Lilly Diabetes has pulled its sponsorship of Conor Daly’s No. 6 car in the NASCAR Xfinity race at Road America, citing a racially insensitive remark made by the driver’s father in the 1980s that surfaced this week. https://t.co/TbJeb1jCu5
I’ll second that, DJ. A whole lot of people out there with logs in their own eyes, no doubt. Seriously, do people really believe if someone heard every comment they have ever made that there would not be sinful. wrong or insensitive things said at some point? Only the very young and naïve should believe that. The others are like Judas, who claimed he was worried about feeding the poor, but really pilfered from the treasury. They know they are doing wrong, but are willing to punish and ruin someone else’s life out of sheer envy. Envy rots the bones is something we should all put in our hearts and brains over and over.
“Knowing Kate Steinle’s name has been painful enough. We know of her because she was killed by a criminal illegal alien in 2015. We now know Mollie Tibbetts’ name, murdered last month, and an illegal alien has been arrested for that crime as well.
For many who did not originally support Donald Trump for president, a turning point for us was the existential danger of our open southern border. In Trump, it became clear we had a candidate who understood and was serious about dealing with the disaster of our southern border. Being blunt about the criminals enjoying the open door into our nation, liberals and the establishment gave us our first taste of the hysteria about President Trump that would come to consume them.
And then in July of 2015, Kate Steinle was shot to death by a criminal illegal alien who had been put back onto the street through San Francisco’s sanctuary policy. If they had just turned Kate’s killer over to ICE when they wanted him, she would be alive today. A San Francisco jury inexplicably found him not guilty of both murder and manslaughter. They did find him guilty of a lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a gun.
Now we know Mollie Tibbetts’ name. Hers is a horror story of a college student going out for a jog in her small Iowa town. She was found dead in a cornfield, and authorities arrested a man who the police say confessed to stalking her, but then “blacked out” during the time he allegedly murdered her. He thought to look in his trunk, found her dead body, and then buried her in the field.
He, too, is an illegal alien, living in that Iowa town for at least 4 years, perhaps as many as 7. Law enforcement doesn’t really know.
Mollie is another of so many in this country, who were victimized and harmed by people who should never have been here. Sure, there’s danger everywhere, and yet there is a simple fact: The horror of Mollie’s last moments leading to her death would not have happened had her alleged killer not been in this country.
For perspective, ‘For America,’ the grassroots conservative action group, reminded us by tweeting the toll exacted on too many families in our country: “Mollie Tibbetts, Kate Steinle,, Tessa Tranchant Dominic Durden, Grant Ronnenbeck, Jamica Williams, Kevin Will, Nabra Hassanen, Jamiel Shaw, Jose Chavez, Lauren Bump, Sarah Root, Edwin Jackson … and thousands more. None of their killers should have been in this country.””
Another scripture that comes to mind is that it is to a credit to overlook an offense. Not to say all types of offenses, but you know–probably comments from 25 yrs. ago by someone’s parent.
”
Kim Strassel decries the inherently one-sided nature of the Mueller Switch Project in her weekly Wall Street Journal column. Her column runs under the headline “When justice is partial.” She writes:
If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.
Prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are also exceptionally rare, though Mr. Mueller is getting media kudos for hammering the likes of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for failing to register as lobbyists for foreign entities. The law is the law.
But under this standard, where are the charges against the principals of Fusion GPS, who Sen. Chuck Grassley has said look to have been lobbying on behalf of powerful Russians against a U.S. sanctions law, with its payment again funneled through a law firm? This was a sideline to its dossier work, but Mr. Mueller usually has no issue with sideline charges.
Or what about an evenhanded look at dossier author Christopher Steele ? FARA also requires foreigners to register if they act on behalf of a foreign principal. Recently disclosed emails from senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr show the British Mr. Steele pleading the case to the Justice Department on behalf of a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
Of the seven U.S. citizens Mr. Mueller has charged, five have been accused of (among other things) making false statements to federal officials. But there have been no charges against the partisans who made repeated abjectly false claims to the FBI and Justice Department about actions of their political opponents. There have been no charges against those who leaked classified information, including the unprecedented release of an unmasked conversation between former national security adviser Mike Flynn and a Russian ambassador. Nothing.”
——————–
And Mueller knows he’s being selective too. That’s why he doesn’t want Manafort mentioning the obvious bias he has in court. Can’t have the truth coming out…..
“Special counsel Robert Mueller is taking measures to prevent convicted felon Paul Manafort from claiming he is being “selectively prosecuted” in his upcoming Washington, D.C. trial.
NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports that Mueller has petitioned the D.C. judge Amy Berman Jackson to prevent Manafort from making this argument, claiming that Manafort’s defense team “repeatedly” ignored Judge T.S. Ellis III’s order during the Virginia trial.”
“It is dispiriting to note that those to whom we have entrusted the education of our children in the primary and public schools are woefully under-educated practitioners of the discipline. In an article titled “Educational Rot,” Walter Williams laments “the low academic quality of so many teachers.” Williams is referring to the abomination of teacher training colleges, which recruit the dregs of the graduate schools, catering to candidates “who have the lowest academic test scores.” The same applies to graduates of the gender studies programs in the universities, who, unfit for productive employment, often end up in the K-12 classroom. The damage such instructors do to the public school system and to our children is incalculable.
Trained to follow a leftist curricular agenda, a majority of K-12 teachers are set on molding the social justice warriors, anti-free market revolutionaries, radical environmentalists, global warmists, and feminist Furies of the future. The exclusion of the traditional focus on writing skills, effective reading, civics, maths and sciences, and the counter-emphasis on “social justice” themes in the public schools constitutes the first stage of the systematic dumbing down – what historian Niall Ferguson calls The Great Degeneration – that afflicts our society.
Thus, far too many students who emerge from these incubators, whether they are conscious of it or not, suffer not only from mental sluggishness, but from a kind of psychic immiseration. They compensate by trying to persuade themselves that they are useful and enlightened citizens when, for the most part, they are merely antisocial drones. The gene pool is not being chlorinated, as Wendy Northcutt suggests in her 2009 Darwin Awards romp; on the contrary, it is being increasingly contaminated.
Inspired by the reigning cultural ideology and leftist political legislation, our K-12 purveyors of the Progressivist meme have put into practice the adage attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola (though possibly mischievously misassigned to him by Voltaire): “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” There is much truth in the saying, as Aristotle recognized in Book 7 of the Politics, arguing that children should be reared in the home until the critical age of seven, when their instincts will have been shaped and characters formed. After this developmental mission has been completed, children proceed to the “Lessons” – that is, music and gymnastics, before moving to the higher echelons as they prepare to begin the journey into adulthood.
Aristotle was concerned with raising good citizens, sound of body and mind, willing to defend the polis from its enemies and able to reflect dispassionately on social and political issues. Our pedagogues have a different purpose in mind. The citizens they wish to create are agenda-driven ideologues who believe their own country, to quote New York governor Andrew Cuomo, “was never that great” – indeed, it is the sum of all evil – and that what we may call “identity tribalism” is the road forward to true egalitarianism.
These poor abused children are regularly subjected to board books like A is for Activist, in which, after a series of atrocious rhymes, they are bombarded with asinine slogans they can barely understand, like “Environmental justice is the way!” and “Creative Counter to Corporate Vultures.” They are asked “Are you an Activist?” By the age of seven, the answer to the question is probably yes.
By the time they reach university, a staggering number of them are fundamentally dysfunctional, devoid of basic knowledge and convinced they must repudiate and undo the presumed sins of their fathers. They cannot write a coherent English sentence, will agitate for LGBTQ rights, will shout down conservative speakers and denounce “white supremacism,” will don masks and battle gear to disrupt public events, and profess a passionate dedication to the most destructive of political philosophies: universal socialism. K-12 is a slough of didactic despond, turning out largely illiterate and innumerate fodder for the universities and foot soldiers for the coming revolution. Its charges consist of not pupils, but recruits.”
AJ – A friend of a friend on Facebook commented something funny that I thought you would appreciate: “Only a matter of time before Mueller questions us all in the hopes of unmasking his Scooby Doo bad guy.”
I’m looking for a good, dispassionate book (ha! I know, dream on in this environment the U.S. is in) about where we are politically/culturally/socially in this country … Something that is written by an author who’s not strongly aligned with or beholden to one particular side or stream within a side — or at least an author who is well trained enough in classical, objective journalism that he or she can step back from those personal views — and definitely someone who is not out to push an agenda. Someone who is trustworthy and careful with the truth, who can “hear” clashing views critically but fairly (and help readers to do the same); someone who can give balanced treatment to ideas and people, but really can produce something that rises above or overarches all those specific players and looks more at the big picture of populism that’s overtaken both political parties, the changes we’re seeing (and where it may all go from here in terms of political parties, future elections, etc.).
