Month: October 2017

 
From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

While most eyes this week were on the carnage in Las Vegas, the catastrophe in Puerto Rico, or the dangerous provocations towards Pyongyang and Tehran, the Trump administration was hard at work deconstructing the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. While that bulwark of American civil rights promises “due process of law” and “equal protection of the laws” to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” Donald Trump has declared that some persons are more equal than others.

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From Tommy Christopher:

Sanders never bothered to say what he said was true, only that she “supports” his account because it was “heartfelt”:

“I support him in his account of that interaction and what he saw and how he felt.”

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Wondering why a few conservative friends fail to be impressed.

 
From Neil Bamforth MadMikesAmerica:

America has elected Trump, Britain has voted for Brexit, North Korea is ruled by a lunatic, Islamic State want to kill us, the World Health Organisation has appointed Zimbabwe’s dictatorial maniac Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador (can anything be more surreal? They have now thankfully changed their minds), the Earth’s climate is clearly changing far more rapidly than nature intended, other life forms continue to become extinct due to humanity, the environment is being destroyed everywhere you turn but, on the plus side, we ain’t dead yet.

Actually, in terms of Kim Jong-un and Robert Mugabe ‘not dead yet’ is not necessarily on the plus side but there you go eh?

The late great David Bowie once said – and I paraphrase as I can’t remember it verbatim – “Morally we haven’t really changed in 20,000 years”.

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From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

There is an incredible back-and-forth regarding the four deceased service members who were on a mission in Niger and were killed by an ambush attack from as many as 50 ISIS-linked combatants. Somehow, the story has been diverted from the nature of their mission and the purpose and reasons for their sacrifice, and has become a strange debate on the nature of how we recognize the ultimate sacrifice of our military personnel and the appropriate observances that should be made.

These were, by all accounts, excellent people from differing backgrounds, but united in a desire to exercise their skills with a sense of purpose. What we know of the expected White House response to their unfortunate end was that a good statement was made regarding their service and the importance of their mission (in Niger, both ISIS and Boko Haram have been known to operate, and Niger is also well-known for uranium). This well-crafted statement was never delivered.

“Melania and I are heartbroken at the news that three U.S. service members were killed in Niger on October 4 while providing guidance and assistance to Nigerien security force counter-terror operations. We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of these brave American soldiers and patriots. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers.

“We are also praying for the two U.S. service members who were injured in the incident. We wish them a complete and swift recovery.

“The heroic Americans who lost their lives yesterday did so defending our freedom and fighting violent extremism in Niger. Our administration and our entire nation are deeply grateful for their sacrifice, for their service, and for their patriotism.”

What we had instead was a nearly two-week period of silence from the White House regarding the deaths of these service members, despite news reports, until a reporter questioned President Trump about these men in a Rose Garden press conference on Monday. That was when Trump, apparently unguardedly, spoke offhand about the event.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Christianity quickly faded into the distance as each side cheered their team, calling on them to pummel their opponent into submission. Players were encouraged to hit hard, incapacitating their enemy. So much was on the line: future tales of gridiron glory and a conference championship awaited the team with the most points at the end of the game. As the game wore on, one team got the upper hand and handily beat their rival into the ground. From both sides of the field, the people who just an hour or so ago were singing praises to their God were now screaming and cursing at the officials. One offended fan even went so far as to attack one of the officials because he was fat, leading my son to say, what does the official’s weight have to do with the call he made?

After the game, as I walking to my car, a man and his son passed by me. As they did, the father asked the son what he had been doing during the game (many children “attend” football games, but don’t actually watch the event). The boy replied, we were playing smear the queer.

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From Frances Langum:

The “silencing of them after the fact” happens because in exchange for a cash settlement those who step forward with reporting their sexual harassment are forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. Trump has been protected by those for years, not only in terms of sexual harassment but also reports he used racist language on the set of The Apprentice. Trump’s campaign made phone bank workers sign NDA’s as well. Who asks phone bank workers to sign NDAs ahead of time? Trump does.

And a word about Irena Briganti. That Megyn Kelly mentioned her by name is huge.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends fail to be impressed.

 
From the Borowitz Report:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a stirring defense of Donald Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Friday that it was “unpatriotic in the extreme” to offer irrefutable video proof that a four-star general lied.

“It is unpatriotic enough to accuse a four-star general of lying,” Sanders told the White House press corps. “But to make available a video that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that that general lied is unpatriotic bordering on treasonous.”

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

If you’re a professed Christian currently still supporting this President and Administration, and you’re on your way to church on Sunday—here are a few things you might talk with God about, as you stand shoulder to shoulder in a room filled with other supposed followers of Jesus, singing, raising your hands skyward, and imagining yourself righteous:

Pray about the 48 confirmed dead in Puerto Rico; for those who still have no water, no food, no medication, and no way to contact loved ones who are still desperately waiting to hear their voices since Maria—and because your President has spent the past two weeks insulting their exhausted mayor, telling these American citizens they’ve all damaged the budget by their tragedy, suggesting that their people are lazy, and threatening to abandon them completely.

Pray about the tens of millions of sick, elderly, and poor who are slowly being suffocated, as your President sabotages the Affordable Care Act; literally taking life-giving, life-saving care from those least able to procure it; sacrificing the health and healing of human beings simply to destroy Barack Obama’s legacy.

Pray about the people of color in this country who recently watched torch-bearing racists march through a city, terrorize clergy, beat people with pipes, and kill a young woman with little more than a slap on the wrist from your President—while he relentlessly crusades on social media against black ESPN reporters and kneeling football players who he called “sons of bitches”.

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