Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Shifting Left

The Democratic hopefuls are announcing their intentions, Congress has a new crop of young Representatives, and these days the news is about "shifting left."

I'm not a very political person but when I hear this sort of thing often enough it does make me wonder what it means. It seems to have started with Bernie Sanders running in the 2016 primary, calling himself a socialist. Besides being a kindly and patient old curmudgeon, he said things that everybody was already thinking. Like, for example, let's not destroy the earth. Is that really a "lefty" thing, and if it is, what kind of insane world do the "center" and the "right" live in? I saw a conservative lady in the news the other day who is pro-measles -- and I admit, I just don't understand some of it. Measles are good for us, she said. Are there people who believe in destroying the environment, just because? I know there are, but it is a crazy thing to want. Normal people want the world to continue in its natural balance. That is not a "shift left," it is obvious and sensible not to destroy our own planet.

Health insurance for all -- come on, who in America actually wants to pay to go to the doctor? Nobody else does it, in other countries. Are there actually people who say, when I get sick -- even when I'm healthy -- I want to take my hard-earned money and give it to some insurance company so they can make cheapskate, profit-driven, cynical decisions about the care I get? The rest of the civilized world has free healthcare, why is it a "shift left" to want that here, too?

Guns -- the NRA manages to get their people on the news, but really, what normal person really wants teachers to have guns in their own kid's classroom? There is a lot of industry money keeping this issue alive but ordinary people feel bad when bunches of people are killed in a school or a factory. You don't have to be a lefty to wish that people could live without fear of random bullets. There can be a balance where people who will be responsible with firearms can have them; no other country in the world has the kind of problem we do with guns. You don't have to be a leftist or a socialist to wish the world was safer for innocent people.

I mean, is it too fluffy for some people, too soft, cowardly somehow, to think you should be able to walk down the street without being shot by some random nut? Is that just too "leftist" for some people?

It does not make sense to anybody for a few billionaires to have more money than they can spend, while everybody else shops around for gas two cents a gallon cheaper. You don't have to be a lefty to see that that's crazy, it is just regular common sense. Do you know how much a billion dollars is? Jeff Bezos could end the homeless problem tomorrow if he wanted, and he'd make the money back in a week. Is that a crazy socialist idea? There is enough money for everybody to be comfortable, so why are most people struggling while a few live in incomprehensible wealth? This is not "shifting left," it's just plain common sense.

Oh my favorite: "regulation." Man, it sounds bad, doesn't it: government regulation. This is supposed to be an evil concept, the government regulating businesses. Yeah, it means your food is edible. It means you can drink the water. It makes it harder for your bank, or your grocery store, or your employer, to cheat you. "Deregulation" is good for corporations who want to make more money by cutting corners on safety and honesty. Other than that, it is bad for actual people. You don't have to be a lefty to see that, everybody is glad the government regulates things. Are we "shifting left" when we want dishes that don't poison us with crazy hormones, buildings and bridges that don't collapse randomly, medicine that is what it says it is?

I don't think the United States is going to have a situation where the workers take over the means of production or overthrow our government in some revolution. We're just not like that. American workers are happy to work hard for a fair salary, and yet asking for a living wage signifies "shifting left." Encouraging the formation of labor unions is "shifting left." You're a lefty if you think it is wrong for American companies to use slave labor and terrible working conditions around the world. But what kind of person wants that? Ask a Republican, would you want to be forced to work in a factory for thirty cents a day? The answer is, of course not. Everybody knows that is wrong. Even Republicans.

All of these things are just common sense. Nobody wants to work all week and get a paycheck that doesn't pay the bills -- nobody. It would be dumb to want that. Nobody really thinks it is a good idea for cops to shoot black people for having a broken taillight or for being in the wrong part of town. Nobody thinks that the government should take people's kids away from them and put them in strangers' homes, or put them in cages, or lose them. Nobody really minds if two men or two women fall in love, as long as they're happy. All this is just common sense and human nature.

Somehow the news media depict these normal, human ideas as "shifting left," and worry about going too far. The pundits talk like you're an extremist if you believe in being nice to people, fair, kind. I don't see how it can persist the way it is -- nobody wants this authoritarian stuff that's destroying our government now. What the pundits call "shifting left" is just plain commonsense, live-and-let-live, normal human nature. I'm looking forward to a vibrant and healthy primary season.

266 Comments:

Anonymous sayanora, gay agenda said...

"it is obvious and sensible not to destroy our own planet"

well, not if it means sending the economy back to the stone age by pursuing some unproven theory that our day-to-day is the most significant factor in climate change

"Health insurance for all -- come on, who in America actually wants to pay to go to the doctor? Nobody else does it, in other countries."

actually, doctors aren't performing services for free anywhere

they're getting paid and someone is paying them

"The rest of the civilized world has free healthcare,"

no, they don't

they pay taxes that go to pay the doctor

adding a middle man doesn't make it free

"You don't have to be a lefty to wish that people could live without fear of random bullets."

been around for decades and have never been near any random bullets

"I mean, is it too fluffy for some people, too soft, cowardly somehow, to think you should be able to walk down the street without being shot by some random nut?"

you can do that now

go ahead and try it

get off the computer and walk around the block

you won't get shot

February 20, 2019 2:21 AM  
Anonymous 2020 said...