I know it’s becoming (sadly) a lost art, but someone’s gotta be at least trying to write these kinds of cultural/political analyses?
Chris Hedges immediately comes to mind. Trained as a Jesuit priest he became a reporter and writer. He’s not afraid to criticize any side, liberal, conservative or whatever. There’s also a spiritual element to his critique which some may appreciate.
Especially for those of you who did not know her in life, you do not get to usurp Mollie and her legacy for your racist, false narrative now that she is no longer with us. We hereby reclaim our Mollie.
Mollie was a young, intelligent, caring woman with a ready smile and a compassionate heart. So many across the state of Iowa and the entire country embraced her, and us, as we all searched and hoped for her safe return. It was not to be. Mollie was killed, and a man has been arrested and charged with her murder. Yes, that man is an immigrant to this country, with uncertainty as to his legal status. But it matters not. He could have been a citizen, born in this country; he could have been an older, white man from anywhere; he could have been a man from Mollie’s world. He is a man, whose path in life crossed that of Mollie’s life, with tragic results. He is a man who felt entitled to impose himself on Mollie’s life, without consequence. He is a man who, because of his sense of male entitlement, refused to allow Mollie the right to reject his advances – the right to her own autonomy. Mollie was murdered because a man denied her right to say no.
Our national discussion needs to be about the violence committed in our society, mostly by men, as seen by these grim statistics from the FBI:
• 89.5% of murders are committed by men.
• 98.9% of forcible rapes are committed by men.
• 80% of violence against families and children is committed by men.
• 85% of intimate partner violence is committed by men.
We must be willing to address the way we raise our boys and young men, so that violence is not a part of their response to this world. Like the recent murders of the Colorado family or the similarly tragic homicide of Kate Steinle, Mollie’s death is further example of the toxic masculinity that exists in our society.
Mollie’s murder is truly tragic and horrifically painful for all of us who knew and loved her, the extinguishing of a treasured spirit much too soon. It is not your right to exacerbate this grievous act by hijacking Mollie and all she believed with your racist fear-mongering. You do not get to use her murder to inaccurately promote your “permanently separated” hyperbole. You do not have permission to callously use this tragedy to demonize an entire population for the acts of one man.
Trump may imagine himself asthe Boss like some mafia don but he’s not. Any executive, CEO or president, is subject to internal rules, procedure and policy and to external law,checks and balances. Hence if you don’t write an EO properly it gets bounced, if you cheat and lie you will get un in trouble, etc etc.
In the end, in a democracy we must always ask ourselves what if my ideology, party, etc were not in power, would I be willing to give this much power to the party and idealogy in charge. That is, the golden rule.
Btw…. Bill Maher interviewed John Brennan last night well worth the time to watch
Hedges: He has described himself as a socialist[9] and more specifically as a Christian anarchist,[10][11] identifying with Catholic activist Dorothy Day in particular. (And he now writes for a ‘progressive’ blog.)
Hmmm, well, depends on how good he is at stepping away from his on particular world view, I suppose. ?
I’m wary of authors (for the book I’m looking for) who have very strong idealogical ties to one side or the other, frankly, who have thrown in their lot with a particular agenda.
But thank you, I’ll check him out a bit more. I suspect he “comes from” a specific place politically, though.
I’m thinking maybe more of someone like a Bob Woodward who has managed to stay above the partisan fray (unlike his former journalistic partner, Carl Bernstein) and maintain a journalistic distance, at least publicly. He’s recently published a book about Trump which I’m tempted to check out, though I’m not sure I want to read all the much about Trump period. 🙂 I’m more interested in a bigger look at the U.S. political culture (and culture in general) and the whys and wherefores of the sea change we’ve seen in the past 10-20 years — and where it’s going next.
@ 11:33 “Only a matter of time before Mueller questions us all in the hopes of unmasking his Scooby Doo bad guy.”
I ain’t talking until I get total immunity for all my testimony. Then I’ll tell about the time I swiped some candy and ran a red light. And I was above the speed limit on I-95.
Everything, like one of the witnesses did.
Granted Hedges is a leftist but he is an eexcellent cultural critic and has no love for American liberalism….his Death of the Liberal Class is well worth a read.
As tragic as Mollie’s murder was, her family isn’t who determines who gets to talk about what. Her case is relevant to a certain particular issue in the social, legal, and political realms. They can cite statistics on certain violent crimes, but that doesn’t mean *other* crimes and their circumstances can’t be discussed.
And it’s obvious from some of the quotes HRW posted, those members of her family have an agenda of their own.
“Our national discussion needs to be about the violence committed in our society, mostly by men, as seen by these grim statistics from the FBI:
• 89.5% of murders are committed by men.
• 98.9% of forcible rapes are committed by men.
• 80% of violence against families and children is committed by men.
• 85% of intimate partner violence is committed by men.
We must be willing to address the way we raise our boys and young men, so that violence is not a part of their response to this world. Like the recent murders of the Colorado family or the similarly tragic homicide of Kate Steinle, Mollie’s death is further example of the toxic masculinity that exists in our society.”
———————-
Who, besides left wing activists, even talk that way?
Unlike Trump, Macbeth was no germaphobe, took no draft deferments and would no doubt have visited his troops in the field. But they will meet similar ends. My take in @TheAtlantic@SAISHopkins .https://t.co/FdWNht0Tpz
Who did Bill Kristol see at the cleaners? Rich Lowry? Neil Cavuto? A Member of Congress? I am curious.
Ran into a long time friendly acquaintance at the cleaners. He (for somewhat understandable institutional reasons) is very much on the Trump train. He jokingly asked if I’d be a character witness for him at the Vichy trials after this is all over. Seemed shocked when I said no.
I was sometimes disappointed by John McCain. His years in Washington changed his politics. They did not change his character.
In 2013, I threw a party in DC to honor Clint Romesha right before President Obama awarded him the Medal of Honor. I told lots of politicians about it; only one elected official showed up. pic.twitter.com/vd4n3afIon
If that were true Mueller, Strzok, Comey, and the rest would be in stocks awaiting their public executions. Don’t worry though, most Never-Trumpers would be safe, having already fled to Canada and Mexico.
30 years ago i might have rolled my eyes at the statement posted by Tibbets. Now I nod in agreement.
In the last 10-15 years, I raised a daughter alone and spent time talking with 12-14 year old girls some who looked 18. After too much street harassment my daughter doesn’t go jogging and her gym is a small boutique gym. My middle school students have taken out restraining orders on fathers, male relatives, and ex boyfriends. They hide in my room when there was a supply teacher so they would avoid the abuse boys would give them and the female admin would ignore (“its a problem of personal space”). My lessons and discussions on consent would be ignored or even questioned. (“When a girl gets me going, she needs to finish the job”). Girls are pressured into pictures or they are taken without permission which are shared like trophies. And then there are the parents……
You can argue why but masculinity is toxic. Mollie’s cousin is correct. Its a toxic sense of entitlement and masculity which caused her death.
SP is right, the narrative is in the public domain but this shouldn’t prevent us from discussing different narratives. Nor does it prevent politicians from acting with dignity when discussing her death.
McCain disappointed me quite often too but I always got the sense he wanted to do the right thing and that he was in politics for more than his ego. Trump’s treatment of McCain demonstrates something about Trump’s lack of character.
AJ
My impression when we discuss limitations to the executive you are quite willing to cede almost all authority to him. He’s the Boss. Would that not make him a tyrant?
HRW, I appreciate your efforts on behalf of your female students. Many of the best young pastors have been trying to teach their men and boys that Biblical manhood is neither androgyny nor Trump/Weinstein aggressive misogyny.
Here is a recent sermon by my pastor on the subject:
The NeverTrumpers I know who absolutely despise Trump the most are two ladies who each have three daughters and multiple granddaughters. They fear for their female descendants and hate that we honored Trump with the presidency after his history as a sexual predator was fully revealed.
Some of the young pastors I know are sick that many of their fellow pastors have praised Trump, thereby forfeiting their moral authority and implicitly excusing his disgusting behavior.
“John Piper, who’s a friend of mine… We actually disagree a lot around this subject, but here’s where I do agree with him. He says when we teach this, when we flatten God’s call on little boys to become distinctly men, we forfeit both great restraint on male vice as well as a “great, God-ordained incentive for male valor.” I love that sentence.”
Fifteen years ago, my pastor (whose son was in my son’s class), another Dad from our church and I coached a group of 10 boys in AAU basketball leagues for two years. The boys were 8th and 9th graders. Four of the boys had little sisters who were 1-2 years younger than their brothers. We didn’t have much basketball talent or coaching skills so we just picked the 10 best athletes in our school district. The players and their families formed close friendships that continue to this day.
