24 thoughts on “News/Politics 5-23-23

  1. Looks like another fed op, complete with props.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Time for Christians to boycott target.

    This is who Dems side with. So you either vote against it, or you don’t vote, which allows it to continue anyway. This isn’t hard to understand.

    Liked by 3 people

  3. But no mean tweets, right?

    That’s what’s important….

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Bought and paid for propagandists…

    “Explosion of AP climate change stories following $8 million environmental grant”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/explosion-of-ap-climate-change-stories-following-8m-enviro-grant

    “In the year following a grant of more than $8 million to the Associated Press from key climate change advocates, the news service has poured out at least 64 stories warning of environmental calamity, according to a new media study.

    Media Research Center Business charted the stories and language used following the multimillion-dollar grant and found that AP also used over 500 environmental extremism buzzwords in the stories.

    The media giant, which feeds news outlets worldwide, received grants totaling $8 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation in February 2022.

    AP said it would hire 20 new environmental writers with the money to create a climate swat team to “enhance the global understanding of climate change and its impact across the world.”

    So far, it has lived up to its promise, said MRC Business, a branch of the conservative media watchdog.

    In its study, provided to Secrets, MRC Business wrote, “The term ‘Climate Change’ itself appeared a whopping 212 times. ‘Warming’ and ‘Global Warming’ appeared 140 times collectively. ‘Extreme(s)’ emerged 32 times and ‘Disaster(s)’ and ‘Climate Disaster’ appeared a collective 30 times. One Dec. 9, 2022, AP story was headlined: ‘New abnormal: Climate disaster damage down to $268 billion.’”

    AP pledged it would keep total control of stories despite the infusion of cash.

    Reporting supported by philanthropic donations has increased recently as advertising has dried up. Even the New York Times uses it.

    While reporters have expressed concern, editors have promised not to cave to the politics of donors. All those that provided the grant money to AP have been climate activists.”

    —-

    Sure, sure…. (wink, wink)

    Liked by 2 people

  5. 10% for the Big Guy, right?

    “Ukraine’s Global Dominance In Mindshare Continues Despite A Legacy Of Corruption

    As U.S. debt crosses a staggering $32 trillion, our leaders must insist on full transparency and accountability for Ukraine aid.”

    https://tippinsights.com/ukraines-global-dominance-in-mindshare-continues-despite-a-legacy-of-corruption/

    “While Ukraine has dominated headlines since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the country, which most people still can’t place on an unmarked map, has been in the minds of power players in Western capitals for years prior. And not for good reasons, either.

    Ukraine ranks 116th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The ranking is a marked improvement over 2021, when Ukraine placed 122, giving it the dubious distinction of being the second-most corrupt nation in Europe. Russia, at #136, fared worse. Last week, the head of the country’s Supreme Court was detained for allegedly taking bribes. The BBC reported that the arrest came a day after specialist investigators said they had “exposed large-scale corruption” at the court.

    For nearly ten years, Ukraine has been gripped by two conflicting forces. The younger elite wants the country to align itself with the West. An established middle-older generation of citizens accustomed to the corrupt practices of the erstwhile Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the regime of the oligarchs post-Cold War, continues to look eastward toward Moscow.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s endemic corruption continues, even as America and her Western allies have poured nearly $200 billion in military and humanitarian aid in just 15 months. The amount is more money spent on a single country than any other nation in history. In last week’s G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy addressed the G-7 leaders for even more aid and support. With the recent fall of Bakhmut, the conflict is far from over. Reconstruction costs could amount to nearly $1 trillion, all of which will again come from the West.

    A recap of major events during the last ten years is shocking and invites a simple question: Why should Ukraine dominate our public discourse? Of the 196 countries in the United Nations, why is Washington so interminably connected with a country ranked 56 in GDP that is of little consequence to America? The nation is not in the E.U.; it does not have technical expertise that America covets, and its geography is not crucial to America’s global interests, like that of the State of Israel.

    Two words come to mind: Joe Biden. Former Vice President Joe Biden has ensured that Ukraine became a familiar country in American living rooms.

    Biden was the Obama administration’s point man in Ukraine. Published reports show that the CIA had a significant hand in the so-called Maidan revolution in Kyiv when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in February 2014 ousted elected President Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian sympathizer. The official American policy goal was to help Ukraine transition to a more democratic, more Western-friendly governing authority that addresses endemic corruption.