A Democratic governor won in 2018 in Kansas to repair the self-inflicted fiscal wounds from years of tax cuts that starved the state of needed revenue. Democrats rebounded throughout the Rust Belt in 2018 and made inroads in former conservative strongholds such as Nevada, Arizona and non-urban Pennsylvania. (Likewise, you’ve seen a spate of teacher strikes in red states that haven’t paid teachers adequately, a recognition that a policy of supply-side tax and budget cuts and immigration hysteria does not make for a decent quality of life.)

The strategy of fear, deflection and willful ignorance has a short shelf-life. In the end, voters know if their lives are getting worse or better. To the extent Democrats talk to voters about the actual problems and realistic solutions, they will go far. They cannot merely deplore the fear-mongering and race-baiting, however deplorable they are. If Democrats address the actual problems of average voters, Republicans will lose power and be forced (maybe) to reevaluate their approach.

You've done a great job of addressing the actual problems of average voters here, jimk. Keep up the good work.

February 20, 2019 10:40 AM  
Anonymous Snowbound said...

Wow, anon, that was pathetic. Nobody says doctors should work for free. And *of course* you would rather give your money to an insurance company that will gouge you and make medical decisions that favor their bottom line, than take an imperceptible increase in taxes. Capitalism rules, baby! Profits are much more important than the little people's healthcare.

Apparently you and your family have not yet been the victims of a random shooting. Well hey, that's nearly proof that there is no danger. You ought to teach logic.

February 20, 2019 10:43 AM  
Anonymous how about those Supremes? I Hear a Symphony! said...

"Wow, anon, that was pathetic."

thanks

there's no greater honor than to be insulted by the kooks here

"Nobody says doctors should work for free."

I didn't say they said that. what Jim said was:

"come on, who in America actually wants to pay to go to the doctor?"

so, Jim thinks Jeff Bezos should pay for his health costs

you only don't pay if someone else does

doctors, btw, are paid exorbitant fees

that could be solved if the government would increase the supply o doctors by expanding medical school capacity

"And *of course* you would rather give your money to an insurance company that will gouge you and make medical decisions that favor their bottom line,"

the price of insurance would tumble if employer-paid health insurance was discouraged

FDR, America's most socialist President, created this mess

"Apparently you and your family have not yet been the victims of a random shooting. Well hey, that's nearly proof that there is no danger. You ought to teach logic."

Jim was the one who put it on an individual level. I simply responded in kind.

but most families in America have not yet been the victims of a random shooting

there's been in an increase in these mass shootings but, overall, gun violence is waaaay down

February 20, 2019 10:58 AM  
Anonymous lock 'em up said...

with all the revelations about the activity of Obama, Clinton, Comey, Clapper & Brennan in the last election, there is clearly a need for a special prosecutor

for the sake of credibility, it would preferably be a Democrat who has been revered by liberals

Alan Dershowitz comes to mind

February 20, 2019 11:17 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current Supreme Court said...

Lara Logan, a former foreign correspondent for CBS's "60 Minutes", praised FOX News and Breitbart for offering "the other side" in an "absurdly left-leaning" news media environment.

In an interview published last Friday, Logan called the media's "absurdly left wing" Democratic bias "a huge fucking problem."

"We’ve become political activists in a sense. And some could argue, propagandists, right?" she said about the mainstream media. "The media everywhere is mostly liberal. Not just in the U.S. But in this country, 85 percent of journalists are registered Democrats. So that’s just a fact, right?... So the facts are on the side of what you just stated. Most journalists are left or liberal or Democrat or whatever word you want to give it. I always joke about the other 14 percent were too lazy to register. And there’s maybe one percent that’s on the right."

"There’s one Fox. And there’s many, many, many more organizations on the left," she said. "Both sides do terrible things. Both sides lie. Both sides manipulate. Both sides push their point of view. But the problem is the weight of all of these organizations on one side of the political spectrum. When you turn on your computer or you walk past the TV or you see a newspaper headline in the grocery store, if they are all saying the same thing, the weight of that convinces you that it’s true. You don’t question it because everyone is saying it."

Logan said she used to doubt claims of media bias but now laments the "horseshit" low standards of her fellow journalists.

"You need at least two first-hand sources for something, right?" she said. "Those things help keep your work to a certain standard. Those standards are out the window. I mean, you read one story or another and hear it and it’s all based on one anonymous administration official, former administration official. That’s not journalism. That’s horseshit. Sorry. That is absolute horseshit.

February 20, 2019 11:23 AM  
Anonymous How soon they forget -- Standards like Lara's are sorely lacking said...

CBS has suspended star reporter Lara Logan and a producer for an erroneous 60 Minutes report about the attack on a US diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

Logan and producer Max McClellan ran an interview with a security contractor who was later discredited by the FBI. Ms Logan later called it a "mistake".

CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager said: "This deception got through and it shouldn't have."

The network's internal review of the incident censured the report.

Its inquiry found the 60 Minutes team should have done a more thorough job vetting the information provided by security contractor Dylan Davies.

'We were wrong'

He initially reported that he had witnessed the 11 September 2012 attack, fought off an assailant, and later saw the body of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

But other news outlets later revealed that Mr Davies had told FBI investigators and his employers he was not at the Benghazi compound on the night of the attack.