A couple of years ago at a wedding one of the team mothers told me that she always thought that her daughter was much safer at the high school because it was widely know that she had ten “big brothers” who happened to be among the biggest, toughest kids in the class above her. There has never been a greater need for “male valor”. I never heard of any of our boys whipping someone who assaulted one of their “little sisters”, but the threat was there.
I suspect that your presence and firm stance prevented a great many assaults. Most sexual predators are physical cowards like Trump. A little male valor goes a long way.
Masculinity isn’t toxic. *Believing* masculinity is toxic is part of the problem. The Tibbetts and others decry what men have done; they want boys to be taught certain things; and the next facebook post will tell us, somehow without contradiction, that there are no differences between the sexes; that a household with two dads is normal; that a grown man should be allowed to use the same restroom as a 9-year-old girl; that women should be regarded no differently than men in every setting. This is a rejection of the Biblical order that calls for men to protect women. Yes, it says that. And the fact is, secular, political liberals actually find that notion *offensive.*
Also, lol Ricky who can’t keep from making this a big Trump issue.
SP is right, the narrative is in the public domain but this shouldn’t prevent us from discussing different narratives.
Yeah. No kidding. We know this. Who’s wanting to prevent anyone from discussing anything? So far, I see the Tippetts and others of like mind doing that. Who else? Isn’t it possible for two things to be important *simultaneously*? Isn’t it also possible to talk about more than just the *one* thing the Tippetts want us to talk about?
I read (quickly perused) the sermon. His description reminded me of my father to a certain extent. My dad’s difficulty was communicating this ideal through a large generation and culture gap. We need to work on explicitly teaching accountable masculity
Two problems with the sermon; flattening the genders is a generalization that doesn’t accurately describe what is currently in vogue. 30 years ago this may have been the aim but now young people want to be able to express all genders and value each one. This leaves room for differences.
Secondly, men who exhibit toxic behaviour are not little boys acting on shame but rather men acting according to genetic neurology and early environmental conditioning. Remove or change the environment and hopefully we prevent it from triggering the underlying genetic condition.
ISTM that “toxic masculinity” applies to how young men are taught about their manhood, rather than being an inherent thing. Conservatives and Christians need to talk about this problem with “toxic masculinity”, whether they use that term or not, rather than rolling their eyes at the idea or passing it off as just another liberal bugaboo, as some do. I appreciate that there are some out there who are taking on this subject and encouraging young men to be men of valor.
Good point, Kizzie. Just as HRW notes that the secular view of gender roles has changed in the last 30 years, during that same time, conservative pastors have been re-examining their positions and comparing them to Scripture. Here is a dialogue between John Piper and a young pastor discussing their pilgrimage on this issue.
If you’re referring to me as one rolling my eyes, Kizzie, I’m not. Quite the opposite. I believe in masculinity. *Just* masculinity. The “toxic” modifier simply redefines the word “masculinity” entirely. The problem with that is now there’s yet another stick to cudgel Biblical instruction with, like, “hey, all that Bible talk about submitting to husbands and weaker vessels (and let’s throw in no sex before marriage because that just sounds patriarchal or something and probably leads to a ‘war on women’), well all that talk is just toxic masculinity. We need to reject that stifling, archaic stuff.” And so here we are.
It had taken me almost a half an hour to write my comment at 5:38 because I kept being interrupted by my grandson and the dogs. In the meantime, Tychicus shared that video. I’m gonna share that on Facebook.
The problem starts in the home. I don’t have sons with toxic masculinity because they were taught manners, respect and how to treat everyone. They went to church where they learned about God and we rode them hard on their behavior.
When one of my sons asked me about dating girls, what the rules were, I said, “don’t hurt her.”
No one in my family speaks with vulgar terms about women–or at least not in my hearing–and two of my sons are raising daughters quite well.
My daughter, having been raised with those three older brothers, takes no guff from guys. She rolls her eyes at their antics, “they’re just guys,” and moves on. But, as an EMT in a uniform, no one bothers her. She’s also nobody’s fool.
Of course she commented the other day that 90% of the guys she meets are bad. 😦 I assume that means while on the job . . . and when she’s got needles in hand . . .
I feel so sorry for girls being raised in the pressure houses of public schools like where my brother and HRW teach. My brother, who stands 6″2″ and was a college athlete, was specifically hired to help keep the Armenian immigrant guys in line 30 years ago. He’s at a mostly black school now, and as the father of girls, is always talking to the kids about respect and behavior. He often tells the girls to not take the garbage passed out at school in words, deeds, actions and attitudes. Unfortunately, they’re almost inured to it by now. 😦
hwesseli, I have not yet read the thread beyond your post of the family saying “No.” But it strikes me as rather breathtaking that they reserve the right to “reclaim” their daughter from so-called racism but instead use her death to bash men!
I had followed John McCain fairly closely since the mid-eighties. One of my hardest votes ever was in the 2000 Republican Presidential primary. At the time I thought McCain was more experienced and might well be a more conservative President than Little Bush. How would he have responded to 9/11? Would he have presided over profligate domestic spending like Little Bush? We will never know. Would he also have invaded Iraq? Probably, but again we will never know for sure.
“Both U.S. and Mexican officials have said they are close to reaching a deal on North American Free Trade Agreement, possibly within the next few days, a prospect that NAFTA’s third partner, Canada, has only been able to observe from the sidelines.
The U.S.-Mexican talks are expected to continue into next week and it is unclear to what extent Canada will be to weigh in, if at all.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been meeting exclusively throughout the week in Washington, D.C., with his Mexican counterpart Economic Minister Ildefonso Guajardo to hammer out a deal, and both sides say they are very close. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to tamp down any fears that his country was being sidelined, arguing Canada is still very much involved in the process and not alarmed by the U.S. talking directly with Mexico.
“We are encouraged by the optimism expressed by the U.S. and Mexico … [and] continue the hard work of modernizing and negotiating a better deal for all of us,” Trudeau said Thursday in British Columbia following a Cabinet meeting.
Steve Globerman, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, a free-market Canadian think tank, said the talks this week clearly reflected a divide-and-conqueror strategy by the Trump administration. “If the U.S. and Mexico come to an agreement in principle it is going to put more pressure on Canada to bend at the margins. … It makes Canada a little more vulnerable.””
While RBG’s “marrying” that couple is far worse than whatever that Nascar guy’s dad said long ago, I don’t think it’s quite right to associate her with the alleged crime of the degenerate couple.
Canada and Mexico have been working together all along in concert with US business and labor groups. Unlike Trump and his new buddy in North Korea, all of those folks understand basic economics. The key is for them to find a face-saving way to allow the imbecile to capitulate and preserve NAFTA but still claim that that he “won”. That plan appears to be taking shape.
The tributes to McCain are going to last right up until the time that the excerpts from the new Woodward book are released. It is going to be a tough month for Dear Leader and his cult.
Fortunately for Trump, some football players will kneel during the anthem allowing him to address his signature issue.
McCain to lie in state in Phoenix, Washington before funeral at the National Cathedral. His eulogists will include Obama and George W. Bush. via @ESCochrane https://t.co/almJYunFzD
My God. It's all here. Francis knew about McCarrick. The former Vatican ambassador to the US spills all about the lavender mafia in the Vatican, and in the US hierarchy. It's a total massacre. How can Francis survive this? https://t.co/xYJYYEFO4d
Lots of people calling for Pope Francis to resign if this Vigano stuff is true, but honestly, I don't know how that happens. There is already one living ex-Pope. Can you imagine two? It's not Avignon, exactly, but it's still unnerving.
Your never Trump support group doesn’t seem to be doing it’s job, Ricky, as you are back to calling the President names. ;–)
May God have mercy on John McCain and on us all. He gave many years of faithful service.
I have prayed that my own father be given many more healthy years. As I listen to him talk, I am struck more than ever with the simple wisdom that is being lost in our culture. I love our spiritual elders and realize almost daily how unprepared we are to lose them.
Debra
Debra, They liked the Wehner article so much that they asked me what was going to happen next. I told them this:
“Here are my short-term predictions:
1. The Dems will take the House and maybe the Senate in November though Trump will try to rally his base with attacks on immigrants and football players who kneel.
2. Much depends on what Mueller finds and reports. I think he will issue his report around year end – about the time the new Congress takes office.
3. The Democratic leaders will not want the House to impeach unless there is a decent chance for conviction and removal. They will want to avoid a repeat of 1998 when impeachment made Clinton a sympathetic figure for many.
4. If Mueller and the US Attorney for the SDNY find significant new crimes, the Democrat base supported by the intelligent media and a handful of NeverTrump conservatives will push for impeachment.
5. Assuming Trump is impeached, the question will be: Are there 12-19 decent Republican Senators who will have the courage to enrage The Trump Cult and vote to convict and remove this awful man?”