    But Biden’s son, Hunter, wanted to cash in on his father’s good offices. He assumed a board position in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to enforce “governance and transparency,” although he had no experience in this technical area, had never worked in Ukraine, and had little knowledge of the energy industry. Burisma was owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch, Mykola Zlochevsky, whose assets, to the tune of $23 million, had been seized in London by British authorities just a few weeks before Hunter assumed his role. To most observers, it was clear that Ukraine was trying to buy influence all the way to the White House.

    According to a United States Senate report, George Kent, the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office in early 2015 about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. In September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.” Biden and his inner circle ignored all requests.”

    —-

    He and Zelenskyy have quite a scam going.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Keep on supporting these guys…. The great American past time 😡

    Dodgers walk back decision to uninvite queer and trans nuns from Pride Night. The team was under fire for rescinding its invitation to Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It had said the group might fracture the night’s “spirit of unity.”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Yesterday
    AJ – it’s always interesting to me that supporters of both parties complain that their party has been too nice for too long. According to some Demacratic supporters the Republicans have walked over them too long. The need for compromise in the US system – two houses, filibuster rule, etc means both sides have to give in to keep the system going. (you need more parties and proportional representation)

    Your opponents are not “evil” – labelling your opponent with extrimist names such as evil, vermin, monkeys, rats, etc. allows you to treat them as less than human. This of course leads to fascism where the “pure” group get to treat the evil group – communists, jews, minorties, sexual deviants, etc as less than human. By all means call your opponent wrong, divisive, even criminal but maintaining their humanity.

    NJ – my intent was just to outline that Jesus was more than a tough guy who drove bankers out of the church, he had a merciful and compassionate side too.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. First tweet – the Feds can’t be that incompent.

    You can see any number of videos on Youtube of Trump babbling incoherently. Most of them are well edited or just captured Trump on a bad day. Trump and Biden clips prove nothing. I’ve seen Biden handle a press conference just fine and same to Trump.

    There’s money in gay merchandise – I thought Americans liked the free market and capitalism.

    Howard Hughes, Rockenfeller and the Walton Family are key climate change advocates? I’d be more worried the AP will omit stories of bad working conditions at Walmart than climate change stories.

    From the linked article I didn’t see if there was any increase in climate change stories or vocabulary since the money was accepted. Climate change is a story, severe weather is a story, it makes sense AP reports.

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  9. Ukraine continues to deliver the best for the buck NATO ever had. Fighting Russia without body bags coming home.

    Most of the military hardware and even supplies given to Ukraine by its NATO friends is from stockpiles ie already purchased. And if not used, will be discarded eventually. The tanks given to Ukraine by Poland were available because Poland now uses a more modern tank. Essentially Ukraine is getting used equipment already paid for and supplies already paid for which have a best before date. And there is NATO personnel in Ukraine to ensure corruption is minimal.

    A Ukraine Supreme Court justice was arrested for taking bribes. At least he got arrested, in the US nothing happens. Not to mention, military spending in the US is more often dictated by regional interests not military necessity.

    Ukraine is indeed split between Russian and EU supporters. It is split both demographically – young people want EU but also geographically; the Donbass did have a majority supporting Russia. I didn’t support the Maidan revolution as it was unnecessarily proocative and derived support from the extreme right. Luhansk, Donetsk, and the Crimea were all reactions to this movement.

    However, the current conflict expands the area of conflict and was initially aimed at regime change. This is different. It’s clear Putin’s aim was to annex all the oblasts next to the Black Sea and the Kharkiv region. After a quick takeover of Kiev, he would appoint a puppet regime to govern the leftover Ukrainian rump state. Although some claim, he wanted all of the Ukraine, I can’t see him attempting to take over the Lviv district which is where Ukrainian nationalism is the strongest and culturally different than Russia (different church – Greek/Ukrainian Catholic and long history with Poland).

    Given Putin’s aims, the western response was appropriate, not to mention in the long run very beneficial to both NATO and the EU. The US can pay more attention to the Pacific theatre and the Europeans are more secure with a weaker Russia.

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  10. hwesseli: I haven’t seen videos of Pres. Trump “babbling incoherently” – perhaps you can help us out?

    Biden handles a press conference just fine? Most of the time he doesn’t even take questions (for obvious reasons), unless it’s a few pre-planned ones in which he has his answers typed out on cue cards.