The CBS News internal review also determined Ms Logan should not have done the story at all after making a speech in Chicago claiming it was untrue that the US military had suppressed al-Qaeda.

Logan, who faces a forced leave of absence of undetermined length, apologised for the incident soon after the report's initial 27 October airing...

February 20, 2019 1:17 PM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current Supreme Court said...

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky by Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, 16, seeks $250 million in damages, the amount that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and the world’s richest person, paid for the Post in 2013.

The lawsuit notes that the newspaper “wrongfully targeted and bullied” the teen to advance its bias against President Donald Trump because Sandmann is a white Catholic who wore a Make America Great Again souvenir cap on a school field trip to the March for Life anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18.

Let's hope Sandmann doesn't find out about the lies TTF made up about him!

btw, the SCOTUS ruled on a case unanimously today

that's right

solid bro Brett and RBG agreed states can't just seize your property when you're arrested

score Team Civil Rights

February 20, 2019 2:24 PM  
Anonymous sayanora, gay agenda said...

I didn't get around to the second half of Jim "observations" last night:

"It does not make sense to anybody for a few billionaires to have more money than they can spend, while everybody else shops around for gas two cents a gallon cheaper"

seems to make sense, yeah

what, do you think Bill Gates should just keep giving you money until you don't care how expensive gas is?

"You don't have to be a lefty to see that that's crazy, it is just regular common sense."

I think you have to be a Marxist to think that's a problem

"Do you know how much a billion dollars is?"

yes

"Jeff Bezos could end the homeless problem tomorrow if he wanted, and he'd make the money back in a week. Is that a crazy socialist idea?"

if he's compelled to do it by the government, then yes, it's a crazy socialist idea

on the other hand, if you've got a proposal why don't you run it by him?

he's probably looking to do some charity work

most of our charities are funded by the wealthy you despise so much

"There is enough money for everybody to be comfortable, so why are most people struggling while a few live in incomprehensible wealth?"

most societies that have succumbed to that thinking have wound up with everyone very uncomfortable

the wealthy already give most of their money away

when it's done as charity, everyone benefits

when it's done as tax, no one benefits

tomorrow night, we'll dissect why Jim wants the government to regulate us to death

February 20, 2019 10:41 PM  
Anonymous talkin' about a regulation revolution!! said...

coming soon to an empty theater near you:

Democrats campaign rallies!!

Now for the charming topics of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and the so-called “Green New Deal.” If ever there was a great way to snatch Depression from the Jaws of prosperity, Ms. AOC seems to have hit upon it.

Ms. AOC has discovered that the planet is warming to an alarming degree. Never mind that she is in no sense a scientist. Never mind that many climatologists say that climate change is a hoax — and many say it’s not a hoax at all. Never mind that there are many different possible causes of climate change and that human activity is only one of several possible culprits. Never mind that the huge bulk of air pollution spreading over the earth comes from China, far beyond the reach of our laws.

And India and Brazil and other places far beyond our legal control.

Ms. AOC has reached the conclusion that the earth is warming to a degree that will end all animal life on the planet in about 12 years. And she’s sure she knows who’s responsible. Corporate America is killing the earth, or so Ms. AOC is certain.

Ms. AOC has also noticed that America generates most of its power by burning coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as breeding immense herds of cattle which let off breathtaking amounts of flatulence. She has also noticed that while the economy is wildly prosperous, there is still some unemployment in America. She has a solution: The Green New Deal.

Patterned very loosely after FDR’s New Deal to fight the Great Depression, AOC’s plan would mandate complete and total control over the economy by the federal government. A New Gestapo would be created to watch America like a hawk. There could be no more gas- or oil-burning engines for anything. There could not be burning any kind of fuel that gives off smoke at all.

Every structure in the USA would have to be inspected and then knocked down and built anew, or “retrofitted” so that it was totally powered by solar or wind or tidal action or some other form of totally non-polluting power.

This would cost so much money that from the moment it was enacted, the USA would be bankrupt. The cost of this project would in a decade triple the national debt. This would make it completely unpayable EVER.

Inflation would explode as federal money chased a limited pool of workers and resources. The country would be in a crisis that would make the Great Depression look like a picnic.

And meanwhile that immense cloud of air pollution raging out of China would not be reduced at all. In other words, we would have committed national economic suicide for nothing.

Now, I don’t think AOC will ever get her Green New Deal enacted and if she did, it would be vetoed — or tied up in courts forever.

But 70 Members of Congress and over a dozen Senators are already signed on as co-sponsors with AOC. Would anyone have ever dreamed even five years ago that such madness was possible? God help us. The planting of ignorance is bearing poisoned fruit. This is terrifying stuff.

February 20, 2019 10:51 PM  
Anonymous Hillary Clinton is doing a book tour...LOL said...

The White House is readying a presidential panel that would question U.S. military and intelligence reports showing human-driven climate change poses risks to national security.

The effort comes as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. production of crude oil, natural gas, and coal, and unwind regulatory hurdles on doing so.

The panel, to be formed by an executive order by Trump, would be headed by the esteemed William Happer, a Princeton University physics professor currently on the White House’s National Security Council.

Happer disagrees with mainstream climate science and believes that emissions of the main greenhouse gas that scientists blame for climate change - carbon dioxide - benefits the planet by helping plants grow.