This was also met with applause, so I decided that in addition to preaching to the choir, I must again venture out amongst the heathen.
Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick’s Abuse
In a written testimony, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò claims Pope Francis withdrew sanctions against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.
Edward Pentin
In an extraordinary 11-page written testament, a former apostolic nuncio to the United States has accused several senior prelates of complicity in covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s allegations of sexual abuse, and has claimed that Pope Francis knew about sanctions imposed on then-Cardinal McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI but chose to repeal them.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 77, who served as apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. from 2011 to 2016, said that in the late 2000s, Benedict had “imposed on Cardinal McCarrick sanctions similar to those now imposed on him by Pope Francis” and that Viganò personally told Pope Francis about those sanctions in 2013.
Archbishop Viganò said in his written statement, simultaneously released to the Register and other media, (see full text below) that Pope Francis “continued to cover” for McCarrick and not only did he “not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on him” but also made McCarrick “his trusted counselor.” Viganò said that the former archbishop of Washington advised the Pope to appoint a number of bishops in the United States, including Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Joseph Tobin of Newark.
Archbishop Viganò, who said his “conscience dictates” that the truth be known as “the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy,” ended his testimony by calling on Pope Francis and all of those implicated in the cover up of Archbishop McCarrick’s abuse to resign. …
______________________________
Issues this will bring onto center stage likely include the church’s mandated celibacy rule for clergy along with what seems to have been a growing number of gays entering the priesthood.
Despite whatever political disagreements I had with Senator McCain over the years, I am deeply saddened by the news of his death today at the age of 81 from the aggressive form of brain cancer with which he has been contending over the past year. I found the occasions on which I spent time in his company to be a personal highlight. He was an American original. The New York Times has posted an obituary here. We extend prayers on behalf of him and his family. …
________________________________
But hey, at least you realized you’d been wrong about Russian collusion and have moved on. You, much like Mueller, keep moving the goalposts as your predictions and allegations keep being proven false. But keep trying, sooner or later something has to stick, right?
I don’t understand why anyone would be shocked by this. Any thinking person has known for decades that the Catholic church hierarchy knew what was happening and actively worked to cover it up in order to preserve the church’s reputation and vast treasure. Both the current Pope and the last one are fully aware of all the sordid details. And they bear responsibility for their pathetic response to the abuse and the abusers.
You raise a legitimate point. I posted the cousin’s Facebook post simply to point to a different narrative than the menace if illegal immigrants. And yes I find “toxic masculity” a more pressing cause of violence on women.
I found the video and other comments interesting. Ricky’s pastor points to immaturity which I think combined with testosterone is a toxic mix. Immaturity has an element of entitlement and lacks responsibility. Some of this is genetic…..think psychopath (generally men) ….and early environment (little prince syndrome).
There’s no one proper expression of masculity (or femininity for that matter) but they should have the element of responsibility and reciprocity.
Both are sorely lacking in the political world today and thus pointing at Trump is not invalid. I naively thought the Access Hollywood tapes would be the end of his career. In the tape is an expression of toxic masculity which I thought despite ideological differences common decency would compel anyone to reject Trump.
I’m not entirely worried about NAFTA. It makes sense for the US to talk separately since Canada-Mexico trade is fairly boring and dispute free. The US actually has a trade surplus with Canada so US business and labour groups have a vested interest in keeping things the same.
“CNN’s Jim Sciutto has had two big scoops debunked as very fake news in just one week.
Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent, joined the far-left network after serving in Barack Obama’s White House for a few years. His bias and dishonesty has made already him a laughingstock on more than one occasion, but this was an especially bad week for the anti-Trump activist.
Last week, Sciutto misled the public with a breathless piece of “breaking news” that falsely claimed President Trump did not consult with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats prior to revoking the security clearance of John Brennan, the former CIA chief who, like Sciutto, served in the Obama administration.
Using his verified Twitter account, Sciutto wrote: “Breaking: DNI Coats – the nation’s senior-most Intelligence official – was NOT consulted on Trump decision to revoke Fmr CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.”
Except, Trump did consult with Coats.
Sciutto has still not corrected or deleted his fake news.
A second Sciutto attempt to mislead the public that was debunked this week also remains un-corrected, even though it was debunked, not only by the horse’s mouthpiece, but on the airwaves of Scuitto’s own last-place cable channel.
Led by Sciutto, on July 27, it took a total of three CNN activists to manufacture a fairytale that claimed Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, knew that Trump was aware in advance of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr.
In other words, Trump not only lied about not knowing of the meeting with these Democrat-connected Russians, but Trump’s advanced knowledge could mean he approved of the meeting — therefore collusion, therefore impeachment, therefore Obama returns to the Oval Office on the wings of a unicorn.
There is just one problem with Scuitto and company’s reporting — none of it is true; and none of it is true according to Cohen’s own mouthpiece Lanny Davis, who debunked Sciutto’s fake news during a Wednesday night appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.”
——————-
I don’t think intelligent means what Ricky thinks it means.
Charles Murray was asked to list “thoughtful people on the Right” He responded:
Yuval Levin, Jonah Goldberg, Arthur Brooks, Chris DeMuth, David Brooks, Pete Wehner, Ross Douthat, Kevin Williamson, Bret Stephens, Tyler Cowan, Bryan Caplan, Shelby Steele, Jerry Muller, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Richard Epstein, Jonathan Rauch, Tom Sowell, https://t.co/ux4TcH9aQr
David Boaz, Timothy Sandefur, Randy Barnett, Nick Eberstadt, Walter Olson, Robbie George…. I gotta stop. I know I'm forgetting a bunch. There's also no order of importance to this list. Just stream of consciousness starting with personal friends.
The replies should give us more names. I didn’t know all these folks. Gertrude Himmelfarb is Bill Kristol’s mother and she is something special. I believe she is now in her 90s.
But AJ (on the church posts), it’s always the cover ups that bring it all down, no? — so that’s what these new documents highlight and what brings some new shock and awe to the subject that, yes, is rather old ‘breaking’ news in many ways (and theologically predictable as well).
DJ, It is going to be interesting. As a liberal, Francis was treated as sort of a religious version of Obama and generally received favorable coverage. Does anyone know if the sexual abuse problem in the Catholic Church is a global problem or if it primarily limited to the West?
I’ve already seen some discussion about that (4:34), very culturally touchy these days.
We can pray that this brings some reform to the church at least in the realm of changing its unblblical rule forbidding marriage for priests — which might legitimately be considered the source of so much of this sordid misbehavior and resulting criminal dysfunction we see now? Making this ugly outcome somewhat doctrinally predictable?
My guess is that it’s quite widespread and has been for a very long time, possibly for centuries, and is not restricted to the west. It all really is so shocking and horrible.
This is the Tweet of the week. Some of the comments are even funnier than the original Tweet. Who says that statisticians don’t have a sense of humor?
"I reckon a lot of folks were surprised by Trump" said Larry, a retired coal miner wearing a #MAGA hat and a real person who asked that I not use his last name. "But I knew from the FiveThirtyEight polls-plus model that highly correlated polling errors gave him a good chance".
AJ
When a writer refers to CNN as far left, its his intelligence and honesty which is questioned.
The Catholic clergy has been corrupted for a very long time. In medieval times, important church positions were taken by the younger sons of the nobility who often circumvented marriage rules by having affairs with nuns. In many cases, the repressed sexuality of the priesthood plus the power of the priest created the perfect conditions for exploitation of various kinds. I once read an interesting history of confession as a sacrament….young women who gave details of lustful thoughts were easily exploited.
In small town Poland, the priest is often one of the wealthier persons and often has a live in “housekeeper.” A situation which is ignored but will prevent promotion.
My ultra-conservative Roman Catholic friend at the dog park — her husband is a diplomat who currently is in Rome, they’re quite familiar with Pope Frances — gave me one of her classic, disgusted looks when I mentioned the new trouble the ‘new’ pope seemed to find himself in; she’s not a fan.
We didn’t delve any further into the ongoing sexual scandals. But her facial expressions loudly broadcast her opinions of this particular pope.
Wandering Views 
Now it’s getting stupid…. er.
——————-
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What? That’s just nuts.
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I’ll second that, DJ. A whole lot of people out there with logs in their own eyes, no doubt. Seriously, do people really believe if someone heard every comment they have ever made that there would not be sinful. wrong or insensitive things said at some point? Only the very young and naïve should believe that. The others are like Judas, who claimed he was worried about feeding the poor, but really pilfered from the treasury. They know they are doing wrong, but are willing to punish and ruin someone else’s life out of sheer envy. Envy rots the bones is something we should all put in our hearts and brains over and over.
