Betrayal, Corruption, Trump by the Numbers, Diving, Melting

Trump and Tarot

  • nojo argues compellingly that, with the betrayal of America’s Kurdish allies, the damage to our country is not really long lasting. It is more likely permanent.
     
  • Max’s Dad does not think Mr. Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds was a mistake. It was deliberate. The real motive is obvious.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has a message for conservative evangelicals who proudly declare themselves to be pro-life. If you are not horrified, sick to your stomach, over the Trump-endorsed genocide that has begun against Kurdish families, you are not pro-life.
     
  • Green Eagle suggests an unwitting partner in the Trump/Erdogan ethnic cleansing of our Kurdish allies.
     
  • Tommy Christopher sometimes watches Fox News. He has to. It’s part of his job. On Monday he watched Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump defend the impulsive abandonment of Trump families to the tender mercies of Erdogan. She says it’s not a big deal because most Americans don’t even know who the Kurds are.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger tells us of one American who does know who the Kurds are. The wife of an American soldier writes a letter of hope, fear, and gratitude to Kurdish soldiers, for fighting bravely along with her husband. They were part of his safe return home to her and the family waiting anxiously for him.

  • It seems like modest corruption involving mere money when compared with the betrayal of our Kurdish allies, but News Corpse covers the astonished reaction from the Fox News political editor. After due consideration of a number of sites for next year’s G7 conference, Mr. Trump awards the contract to himself. Update: Mr. Trump has surrendered and will no longer be pocketing this one stream of taxpayer dollars.

  • Jonathan Bernstein points out that multiple rapid-fire scandals don’t seem to affect his hard core support, and asks why. Maybe the numbers are just locked in. Or maybe it’s something else.
     
  • Dave Dubya reads an article about eugenics by a Trump supporter and rips into the author.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony weaves together threads provided by five reporters about body blows to the Trump presidency delivered by Giuliani, a US District judge, a Democratic subpoena now upheld by an Appeals Court, two US Ambassadors, and reaction to Erdogan’s ongoing ethnic cleaning of Kurdish families all in the same week, with more to come.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit believes my president is unable to help doing what he does and, as he careens over the ragged edge, he may actually attempt deadly harm against whomever happens to be within range.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged compellingly explains what caused my president to explode in trembling fury at Nancy Pelosi. Seems she firmly, strongly, put the uncomfortable truth about Trump deeds into forbidden words that provoked his rage: In Trumpland, all roads lead to Putin.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors briefly notes the crazed unsupported, debunked Ukraine-did-it theory of 2016 hacking, and points to evidence that not only did Putin’s guys do it, but that they are still hacking us.
     
  • Apparently, our Attorney General is traveling around the world looking for some way to make real that Ukraine conspiracy theory. Julian Sanchez of libertarian CATO fame goes to twitter, not to jump to conclusions, but to point out that William Barr has gone full tinfoil hat, playing Nancy Drew against his own subordinates and the proven record.
     
  • Infidel753 quotes our Attorney General, William Barr, who insists organized religion is facing a widespread, forceful attack against its very existence. Infidel has no patience with that nonsense. I have discussed my own faith as a committed Christian. I share Infidel’s lack of patience with bogus defensiveness. The real argument is about religious freedom. We Christians are now denied the freedom to force people to our beliefs.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil pokes around online and finds a side-by-side comparison between Mr. Barr’s anti-secularist diatribe and a passage from a 1925 publication. The obvious question is why Barr chose to paraphrase Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
     
  • Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post mourns the death of Congressional Representative Elijah Cummings and explains why we all should.
     
  • Via Scotties Toy Box we find a coarse, snide attack on those struggling through poverty and a powerful takedown of the attacker by AOC.
     
  • The Propaganda Professor proposes that we view racism differently. Perhaps it can be more subtle, more varied in form, and more widespread than we generally think of it. He also asks us to consider degree. At what point does racial consciousness fade to something less than racism?
     
  • Frances Langum brings us the story of an angry white woman who contrasts her own stunned experience with police at her home with that of Atatiana Jefferson, shot and killed while standing next to her window. “I’m still alive and Atatiana Jefferson is not,” she said. “That’s white privilege.”
     
  • Wonder why sexual assaults are so often unreported? PZ Myers cites a single instance involving a doctor, incontrovertible proof, and a stunning reaction by an amazing number of people.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara likes Christopher Columbus. He notes that “Critics, mostly on the Left, point to Christopher Columbus’s brutal treatment of New World natives and support for slavery…” But he credits Columbus with a host of positives, most of which lack even a tenuous connection with the man. He does not deny the slavery and brutality. The main thrust of his defense is … well … history is messy so don’t be so picky. Nobody’s perfect.
     
  • At The Onion, Mark Zuckerberg announces all of Facebook’s future decisions will be made by The Cube Of Justice.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is asked if Jesus was a real person. Many atheists, and a few holding alternate beliefs, say no. Bruce suggests that the evidence is compelling, that Jesus walked the earth, although miracles and other spiritual events never happened.
     
  • Gemini Man is a film about dueling assassins, both of whom are Will Smith. It is advertised …okay hyped… as running at 5 times the normal number of frames per second. John Scalzi at Whatever wonders about that piece of hype. What does the high frame rate looked like? Does it add anything for the audience? He watches and answers. Very cool and no.
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study by researchers at the University of Virginia that explains how laboratory rats can be taught to drive ratmobiles if they are housed in an enriched environment. I find myself speculating how drivers I see on our expressways might compare with those rats. 

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