February 21, 2019 6:00 AM  
Anonymous A GOPer cries as his son tells the truth.....SAD said...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The son of Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris testified Wednesday that he warned his father repeatedly that he believed a political operative now at the center of an election-fraud investigation had previously used illegal tactics to win votes.

John Harris, now an assistant U.S. attorney in Raleigh, said he advised his father in conversations and emails that he believed Leslie McCrae Dowless was “shady” and appeared to have illegally collected absentee ballots in 2016 while working for a different Republican candidate in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

The younger Harris, who is 29, said he offered the advice to his father as he considered whether to hire Dowless to run his absentee-ballot program in the 2018 congressional race. He conveyed similar concerns to the campaign’s chief strategist, Andy Yates, he said. Mark Harris hired Dowless despite his son’s concerns, which he said he expressed starting in the spring of 2017.

At one point during his testimony, John Harris’s voice cracked and his father wept.

“I thought what he was doing was illegal, and I was right,” John Harris said about Dowless. He added: “I had no reason to believe that my father actually knew, or my mother or any other associate with the campaign had any knowledge. I think Dowless told them he wasn’t doing any of this, and they believed him.”

Harris’s dramatic testimony undercut claims by both his father, a 52-year-old evangelical minister, and Yates — who completed nearly eight hours of testimony earlier Wednesday — that they had not been aware of any red flags that Dowless might be breaking the law. Investigators also shared an email between father and son in which the younger Harris wrote: “Good test is if you’re comfortable with the full process he uses being broadcast on the news.”...

February 21, 2019 7:10 AM  
Anonymous CRASH !! said...

Now that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has said he'll leave the Justice Department in mid-March, it's time to take stock of the damage Rosenstein and others in the Deep State did by quietly plotting to remove President Trump from office. This bureaucratic coup attempt has no parallel in modern U.S. history.

The timing of Rosenstein's departure is no accident. Following co-plotter and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's bombshell revelation to CBS' 60 Minutes that Rosenstein suggested using the 25th Amendment as a means to get rid of Trump, Rosenstein had no choice but to leave. He was likely to be fired.

It was made even worse by McCabe's allegation that Rosenstein also offered to wear a wire on a trip to the White House. Rosenstein claims he was being sarcastic.

So, for Rosenstein, the walls were closing in.

Remember, it was Rosenstein who appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel a mere eight days after FBI Director James Comey was fired for lying. No doubt Rosenstein wasn't happy that straight-shooter William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February, putting Rosenstein on a very hot seat.

Of course, we still don't know what Robert Mueller's investigation will yield. Will there be a bombshell revelation about Trump? There hasn't been so far.

Even so, Mueller's findings are largely irrelevant when it comes to the actions of Rosenstein, McCabe, Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce and Nellie Ohr, and other Deep State denizens, who planned behind the scenes to remove Trump. (We even hear reports that at least two of Trump's cabinet members were open to supporting the plot).

What they did was plainly illegal, outside the scope of their duties, a violation of the Constitution.

The 25th Amendment is specific as to how it's to be applied: "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."

The operative phrase here is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." That implies a physical or mental incapacity to do the job. The 25th Amendment was passed in 1965 and ratified in 1967 in response to the assassination of President Kennedy, which left a power vacuum until then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson could be sworn in.

Today, as any Democrat and tell you, Trump is able to discharge the powers and duties of his office. And that's why they want him gone. He's been too effective.

That non-elected government insiders would plot such a gambit suggests both desperation and a frightening lack of adherence to American constitutional norms.

But this is not how our Constitution works. There is a constitutional remedy for a dishonest president. It's called impeachment. If Democrats really feel that Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, they can impeach him. Or try to. But they're on shaky ground. They've been calling for his impeachment since before he took office. Impeaching someone for profound policy differences isn't a part of the Constitution.

Remember, McCabe, Rosenstein and others lied repeatedly. They lied about what they were doing against Trump, to hide it from closer scrutiny.

Calling it an "attempted bureaucratic coup," Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday vowed to launch a Senate investigation into the actions of FBI and Justice Department officials.

Good for him. We need to investigate the discussions Rosenstein held with others about taking action against Trump under the 25th Amendment. It reeks of a Banana Republic mentality that is not fitting for a nation guided by the rule of law.

February 21, 2019 9:02 AM  
Anonymous the lock-up is coming said...

But, at the same time, we also need to investigate the Deep State's efforts on behalf of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

They were so sure she would win they used her campaign's shaky opposition research — the so-called Trump Dossier put together by former British spy Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, both funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign — to spy on Trump and, later, to launch their investigation of Trump's alleged ties with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

There is ample evidence that Hillary Clinton committed actual crimes. She did so both as Secretary of State and as an officer in the Clinton Family Foundation. If so, they warrant prosecution.

And yet, the Justice Department has done nothing but pursue what, at least up to now, appear to be phantom, politically motivated charges of "collusion" against Trump.

Congress should spend some time on the real collusion that occurred between Hillary Clinton's campaign, the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department, as part of a larger effort to remove President Trump from office. Her ties and favors to the Russians while secretary of state — and even as the Clinton Foundation received Russian money — looks a lot like old-fashioned graft.