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Why our deadly status quo on immigration must change.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/08/23/americans-stand-with-mollie-tibbetts-kate-steinle-our-deadly-status-quo-on-immigration-must-change.html
“Knowing Kate Steinle’s name has been painful enough. We know of her because she was killed by a criminal illegal alien in 2015. We now know Mollie Tibbetts’ name, murdered last month, and an illegal alien has been arrested for that crime as well.
For many who did not originally support Donald Trump for president, a turning point for us was the existential danger of our open southern border. In Trump, it became clear we had a candidate who understood and was serious about dealing with the disaster of our southern border. Being blunt about the criminals enjoying the open door into our nation, liberals and the establishment gave us our first taste of the hysteria about President Trump that would come to consume them.
And then in July of 2015, Kate Steinle was shot to death by a criminal illegal alien who had been put back onto the street through San Francisco’s sanctuary policy. If they had just turned Kate’s killer over to ICE when they wanted him, she would be alive today. A San Francisco jury inexplicably found him not guilty of both murder and manslaughter. They did find him guilty of a lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a gun.
Now we know Mollie Tibbetts’ name. Hers is a horror story of a college student going out for a jog in her small Iowa town. She was found dead in a cornfield, and authorities arrested a man who the police say confessed to stalking her, but then “blacked out” during the time he allegedly murdered her. He thought to look in his trunk, found her dead body, and then buried her in the field.
He, too, is an illegal alien, living in that Iowa town for at least 4 years, perhaps as many as 7. Law enforcement doesn’t really know.
Mollie is another of so many in this country, who were victimized and harmed by people who should never have been here. Sure, there’s danger everywhere, and yet there is a simple fact: The horror of Mollie’s last moments leading to her death would not have happened had her alleged killer not been in this country.
For perspective, ‘For America,’ the grassroots conservative action group, reminded us by tweeting the toll exacted on too many families in our country: “Mollie Tibbetts, Kate Steinle,, Tessa Tranchant Dominic Durden, Grant Ronnenbeck, Jamica Williams, Kevin Will, Nabra Hassanen, Jamiel Shaw, Jose Chavez, Lauren Bump, Sarah Root, Edwin Jackson … and thousands more. None of their killers should have been in this country.””
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Another scripture that comes to mind is that it is to a credit to overlook an offense. Not to say all types of offenses, but you know–probably comments from 25 yrs. ago by someone’s parent.
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Selective prosecutions.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/both-sides-not-now.php
”
Kim Strassel decries the inherently one-sided nature of the Mueller Switch Project in her weekly Wall Street Journal column. Her column runs under the headline “When justice is partial.” She writes:
If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.
Prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are also exceptionally rare, though Mr. Mueller is getting media kudos for hammering the likes of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for failing to register as lobbyists for foreign entities. The law is the law.
But under this standard, where are the charges against the principals of Fusion GPS, who Sen. Chuck Grassley has said look to have been lobbying on behalf of powerful Russians against a U.S. sanctions law, with its payment again funneled through a law firm? This was a sideline to its dossier work, but Mr. Mueller usually has no issue with sideline charges.
Or what about an evenhanded look at dossier author Christopher Steele ? FARA also requires foreigners to register if they act on behalf of a foreign principal. Recently disclosed emails from senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr show the British Mr. Steele pleading the case to the Justice Department on behalf of a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
Of the seven U.S. citizens Mr. Mueller has charged, five have been accused of (among other things) making false statements to federal officials. But there have been no charges against the partisans who made repeated abjectly false claims to the FBI and Justice Department about actions of their political opponents. There have been no charges against those who leaked classified information, including the unprecedented release of an unmasked conversation between former national security adviser Mike Flynn and a Russian ambassador. Nothing.”
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You can read the whole thing here.
https://outline.com/cSBkN8
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And Mueller knows he’s being selective too. That’s why he doesn’t want Manafort mentioning the obvious bias he has in court. Can’t have the truth coming out…..
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/mueller-is-already-taking-measures-to-stop-manafort-from-making-this-claim-again/
“Special counsel Robert Mueller is taking measures to prevent convicted felon Paul Manafort from claiming he is being “selectively prosecuted” in his upcoming Washington, D.C. trial.
NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports that Mueller has petitioned the D.C. judge Amy Berman Jackson to prevent Manafort from making this argument, claiming that Manafort’s defense team “repeatedly” ignored Judge T.S. Ellis III’s order during the Virginia trial.”
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Indoctrination, not education.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/a_is_for_activist.html
“It is dispiriting to note that those to whom we have entrusted the education of our children in the primary and public schools are woefully under-educated practitioners of the discipline. In an article titled “Educational Rot,” Walter Williams laments “the low academic quality of so many teachers.” Williams is referring to the abomination of teacher training colleges, which recruit the dregs of the graduate schools, catering to candidates “who have the lowest academic test scores.” The same applies to graduates of the gender studies programs in the universities, who, unfit for productive employment, often end up in the K-12 classroom. The damage such instructors do to the public school system and to our children is incalculable.
Trained to follow a leftist curricular agenda, a majority of K-12 teachers are set on molding the social justice warriors, anti-free market revolutionaries, radical environmentalists, global warmists, and feminist Furies of the future. The exclusion of the traditional focus on writing skills, effective reading, civics, maths and sciences, and the counter-emphasis on “social justice” themes in the public schools constitutes the first stage of the systematic dumbing down – what historian Niall Ferguson calls The Great Degeneration – that afflicts our society.
Thus, far too many students who emerge from these incubators, whether they are conscious of it or not, suffer not only from mental sluggishness, but from a kind of psychic immiseration. They compensate by trying to persuade themselves that they are useful and enlightened citizens when, for the most part, they are merely antisocial drones. The gene pool is not being chlorinated, as Wendy Northcutt suggests in her 2009 Darwin Awards romp; on the contrary, it is being increasingly contaminated.
Inspired by the reigning cultural ideology and leftist political legislation, our K-12 purveyors of the Progressivist meme have put into practice the adage attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola (though possibly mischievously misassigned to him by Voltaire): “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” There is much truth in the saying, as Aristotle recognized in Book 7 of the Politics, arguing that children should be reared in the home until the critical age of seven, when their instincts will have been shaped and characters formed. After this developmental mission has been completed, children proceed to the “Lessons” – that is, music and gymnastics, before moving to the higher echelons as they prepare to begin the journey into adulthood.
Aristotle was concerned with raising good citizens, sound of body and mind, willing to defend the polis from its enemies and able to reflect dispassionately on social and political issues. Our pedagogues have a different purpose in mind. The citizens they wish to create are agenda-driven ideologues who believe their own country, to quote New York governor Andrew Cuomo, “was never that great” – indeed, it is the sum of all evil – and that what we may call “identity tribalism” is the road forward to true egalitarianism.
These poor abused children are regularly subjected to board books like A is for Activist, in which, after a series of atrocious rhymes, they are bombarded with asinine slogans they can barely understand, like “Environmental justice is the way!” and “Creative Counter to Corporate Vultures.” They are asked “Are you an Activist?” By the age of seven, the answer to the question is probably yes.
By the time they reach university, a staggering number of them are fundamentally dysfunctional, devoid of basic knowledge and convinced they must repudiate and undo the presumed sins of their fathers. They cannot write a coherent English sentence, will agitate for LGBTQ rights, will shout down conservative speakers and denounce “white supremacism,” will don masks and battle gear to disrupt public events, and profess a passionate dedication to the most destructive of political philosophies: universal socialism. K-12 is a slough of didactic despond, turning out largely illiterate and innumerate fodder for the universities and foot soldiers for the coming revolution. Its charges consist of not pupils, but recruits.”
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AJ – A friend of a friend on Facebook commented something funny that I thought you would appreciate: “Only a matter of time before Mueller questions us all in the hopes of unmasking his Scooby Doo bad guy.”
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I’m looking for a good, dispassionate book (ha! I know, dream on in this environment the U.S. is in) about where we are politically/culturally/socially in this country … Something that is written by an author who’s not strongly aligned with or beholden to one particular side or stream within a side — or at least an author who is well trained enough in classical, objective journalism that he or she can step back from those personal views — and definitely someone who is not out to push an agenda. Someone who is trustworthy and careful with the truth, who can “hear” clashing views critically but fairly (and help readers to do the same); someone who can give balanced treatment to ideas and people, but really can produce something that rises above or overarches all those specific players and looks more at the big picture of populism that’s overtaken both political parties, the changes we’re seeing (and where it may all go from here in terms of political parties, future elections, etc.).
I know it’s becoming (sadly) a lost art, but someone’s gotta be at least trying to write these kinds of cultural/political analyses?
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🙂
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Chris Hedges immediately comes to mind. Trained as a Jesuit priest he became a reporter and writer. He’s not afraid to criticize any side, liberal, conservative or whatever. There’s also a spiritual element to his critique which some may appreciate.
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From members of the Tibbets family on facebook;
No.
