mueller tattoo sent a wave of panic through the White House, where top aides attempted to predict what the tattoo portended for Stone’s loyalty to Trump going forward.

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Those wacky billionaires!

found online by Raymond

 
From PZ Myers:

Michael Dell, the billionaire, was asked what he thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to increase the marginal tax rate to 70%. He didn’t like that at all. His reasoning was mostly skewered by a competent economist on the panel, who pointed out that the US had that rate for quite a long while during a period of strong growth.

But I was amused by another point. He claimed he donated more to his charitable foundation than the increased rate would take from him.

My wife and I set up a foundation about 20 years ago, and we would have contributed quite a bit more than a 70 per cent tax rate on my annual income.

That seemed unlikely. So I had to look it up…

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