Graham's investigation won't be enough. It's a job for new Attorney General William Barr. He has the experience, gravitas and clean hands to investigate this criminal mess. Let's hope he starts soon.

February 21, 2019 9:04 AM  
Anonymous "Many".......LOL said...

"Never mind that many climatologists say that climate change is a hoax"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_who_disagree_with_the_scientific_consensus_on_global_warming#/media/File:Climate_science_opinion_graph_3Path.svg

February 21, 2019 9:08 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Good Anonymous, I just finished reading your last comments in the previous thread and I certainly don't have the words to describe how impressive your takedown on Wyatt and Regina's B.S. was.

You have tremendous depth and breadth of knowledge and have thought these issues through to an amazing degree and have simple to understand and compelling arguments. I can see a tremendous amount of labour has gone into amassing this incredible weatlh of knowledge you have.

Master/Mistress - I bow down to you now...

February 21, 2019 10:17 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

God bless Good Anonymous :)

February 21, 2019 10:31 AM  
Anonymous Get a clue said...

What a strange couple of comments. I completely disavow any association with this odd person.

February 21, 2019 10:37 AM  
Anonymous Here's your deep stater -- ‘I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth’: A self-proclaimed white nationalist planned a mass terrorist attack, the government says said...

Another right wing lunatic wannabe domestic terrorist:

A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a widespread domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists.

Christopher Paul Hasson called for “focused violence” to “establish a white homeland” and said, “I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth,” according to court records filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland. Though court documents do not detail a specific planned date for an attack, the government said he had been amassing supplies and weapons since at least 2017, developed a spreadsheet of targets that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and searched the Internet using phrases such as “best place in dc to see congress people” and “are supreme court justices protected.”

“The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country,” the government said in court documents filed this week, arguing that Hasson should stay in jail awaiting trial.

Hasson, 49, of Silver Spring, is expected to appear before a judge for a detention hearing in federal court in Greenbelt at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Hasson was arrested Friday on ­charges of illegally possessing weapons and drugs, but the government said those charges are the “proverbial tip of the iceberg.” Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland outlined Hasson’s alleged plans to spark chaos and destruction, describing in court documents a man obsessed with neo-fascist and neo-Nazi views.

“Please send me your violence that I may unleash it onto their heads,” Hasson wrote in a letter that prosecutors said was found in his email drafts. “Guide my hate to make a lasting impression on this world.”

A magistrate judge ordered the federal public defender’s office to represent Hasson; that office declined to comment Wednesday.

Hasson has been working at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington since 2016, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993 and in the Army National Guard for about two years in the mid-1990s, the filings state...

Court documents do not detail what prompted federal law enforcement to begin investigating Hasson but contend that Hasson had been studying the 1,500-page manifesto of right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who unleashed two attacks in 2011 that killed 77 people in Norway, and echoed Breivik’s attack preparations.

Breivik took steroids and narcotics, believing it would heighten his abilities to carry out attacks. When law enforcement raided Hasson’s apartment, they said they found a locked container loaded with more than 30 vials of what appeared to be human growth hormone. He has also ordered more than 4,200 pills of the narcotic Tramadol since 2016, along with synthetic urine to allegedly bypass possible random drug screenings at work, they said.

Breivik encouraged identifying targets and traitors. In recent weeks, according to the court filings, Hasson developed a spreadsheet of targets that included top Democratic congressional leaders and media personalities. The list includes “JOEY,” what prosecutors say is a reference to former congressman Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), now of MSNBC; “cortez,” an alleged reference to freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.); and “Sen blumen jew,” presumably about Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)...

February 21, 2019 10:39 AM  
Anonymous Joe Scarborough said...

Morning Joe‘s Joe Scarborough called out President Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric Thursday morning. Scarborough compared Trump’s anti-press language to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and connected his rhetoric to acts of violence.

Scarborough and co-host Mike Brzezinski were covering the arrest of a Coast Guard officer who was planning a mass terror attack and had used a government computer to research it

“Mika, unfortunately we’ve seen time and again, we’ve seen people that are unhinged that aren’t working on government computers, people that listen to and believe conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories that are fanned by the President and his supporters,” Scarborough said.

“Whether you talk about Pizzagate, whether you talk about the madness that is spread around on the internet, and then we have the President of the United States instead of tamping up these theories, actually stirring them up,” he said

“Using Stalinist phrases like ‘enemies of the people’ that only tyrants have used in the past. No American president used it,” Scarborough said “And as I’ve been saying for well over a year now, it’s a phrase that, actually, the Soviet Union outlawed after the death of Joseph Stalin because it was used to destroy human beings.”

“So you have a president who churns up the conspiracy theories, who churns up hatred of the press, who spits out phrases like ‘enemies of the people’, and he sits there and, again, something like this happens, not a word. Not a single word on Twitter.”

“Not a response to yesterday morning’s warning from the New York Times,” Scarborough said. “Again, the timing of this all this is just so obvious. We should be shocked that we are not more shocked that the publisher of the New York Times tells the President of the United States, you know, you keep calling the press enemies of the people and you’re going to get somebody hurt, you’re going to get somebody killed. He writes that in the morning and in the afternoon we have this conspiracy to actually kill top Democratic lawmakers who oppose Donald Trump and journalists who dare to report the truth about Donald Trump.”