No, no and no.
Especially for those of you who did not know her in life, you do not get to usurp Mollie and her legacy for your racist, false narrative now that she is no longer with us. We hereby reclaim our Mollie.
Mollie was a young, intelligent, caring woman with a ready smile and a compassionate heart. So many across the state of Iowa and the entire country embraced her, and us, as we all searched and hoped for her safe return. It was not to be. Mollie was killed, and a man has been arrested and charged with her murder. Yes, that man is an immigrant to this country, with uncertainty as to his legal status. But it matters not. He could have been a citizen, born in this country; he could have been an older, white man from anywhere; he could have been a man from Mollie’s world. He is a man, whose path in life crossed that of Mollie’s life, with tragic results. He is a man who felt entitled to impose himself on Mollie’s life, without consequence. He is a man who, because of his sense of male entitlement, refused to allow Mollie the right to reject his advances – the right to her own autonomy. Mollie was murdered because a man denied her right to say no.
Our national discussion needs to be about the violence committed in our society, mostly by men, as seen by these grim statistics from the FBI:
• 89.5% of murders are committed by men.
• 98.9% of forcible rapes are committed by men.
• 80% of violence against families and children is committed by men.
• 85% of intimate partner violence is committed by men.
We must be willing to address the way we raise our boys and young men, so that violence is not a part of their response to this world. Like the recent murders of the Colorado family or the similarly tragic homicide of Kate Steinle, Mollie’s death is further example of the toxic masculinity that exists in our society.
Mollie’s murder is truly tragic and horrifically painful for all of us who knew and loved her, the extinguishing of a treasured spirit much too soon. It is not your right to exacerbate this grievous act by hijacking Mollie and all she believed with your racist fear-mongering. You do not get to use her murder to inaccurately promote your “permanently separated” hyperbole. You do not have permission to callously use this tragedy to demonize an entire population for the acts of one man.
No. We reclaim our Mollie.
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Speaking of toxic masculinity; Trump
Trump may imagine himself asthe Boss like some mafia don but he’s not. Any executive, CEO or president, is subject to internal rules, procedure and policy and to external law,checks and balances. Hence if you don’t write an EO properly it gets bounced, if you cheat and lie you will get un in trouble, etc etc.
In the end, in a democracy we must always ask ourselves what if my ideology, party, etc were not in power, would I be willing to give this much power to the party and idealogy in charge. That is, the golden rule.
Btw…. Bill Maher interviewed John Brennan last night well worth the time to watch
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Hedges: He has described himself as a socialist[9] and more specifically as a Christian anarchist,[10][11] identifying with Catholic activist Dorothy Day in particular. (And he now writes for a ‘progressive’ blog.)
Hmmm, well, depends on how good he is at stepping away from his on particular world view, I suppose. ?
I’m wary of authors (for the book I’m looking for) who have very strong idealogical ties to one side or the other, frankly, who have thrown in their lot with a particular agenda.
But thank you, I’ll check him out a bit more. I suspect he “comes from” a specific place politically, though.
I’m thinking maybe more of someone like a Bob Woodward who has managed to stay above the partisan fray (unlike his former journalistic partner, Carl Bernstein) and maintain a journalistic distance, at least publicly. He’s recently published a book about Trump which I’m tempted to check out, though I’m not sure I want to read all the much about Trump period. 🙂 I’m more interested in a bigger look at the U.S. political culture (and culture in general) and the whys and wherefores of the sea change we’ve seen in the past 10-20 years — and where it’s going next.
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@ 11:33 “Only a matter of time before Mueller questions us all in the hopes of unmasking his Scooby Doo bad guy.”
I ain’t talking until I get total immunity for all my testimony. Then I’ll tell about the time I swiped some candy and ran a red light. And I was above the speed limit on I-95.
Everything, like one of the witnesses did.
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Granted Hedges is a leftist but he is an eexcellent cultural critic and has no love for American liberalism….his Death of the Liberal Class is well worth a read.
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As tragic as Mollie’s murder was, her family isn’t who determines who gets to talk about what. Her case is relevant to a certain particular issue in the social, legal, and political realms. They can cite statistics on certain violent crimes, but that doesn’t mean *other* crimes and their circumstances can’t be discussed.
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What is the “entire population” the Tippetts family is referring to?
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And it’s obvious from some of the quotes HRW posted, those members of her family have an agenda of their own.
“Our national discussion needs to be about the violence committed in our society, mostly by men, as seen by these grim statistics from the FBI:
• 89.5% of murders are committed by men.
• 98.9% of forcible rapes are committed by men.
• 80% of violence against families and children is committed by men.
• 85% of intimate partner violence is committed by men.
We must be willing to address the way we raise our boys and young men, so that violence is not a part of their response to this world. Like the recent murders of the Colorado family or the similarly tragic homicide of Kate Steinle, Mollie’s death is further example of the toxic masculinity that exists in our society.”
———————-
Who, besides left wing activists, even talk that way?
Gimme a break.
Solar is correct, they don’t get to decide it.
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Some details on Mueller’s background:
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Eliot Cohen with an interesting comparison:
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Who did Bill Kristol see at the cleaners? Rich Lowry? Neil Cavuto? A Member of Congress? I am curious.
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I was sometimes disappointed by John McCain. His years in Washington changed his politics. They did not change his character.
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Now he’s a tyrant?
🙄
If that were true Mueller, Strzok, Comey, and the rest would be in stocks awaiting their public executions. Don’t worry though, most Never-Trumpers would be safe, having already fled to Canada and Mexico.
But I’ll say this. It is amusing….
Like point and laugh amusing. 🙂
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30 years ago i might have rolled my eyes at the statement posted by Tibbets. Now I nod in agreement.
In the last 10-15 years, I raised a daughter alone and spent time talking with 12-14 year old girls some who looked 18. After too much street harassment my daughter doesn’t go jogging and her gym is a small boutique gym. My middle school students have taken out restraining orders on fathers, male relatives, and ex boyfriends. They hide in my room when there was a supply teacher so they would avoid the abuse boys would give them and the female admin would ignore (“its a problem of personal space”). My lessons and discussions on consent would be ignored or even questioned. (“When a girl gets me going, she needs to finish the job”). Girls are pressured into pictures or they are taken without permission which are shared like trophies. And then there are the parents……
You can argue why but masculinity is toxic. Mollie’s cousin is correct. Its a toxic sense of entitlement and masculity which caused her death.
SP is right, the narrative is in the public domain but this shouldn’t prevent us from discussing different narratives. Nor does it prevent politicians from acting with dignity when discussing her death.
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McCain disappointed me quite often too but I always got the sense he wanted to do the right thing and that he was in politics for more than his ego. Trump’s treatment of McCain demonstrates something about Trump’s lack of character.
AJ
My impression when we discuss limitations to the executive you are quite willing to cede almost all authority to him. He’s the Boss. Would that not make him a tyrant?
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HRW, I appreciate your efforts on behalf of your female students. Many of the best young pastors have been trying to teach their men and boys that Biblical manhood is neither androgyny nor Trump/Weinstein aggressive misogyny.
Here is a recent sermon by my pastor on the subject:
https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/sermons/manhood-restored
The NeverTrumpers I know who absolutely despise Trump the most are two ladies who each have three daughters and multiple granddaughters. They fear for their female descendants and hate that we honored Trump with the presidency after his history as a sexual predator was fully revealed.
Some of the young pastors I know are sick that many of their fellow pastors have praised Trump, thereby forfeiting their moral authority and implicitly excusing his disgusting behavior.
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This is my favorite part of the sermon:
“John Piper, who’s a friend of mine… We actually disagree a lot around this subject, but here’s where I do agree with him. He says when we teach this, when we flatten God’s call on little boys to become distinctly men, we forfeit both great restraint on male vice as well as a “great, God-ordained incentive for male valor.” I love that sentence.”
Fifteen years ago, my pastor (whose son was in my son’s class), another Dad from our church and I coached a group of 10 boys in AAU basketball leagues for two years. The boys were 8th and 9th graders. Four of the boys had little sisters who were 1-2 years younger than their brothers. We didn’t have much basketball talent or coaching skills so we just picked the 10 best athletes in our school district. The players and their families formed close friendships that continue to this day.
A couple of years ago at a wedding one of the team mothers told me that she always thought that her daughter was much safer at the high school because it was widely know that she had ten “big brothers” who happened to be among the biggest, toughest kids in the class above her. There has never been a greater need for “male valor”. I never heard of any of our boys whipping someone who assaulted one of their “little sisters”, but the threat was there.
I suspect that your presence and firm stance prevented a great many assaults. Most sexual predators are physical cowards like Trump. A little male valor goes a long way.