    Pres. Trump will do, for example, a CNN town hall and face the tough questions, but would Biden ever do something similar? Fat chance.

    I’m astounded that you even try to compare the two of them…

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Strangely, Satanists (at least this kind) don’t really believe in the actual Satan. This is a backlash against how they perceive (rightly or wrongly) Christianity, using the name as a symbol for that. (This is something that I have read elsewhere as well.) They don’t know what they are doing/saying. 😦

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  12. That piece leaves out the part where the person writes,

    “Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan, he is merely used as a symbol of passion, pride, and liberty. He means to you what you need him to mean. So for me, Satan is hope, compassion, equality and love.”

    In case anyone wonders, no I am not saying that this is a good thing, only that many who call themselves Satanists, like this person, don’t actually believe in Satan.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. That piece is a good reminder to all of us, in whatever political camp, to look further into quotes that paint a bad picture of whomever they are writing about. So often through the last several years, I have seen pieces – both conservative and liberal – that have left out pertinent parts of quotes that would either change the meaning they wanted to present, or at least modify it somewhat.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. My impression of “satanists” is not to take them seriously. Back in my teen years, Satanism was a money maker. Rebellious youth would buy the Satanic Bible just to annoy their parents. Currently, each time an American civil government wishes to open with prayer a group claiming to be Satanists will demand equal time. It’s real live trolling. Basically they are there just to annoy religious people. Then there are people who didn’t get the memo and don’t realize it’s supposed to be a joke and take it seriously.

    Other people will also confuse wiccan or any other attempt to resurrect ancient European nature religions with Satanism especially since they use the term witch. I work with people who claim to follow ancient celtic nature religions but they aren’t satanists.

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  15. So Kizzie what is the source of your information again? Are you suggesting anyone gathering information different than yours is wrong?
    I happened to do my research and all sources from right and left pretty much agree … although I did find an article from CNN back in 2017 that pretty much states what you did about satanists not really being satanists…which pretty much sums up my skepticism….

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Kizzie,

    And that’s exactly what a Satan supporter would say.

    And he acknowledges his love for demonic demon types in the Baphomet tweet above. He tells you who he is by his actions. Of course a follower of the Father of Lies would lie about it.

    So who is that you ask?

    “What Is Baphomet and Who Worships this Diety?

    Even by pagan idol standards, Baphomet has a weird history. Here’s what you need to know about the history of this idol and why it’s important to know about him today.”

    “Who Is Baphomet?

    We should know and care about Baphomet because we should understand whenever we encounter a Satanist or occultist symbol. We fight spiritual battles every day, and therefore, should at least know what we’re fighting against.”

    https://www.christianity.com/wiki/angels-and-demons/who-is-baphomet.html

    ” We’ve often heard of goats being associated with witchcraft and Satan himself. The Bible never seems to have many good things to say about this creature (Matthew 25:31-46), so it should come as no surprise that one of the statues of the Satanic temple, known as Baphomet, has a goat’s head.

    Although the statue in the BBC article hit the news only five years ago, this name has a history that traces back to the Middle Ages, having connotations with evil practices and idol worship, and, no surprise, Satan.”

    “What Is Baphomet?
    As mentioned previously, this Satanic statue or idol has a goat’s head.

    This makes sense if we analyze the history of pagan and polytheistic religions. The Egyptians had a goat god known as Mendes. The Greeks revered a mischievous figure known as Pan. The Celts had Cernunnos. Perhaps this sheds even more light on why Scripture doesn’t often have good things to say about goats.

    Also, most depictions of Baphomet contain a pentagram on its forehead and is part-animal, part-human as well as part-female, part-male, a conglomeration of opposites.

    Many of the more modern depictions of Baphomet include phallic and sexual symbols as well as more contrasting elements such as white and dark moons. Most modern depictions often have Baphomet doing a two-fingered salute, a common occultist gesture.”

    Liked by 1 person

  17. This was always a grift, a way for the real racists to enrich their pockets.

    The sheep says…. Baaaaaa….

    Liked by 2 people

  18. Like I said, a fed op….

    Meet the “white” supremacist allegedly responsible…..

    Liked by 1 person

  19. NJ – My source is what AJ posted at 8:47am. If you click on the photo of the tweet, then on the tweet itself when it comes up, and then click on the photo, the whole quote appears.

    Like

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