“This is pretty simple. It’s all on the President’s shoulders. It’s all the President’s fault. And he sits there with his mouth shut, for once in his life, doesn’t say anything, doesn’t tweet anything, which, of course, makes it even more on him.”

February 21, 2019 10:51 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

No wonder evangelical christians teach their children to believe complicated thinking is the devil's tool. They want their children to think simply,reflexively, and to always fall back on tradition, to be afraid of thinking too deeply about anything that questions their worldview - its as plain as day in the discussion here between Good Anonymous and Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous.

February 21, 2019 10:59 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

"What a strange couple of comments. I completely disavow any association with this odd person."


The thing is, I don't think I'm odd at all. I think my story of abuse by society is far too common. That's why I write about it in detail for as many people to see as possible. That society might address the error of its ways.

February 21, 2019 11:16 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I was going through some old files and found all manner of handwritten stuff I'd saved. I thought this one was pretty good:

Religion makes people secondary to obedience to an imaginary being who is as fickle and capable of immorality as any person. We would not unconditionally follow a man of demonstrably questionable morals, nor should we unquestionably follow religions which have all at times demonstrated extreme immoral behaviour - because people are secondary.

Religion encourages belief without proof, the ignoring of reality and this allows terrible injustices to be rationalized on the basis that blind faith is always correct - never mind that there is mountains of evidence to suggest no religion is close to the truth.

It was in my writing but I don't think these are my words.

February 21, 2019 12:23 PM  
Anonymous The Real Get a Clue said...

"What a strange couple of comments. I completely disavow any association with this odd person."

Lacking a cogent argument, I see you tried to impersonate me.

Even a 5 year old could figure that one out. I bet you think you are a really stable genius.

February 21, 2019 1:19 PM  
Anonymous Oh that's easy said...

GOPers are full of hate and love to lie, lie, lie.

February 21, 2019 2:39 PM  
Anonymous it's happy hour night, head down to Capitol Hill and have a few with Brett & Squi said...

"Lacking a cogent argument, I see you tried to impersonate me"

sorry, Get a clue

Someone had been doing that to me lately and Priya made such an inane remark, I just couldn't resist

I agree with you that every knew it was a joke

and, look here, I could make a cogent argument

it's just no one has really been arguing about much on this thread

I'm gonna go look up "cogent"

February 21, 2019 2:50 PM  
Anonymous Line 'em up! said...

Federal Prosecutors Broke Law With Plea Deal In Jeffrey Epstein Case, Judge Says

The federal prosecutors include U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who was the U.S. attorney in Miami at the time.

Federal prosecutors, including U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, broke federal law when signing a plea deal agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, a judge ruled Thursday.

Epstein, a former hedge fund manager, helped to operate an international sex ring operation in which he recruited underage girls in Florida and overseas. He was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2010 and served only a year under house arrest at the time.

In a 33-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra said Epstein was not prosecuted under federal sex trafficking laws. Instead, Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami, helped devise a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and those who worked with him immunity from federal prosecution, the Miami Herald reported.

“Petitioners and the other victims should have been notified of the Government’s intention to take that course of action before it bound itself under the [non-prosecution agreement],” Marra wrote.

SEE: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-nominates-r-alexander-acosta-secretary-labor/

President Donald J. Trump Nominates R. Alexander Acosta to be Secretary of Labor
Issued on: February 16, 2017

February 21, 2019 3:57 PM  
Anonymous sayanora Rev. Harris said...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris says a new election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District is warranted after allegations of ballot tampering.

Harris, during testimony this afternoon to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said a new election was warranted in the hotly contested race, which Harris led by 905 votes. He said he is recovering from an infection that led to sepsis and two strokes, and that he realized he was not prepared for the “rigors” of this hearing.

“I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said, eliciting gasps from the hearing room in Raleigh. “It’s become clear to me that public confidence in the 9th District has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”

Earlier Thursday, Harris said he knew nothing of an alleged ballot-tampering scheme led by an operative he hired to work in his 2108 campaign.

Harris’s testimony came the day after his son, John Harris, a federal prosecutor, testified about the warnings he offered his father in phone calls and emails that he believed the operative had broken the law in a previous election.

In his own testimony Thursday, the elder Harris maintained as he has in previous interviews with reporters that he was unaware of red flags about the operative’s alleged tactics — notwithstanding what his son told him in the spring of 2017.

Mark Harris's son warned parents about N.C. political operative

John Harris, the son of Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris testified Feb. 20 during a public evidentiary hearing into voting irregularities. (WECT)
Harris said he didn’t follow his son’s advice in part because John Harris was just 27 years old at the time and added that the younger Harris is “a little judgmental and has a little taste of arrogance and some other things. And I’m very proud of him and love him with all my heart.”

Harris, a Baptist minister, took the stand on the fourth day of dramatic hearings into allegations that widespread election fraud tainted the results in the 9th Congressional District, the last undecided congressional race in the country. Harris leads by 905 votes over Democrat Dan McCready.

Harris said he hired the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, on the advice of a number of Republican friends and colleagues. He said he believed Dowless when he offered to run a legal absentee-ballot program for Harris’s campaign.

Harris’s testimony followed the dramatic opening moments of Thursday’s hearings, in which Josh Lawson, general counsel for the State Board of Elections, disclosed a letter rebuking Harris's campaign lawyers for failing to turn over the emails between Harris and his son until 15 minutes before John Harris appeared Wednesday...