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Masculinity isn’t toxic. *Believing* masculinity is toxic is part of the problem. The Tibbetts and others decry what men have done; they want boys to be taught certain things; and the next facebook post will tell us, somehow without contradiction, that there are no differences between the sexes; that a household with two dads is normal; that a grown man should be allowed to use the same restroom as a 9-year-old girl; that women should be regarded no differently than men in every setting. This is a rejection of the Biblical order that calls for men to protect women. Yes, it says that. And the fact is, secular, political liberals actually find that notion *offensive.*
Also, lol Ricky who can’t keep from making this a big Trump issue.
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SP is right, the narrative is in the public domain but this shouldn’t prevent us from discussing different narratives.
Yeah. No kidding. We know this. Who’s wanting to prevent anyone from discussing anything? So far, I see the Tippetts and others of like mind doing that. Who else? Isn’t it possible for two things to be important *simultaneously*? Isn’t it also possible to talk about more than just the *one* thing the Tippetts want us to talk about?
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As Ricky points out, not all masculity is toxic.
I read (quickly perused) the sermon. His description reminded me of my father to a certain extent. My dad’s difficulty was communicating this ideal through a large generation and culture gap. We need to work on explicitly teaching accountable masculity
Two problems with the sermon; flattening the genders is a generalization that doesn’t accurately describe what is currently in vogue. 30 years ago this may have been the aim but now young people want to be able to express all genders and value each one. This leaves room for differences.
Secondly, men who exhibit toxic behaviour are not little boys acting on shame but rather men acting according to genetic neurology and early environmental conditioning. Remove or change the environment and hopefully we prevent it from triggering the underlying genetic condition.
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zowie it’s painful to read something as counterproductive as that
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On masculinity:
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ISTM that “toxic masculinity” applies to how young men are taught about their manhood, rather than being an inherent thing. Conservatives and Christians need to talk about this problem with “toxic masculinity”, whether they use that term or not, rather than rolling their eyes at the idea or passing it off as just another liberal bugaboo, as some do. I appreciate that there are some out there who are taking on this subject and encouraging young men to be men of valor.
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Good point, Kizzie. Just as HRW notes that the secular view of gender roles has changed in the last 30 years, during that same time, conservative pastors have been re-examining their positions and comparing them to Scripture. Here is a dialogue between John Piper and a young pastor discussing their pilgrimage on this issue.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-biblical-manhood-and-womanhood-matters
I now want to learn how my pastor’s position differs from that of Piper.
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If you’re referring to me as one rolling my eyes, Kizzie, I’m not. Quite the opposite. I believe in masculinity. *Just* masculinity. The “toxic” modifier simply redefines the word “masculinity” entirely. The problem with that is now there’s yet another stick to cudgel Biblical instruction with, like, “hey, all that Bible talk about submitting to husbands and weaker vessels (and let’s throw in no sex before marriage because that just sounds patriarchal or something and probably leads to a ‘war on women’), well all that talk is just toxic masculinity. We need to reject that stifling, archaic stuff.” And so here we are.
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No, I wasn’t referring to you, SolarPancake, just a general attitude I’ve seen elsewhere.
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It had taken me almost a half an hour to write my comment at 5:38 because I kept being interrupted by my grandson and the dogs. In the meantime, Tychicus shared that video. I’m gonna share that on Facebook.
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“Also, lol Ricky who can’t keep from making this a big Trump issue.”
When you’re in the advanced stages of TDS, EVERYTHING is about Trump. 🙂
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That’s cool, Kizzie. I do think the problem starts with the church, or at least the judgement should start there.
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The problem starts in the home. I don’t have sons with toxic masculinity because they were taught manners, respect and how to treat everyone. They went to church where they learned about God and we rode them hard on their behavior.
When one of my sons asked me about dating girls, what the rules were, I said, “don’t hurt her.”
No one in my family speaks with vulgar terms about women–or at least not in my hearing–and two of my sons are raising daughters quite well.
My daughter, having been raised with those three older brothers, takes no guff from guys. She rolls her eyes at their antics, “they’re just guys,” and moves on. But, as an EMT in a uniform, no one bothers her. She’s also nobody’s fool.
Of course she commented the other day that 90% of the guys she meets are bad. 😦 I assume that means while on the job . . . and when she’s got needles in hand . . .
I feel so sorry for girls being raised in the pressure houses of public schools like where my brother and HRW teach. My brother, who stands 6″2″ and was a college athlete, was specifically hired to help keep the Armenian immigrant guys in line 30 years ago. He’s at a mostly black school now, and as the father of girls, is always talking to the kids about respect and behavior. He often tells the girls to not take the garbage passed out at school in words, deeds, actions and attitudes. Unfortunately, they’re almost inured to it by now. 😦
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The seven year old could have then asked his mom, “So why were your eyes open, Mom?”
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hwesseli, I have not yet read the thread beyond your post of the family saying “No.” But it strikes me as rather breathtaking that they reserve the right to “reclaim” their daughter from so-called racism but instead use her death to bash men!
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What a great point, Cheryl.
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I had followed John McCain fairly closely since the mid-eighties. One of my hardest votes ever was in the 2000 Republican Presidential primary. At the time I thought McCain was more experienced and might well be a more conservative President than Little Bush. How would he have responded to 9/11? Would he have presided over profligate domestic spending like Little Bush? We will never know. Would he also have invaded Iraq? Probably, but again we will never know for sure.
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Without comment.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/john-mccain-passes-away-81/
“Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), a Vietnam war veteran and Republican presidential candidate, passed away on Saturday at the age of 81.”
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Canada is looking like odd man out.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/canada-watches-nervously-as-us-mexico-work-out-nafta-deal
“Both U.S. and Mexican officials have said they are close to reaching a deal on North American Free Trade Agreement, possibly within the next few days, a prospect that NAFTA’s third partner, Canada, has only been able to observe from the sidelines.
The U.S.-Mexican talks are expected to continue into next week and it is unclear to what extent Canada will be to weigh in, if at all.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been meeting exclusively throughout the week in Washington, D.C., with his Mexican counterpart Economic Minister Ildefonso Guajardo to hammer out a deal, and both sides say they are very close. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to tamp down any fears that his country was being sidelined, arguing Canada is still very much involved in the process and not alarmed by the U.S. talking directly with Mexico.
“We are encouraged by the optimism expressed by the U.S. and Mexico … [and] continue the hard work of modernizing and negotiating a better deal for all of us,” Trudeau said Thursday in British Columbia following a Cabinet meeting.
Steve Globerman, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, a free-market Canadian think tank, said the talks this week clearly reflected a divide-and-conqueror strategy by the Trump administration. “If the U.S. and Mexico come to an agreement in principle it is going to put more pressure on Canada to bend at the margins. … It makes Canada a little more vulnerable.””
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Face. Palm.
Way to go Ruthie. You certainly made a statement with this marriage alright….
CONTENT WARNING!!!!!!!
For detailed descriptions of the crime.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/34993/couple-married-justice-ginsburg-accused-drugging-paul-bois
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While RBG’s “marrying” that couple is far worse than whatever that Nascar guy’s dad said long ago, I don’t think it’s quite right to associate her with the alleged crime of the degenerate couple.
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Canada and Mexico have been working together all along in concert with US business and labor groups. Unlike Trump and his new buddy in North Korea, all of those folks understand basic economics. The key is for them to find a face-saving way to allow the imbecile to capitulate and preserve NAFTA but still claim that that he “won”. That plan appears to be taking shape.
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The tributes to McCain are going to last right up until the time that the excerpts from the new Woodward book are released. It is going to be a tough month for Dear Leader and his cult.
Fortunately for Trump, some football players will kneel during the anthem allowing him to address his signature issue.
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Catholic church is rocking (again)
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Your never Trump support group doesn’t seem to be doing it’s job, Ricky, as you are back to calling the President names. ;–)
May God have mercy on John McCain and on us all. He gave many years of faithful service.
I have prayed that my own father be given many more healthy years. As I listen to him talk, I am struck more than ever with the simple wisdom that is being lost in our culture. I love our spiritual elders and realize almost daily how unprepared we are to lose them.
Debra
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Debra, They liked the Wehner article so much that they asked me what was going to happen next. I told them this:
“Here are my short-term predictions:
1. The Dems will take the House and maybe the Senate in November though Trump will try to rally his base with attacks on immigrants and football players who kneel.
2. Much depends on what Mueller finds and reports. I think he will issue his report around year end – about the time the new Congress takes office.
3. The Democratic leaders will not want the House to impeach unless there is a decent chance for conviction and removal. They will want to avoid a repeat of 1998 when impeachment made Clinton a sympathetic figure for many.
4. If Mueller and the US Attorney for the SDNY find significant new crimes, the Democrat base supported by the intelligent media and a handful of NeverTrump conservatives will push for impeachment.