February 21, 2019 4:02 PM  
Anonymous Apology not accepted said...

Trump confidant Roger Stone fully barred from speaking about criminal case after posting photo of judge

A federal judge ordered that longtime Republican operative and Trump confidant Roger Stone may not speak publicly about the investigation or case against him.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington said it would be “foolhardy” to wait for Stone to transgress again in the wake of an Instagram post that appeared to show her photo near crosshairs and suggested both she and the special counsel were biased.

“I’m not giving you another chance,” she said. “I have serious doubts whether you’ve learned any lesson at all.”

If he violates the order in any way, Jackson said, she would order him to jail.

She rejected his claim that the image was not meant to be threatening.

“Roger Stone knows full well the power of words and the power of symbols,” she said. “There’s nothing ambiguous about crosshairs.”

Stone can continue to raise funds for his defense and speak on other matters, the judge said.

Stone on Thursday took the stand to apologize for the post and ask that he be allowed to keep talking about his upcoming trial on charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

“I’m sorry that I abused your trust,” Stone told Jackson. “I’m heartfully sorry. . .I can only beseech you to give me a second chance.”

Stone, 66, said the “lapse of judgment was an outgrowth of the extreme stress of the situation.” He said facing criminal charges for the first time in his life has put him under severe emotional and financial strain.

Jackson was not moved. “Thank you, but the apology rings quite hollow,” she said. Based on his subsequent statements and actions, she said, “I don’t find any of the evolving and contradictory explanations credible.”

Both Jackson and prosecutor Jonathan Kravis grilled Stone on how he found the image and why he posted it. Stone gave inconsistent answers, saying first that it was posted by a volunteer and then that a volunteer sent him the image but he posted it himself. He said he can’t remember who gave him the picture or the names of everyone who has access to his phone....

February 21, 2019 4:42 PM  
Anonymous I reeeeeeeeally like our Supreme Court.and the best is yet to come!!!!!!! said...

I’m the first to admit we live in an era of overzealous litigators, scratching for the next lawsuit like a dog with a bone, burying them with retainer fees and motions to exhaust a person into a pit of despair and bankruptcy. However, the legal system is an important avenue of justice for many and we are all seeing this in real time with the announcement that Nicholas Sandmann (the high school student from the now-infamous Covington Catholic High School, who was at the center of an unwanted viral video controversy) is suing the Washington Post. In an incredible, put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is move, Sandmann and attorneys are seeking a whopping $250 million in damages and get kudos from me for straight-up chutzpah.

Still, between the first photo of Sandmann on that January day and the latter video, multiple outlets including the Washington Post vilified the young man as a bigot and taunting teen, a white nationalist, and more. One Washington Post opinion headline said, “Time to take on the Covington ‘smirk,’” while another read, “The Covington students and the calculated art of making people uncomfortable.”

Sandmann’s lawsuit claims that the Post "wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' souvenir cap on a school field trip.” The complaint accuses the Post of engaging in a "modern-day form of McCarthyism by competing with CNN and NBC, among others, to claim leadership of a mainstream and social media mob of bullies which attacked, vilified, and threatened Nicholas Sandmann, an innocent secondary school child.” A Washington Post spokeswoman told CNN Business that the paper is "reviewing a copy of the lawsuit and we plan to mount a vigorous defense."

Libel law is simple, but defamation suits are somewhat difficult to win. Sandmann’s attorneys will need to prove the defamation and that somehow the damages, in such a large amount, are owed due to the damage to his reputation. While the former might be easier, the latter will be more difficult to prove. Large portions of the complaint include politically charged language (that the Washington Post is actively publishing stories opposed to Trump) and, personally, I think they would have had a stronger case without those lofty, conspiratorial claims.

Mainstream news publications have been printing news reports and knee-jerk reactions without the full story or appropriate citations on hot topics for some time now, particularly anything that might be anti-Trump. Weaponizing its tagline “Democracy dies in darkness,” the Washington Post attacks one side of the population, vilifying conservatives or anyone who even appears to be, with little to no accountability. I’m glad Sandmann’s family had the gumption to force the Washington Post to own to their bad reporting with a lawsuit. It will be telling to see if the Post (or Sandmann) settles.

February 21, 2019 10:34 PM  
Anonymous joe biden.......LOL!! said...

Conservative pundits have pointed out that Democrat elites and the so-called "mainstream" media were quick to accept actor Jussie Smollett's story of being assaulted by two Trump-supporters.

It is clear now that he lied. Smollett said his attackers were white and that he would have been believed without question if his assailants had been "Muslim," "Mexican," or "black." They were black.

When asked why he thinks this happened, Smollett answered, "I have gone hard against 45, I have gone hard against this administration." The mainstream media were all too happy to embrace any story that promotes their belief that President Trump and his supporters are racist and "homophobic."

However, Smollett and the leftist media have a broader focus for their hatred than this president. They hate America. The alleged Smollett attack was designed not merely to prove that this president and his supporters are bigots, but to demonstrate once again that America is a hateful place where racism and homophobia run rampant.