5. Assuming Trump is impeached, the question will be: Are there 12-19 decent Republican Senators who will have the courage to enrage The Trump Cult and vote to convict and remove this awful man?”
This was also met with applause, so I decided that in addition to preaching to the choir, I must again venture out amongst the heathen.
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Here’s the gist of the (Roman Catholic Church) breaking news story this weekend:
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/ex-nuncio-accuses-pope-francis-of-failing-to-act-on-mccarricks-abuse
______________________________
Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick’s Abuse
In a written testimony, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò claims Pope Francis withdrew sanctions against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.
Edward Pentin
In an extraordinary 11-page written testament, a former apostolic nuncio to the United States has accused several senior prelates of complicity in covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s allegations of sexual abuse, and has claimed that Pope Francis knew about sanctions imposed on then-Cardinal McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI but chose to repeal them.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 77, who served as apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. from 2011 to 2016, said that in the late 2000s, Benedict had “imposed on Cardinal McCarrick sanctions similar to those now imposed on him by Pope Francis” and that Viganò personally told Pope Francis about those sanctions in 2013.
Archbishop Viganò said in his written statement, simultaneously released to the Register and other media, (see full text below) that Pope Francis “continued to cover” for McCarrick and not only did he “not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on him” but also made McCarrick “his trusted counselor.” Viganò said that the former archbishop of Washington advised the Pope to appoint a number of bishops in the United States, including Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Joseph Tobin of Newark.
Archbishop Viganò, who said his “conscience dictates” that the truth be known as “the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy,” ended his testimony by calling on Pope Francis and all of those implicated in the cover up of Archbishop McCarrick’s abuse to resign. …
______________________________
Issues this will bring onto center stage likely include the church’s mandated celibacy rule for clergy along with what seems to have been a growing number of gays entering the priesthood.
Could get interesting.
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A gracious tribute.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/faith-of-his-fathers-2.php
____________________________
Despite whatever political disagreements I had with Senator McCain over the years, I am deeply saddened by the news of his death today at the age of 81 from the aggressive form of brain cancer with which he has been contending over the past year. I found the occasions on which I spent time in his company to be a personal highlight. He was an American original. The New York Times has posted an obituary here. We extend prayers on behalf of him and his family. …
________________________________
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Ricky,
I see the TDS fever has set in. You’re delirious.
But hey, at least you realized you’d been wrong about Russian collusion and have moved on. You, much like Mueller, keep moving the goalposts as your predictions and allegations keep being proven false. But keep trying, sooner or later something has to stick, right?
Meanwhile, I’ll keep pointing and laughing. 🙂
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DJ,
I don’t understand why anyone would be shocked by this. Any thinking person has known for decades that the Catholic church hierarchy knew what was happening and actively worked to cover it up in order to preserve the church’s reputation and vast treasure. Both the current Pope and the last one are fully aware of all the sordid details. And they bear responsibility for their pathetic response to the abuse and the abusers.
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Cheryl.
You raise a legitimate point. I posted the cousin’s Facebook post simply to point to a different narrative than the menace if illegal immigrants. And yes I find “toxic masculity” a more pressing cause of violence on women.
I found the video and other comments interesting. Ricky’s pastor points to immaturity which I think combined with testosterone is a toxic mix. Immaturity has an element of entitlement and lacks responsibility. Some of this is genetic…..think psychopath (generally men) ….and early environment (little prince syndrome).
There’s no one proper expression of masculity (or femininity for that matter) but they should have the element of responsibility and reciprocity.
Both are sorely lacking in the political world today and thus pointing at Trump is not invalid. I naively thought the Access Hollywood tapes would be the end of his career. In the tape is an expression of toxic masculity which I thought despite ideological differences common decency would compel anyone to reject Trump.
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I’m not entirely worried about NAFTA. It makes sense for the US to talk separately since Canada-Mexico trade is fairly boring and dispute free. The US actually has a trade surplus with Canada so US business and labour groups have a vested interest in keeping things the same.
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I guess this is Ricky’s idea of “the intelligent media ”
You know, the media that prints false stories and then doesn’t retract them even when they get called on it.
THIS is CNN.
Also, note how it’s not the intelligent media pointing out the errors and what’s really true.
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/24/nolte-cnns-jim-sciutto-busted-for-two-fake-news-scoops-in-one-week/
“CNN’s Jim Sciutto has had two big scoops debunked as very fake news in just one week.
Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent, joined the far-left network after serving in Barack Obama’s White House for a few years. His bias and dishonesty has made already him a laughingstock on more than one occasion, but this was an especially bad week for the anti-Trump activist.
Last week, Sciutto misled the public with a breathless piece of “breaking news” that falsely claimed President Trump did not consult with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats prior to revoking the security clearance of John Brennan, the former CIA chief who, like Sciutto, served in the Obama administration.
Using his verified Twitter account, Sciutto wrote: “Breaking: DNI Coats – the nation’s senior-most Intelligence official – was NOT consulted on Trump decision to revoke Fmr CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.”
Except, Trump did consult with Coats.
Sciutto has still not corrected or deleted his fake news.
A second Sciutto attempt to mislead the public that was debunked this week also remains un-corrected, even though it was debunked, not only by the horse’s mouthpiece, but on the airwaves of Scuitto’s own last-place cable channel.
Led by Sciutto, on July 27, it took a total of three CNN activists to manufacture a fairytale that claimed Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, knew that Trump was aware in advance of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr.
In other words, Trump not only lied about not knowing of the meeting with these Democrat-connected Russians, but Trump’s advanced knowledge could mean he approved of the meeting — therefore collusion, therefore impeachment, therefore Obama returns to the Oval Office on the wings of a unicorn.
There is just one problem with Scuitto and company’s reporting — none of it is true; and none of it is true according to Cohen’s own mouthpiece Lanny Davis, who debunked Sciutto’s fake news during a Wednesday night appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.”
——————-
I don’t think intelligent means what Ricky thinks it means.
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Charles Murray was asked to list “thoughtful people on the Right” He responded:
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And supplemented:
The replies should give us more names. I didn’t know all these folks. Gertrude Himmelfarb is Bill Kristol’s mother and she is something special. I believe she is now in her 90s.
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Ms. Himmelfarb is indeed 96. Here is a review of one of her books on a pertinent subject.
http://www.benespen.com/journal/2016/2/15/the-long-view-the-demoralization-of-society-from-victorian-times-to-modern-values
The book has been described as an elegant defense of the Victorian Age.
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But AJ (on the church posts), it’s always the cover ups that bring it all down, no? — so that’s what these new documents highlight and what brings some new shock and awe to the subject that, yes, is rather old ‘breaking’ news in many ways (and theologically predictable as well).
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Particularly so directly touching the current (and still very popular) pope.
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DJ, It is going to be interesting. As a liberal, Francis was treated as sort of a religious version of Obama and generally received favorable coverage. Does anyone know if the sexual abuse problem in the Catholic Church is a global problem or if it primarily limited to the West?
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Here is the other issue in the Catholic sexual abuse problem that is offensive to modern sensibilities.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sex-abuse-crisis-in-us-catholic-church-is-about-homosexuality-not-pedophili
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I’ve already seen some discussion about that (4:34), very culturally touchy these days.
We can pray that this brings some reform to the church at least in the realm of changing its unblblical rule forbidding marriage for priests — which might legitimately be considered the source of so much of this sordid misbehavior and resulting criminal dysfunction we see now? Making this ugly outcome somewhat doctrinally predictable?
My guess is that it’s quite widespread and has been for a very long time, possibly for centuries, and is not restricted to the west. It all really is so shocking and horrible.
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This one was also very tough to read:
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This is the Tweet of the week. Some of the comments are even funnier than the original Tweet. Who says that statisticians don’t have a sense of humor?
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Ricky will like this;
https://business.financialpost.com/sponsored/fisher-investments/debunking-trade-deficit-myths
AJ
When a writer refers to CNN as far left, its his intelligence and honesty which is questioned.
The Catholic clergy has been corrupted for a very long time. In medieval times, important church positions were taken by the younger sons of the nobility who often circumvented marriage rules by having affairs with nuns. In many cases, the repressed sexuality of the priesthood plus the power of the priest created the perfect conditions for exploitation of various kinds. I once read an interesting history of confession as a sacrament….young women who gave details of lustful thoughts were easily exploited.
In small town Poland, the priest is often one of the wealthier persons and often has a live in “housekeeper.” A situation which is ignored but will prevent promotion.
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My ultra-conservative Roman Catholic friend at the dog park — her husband is a diplomat who currently is in Rome, they’re quite familiar with Pope Frances — gave me one of her classic, disgusted looks when I mentioned the new trouble the ‘new’ pope seemed to find himself in; she’s not a fan.
We didn’t delve any further into the ongoing sexual scandals. But her facial expressions loudly broadcast her opinions of this particular pope.
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