The president's slogan, "Make America Great Again," is interpreted as code language for "make America white again." His opposition to illegal immigration is depicted as a racist ploy to keep nonwhite people out of the country. They know that President Trump is not the originator of what they see as America's sordid legacy of hatred and bigotry, but in their minds, he is its latest and best representative.

After the Charlottesville confrontation between white supremacists and radical leftists, the president's condemnation of both sides was deemed "racist." As a black Virginian, I took the same view. When he pointed out that the Mexicans who cross our southern border illegally are not that country's "best," he was stating the obvious, but that too was considered racist.

No matter what this president does to improve the lives of women, minorities, and all Americans, from the left's perspective, he is beyond redemption because he is the symptom. America is the disease. The left views us as a nation of white supremacy, white privilege, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, inequality, oppression, corporate greed, and international imperialism. Instead of "America the Beautiful," they see ugly Americans. Instead of the "land of the free and the home of the brave," they see a land of the selfish and home of the brutal. Instead of compassionate people, they see planetary parasites and climate deniers dragging the world to cataclysmic destruction.

They see America as the world's nightmare. We drive SUVs, eat rich foods, and enrich billionaires while the world starves. We believe in a judgmental God, a bigoted Bible, and an antiquated Second Amendment right to bear arms, all of which makes us a narrow-minded nation of gun nuts. Our unprecedented prosperity was built on the backs of slaves, and our entire continent was stolen from American Indians.

Our unparalleled contributions to mankind — industrial and technological advances; humanitarian generosity; the defeat of Nazism, communism, and other genocidal threats — are irrelevant. From the perspective of the left, we are an illegitimate country. Only "fundamentally transforming" America into a socialist state can pay for our sins.

Our public schools, colleges, and universities do not teach about America's history in the context of a barbaric and violent world. Instead they inculcate students with a polemic that labels America as barbaric and the cause of everything wrong in the world.

February 21, 2019 11:11 PM  
Anonymous Bernie Sanders ....LOL!! said...

That's why Governor Andrew Cuomo could glibly say America "was never that great." That's why former vice president Joe Biden could go to Germany, the birthplace of Nazism, and call America an "embarrassment." That's why President Barack Obama never expressed pride in his country, only apologies for it. That's why his wife Michelle Obama said she was proud of her country for the first time only after voters elected her husband president. That is why Jussie lied — to prove that leftist disdain for our country is entirely justified.

Smollett undoubtedly wanted his scheme to embarrass the president, but even more, he wanted to confirm every self-hating delusion about how horrible America is. CNN reporter Brooke Baldwin said after the alleged incident, "This is America in 2019." She would have been more accurate to say, "This is how all of us on the left see America in 2019." They've been seeing it that way for 60 years.

Thank God that most of us still see America as a shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope to the world. We see our country as a place of freedom and opportunity for every individual. We know there is no perfect nation on Earth, but America comes closer than anywhere this side of heaven.

What galls these anti-American smear merchants — Jussie Smollett, the Obamas, Al Sharpton, Hollywood celebrities, Gov. Cuomo, Joe Biden, the leftist media, the Democratic Party, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the socialists, Marxists and communists — is that no matter how they slander our country, they cannot dampen our faith and patriotism. While spoiled millionaire athletes refuse to stand for our flag and the National Anthem, we stand. We will stand until this nation has an awakening, a new birth of freedom and gratitude in the hearts of our people, especially those who have been seduced by Marxism, moral relativism, anti-Christian bigotry, and anti-American resentment.

The American vision of "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," will prevail because it is based on love, not hatred; on truth, not lies; and on unity, not division.

February 21, 2019 11:12 PM  
Anonymous one nation under God, indivisible, with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL said...

Whatever happens in the years to come, American politics can never return to what they were before November 8, 2016.

Why, you ask? Because a brash TV celebrity businessman from Queens broke the media, broke Washington D.C., and broke the self-appointed “elite” on both coasts. The stake he drove through their hearts will endure no matter who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

First, they laughed at Donald Trump the candidate. At his appearance, at his demeanor, at his outré stump speeches. Then, when he wiped the floor with the 16 establishment Republican candidates they panicked.

The criminal cartel that is the Clinton machine hired a former British intelligence officer—who hated Donald Trump the man—to generate a “dossier” of outlandish and false opposition research that was used by Barack Obama’s thoroughly corrupt Justice Department and FBI to gain under bogus pretenses a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrant to spy on her opponent’s campaign. But they failed.

That is when the coup plot was hatched.

I do not use that word lightly. However given that both the liberal judicial authority Alan Dershowitz, and the most preeminent conservative historian and strategist, Victor Davis Hanson, have recently used the word “coup” to describe the machinations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the choice is deliberate and justified.

Rosenstein and McCabe had never been elected to any public office, let alone the cabinet of the United States. Yet by McCabe’s own admission, they plotted to use the 25th Amendment to our Constitution to remove the duly elected president—an amendment that was designed for the incumbent president’s cabinet to employ in the dire scenario that their superior was incapacitated and unable to perform his duties as commander-in-chief.

The amendment is very clear. The president’s removal is decided by the vice president and a majority of his cabinet. Not by an FBI flunky whose wife received $700,000 from Hillary Clinton’s bagman Terry McAuliffe to run as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate. And not by the acting attorney general—a man who would name his friend Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate the president the very day after Mueller failed in his interview with President Trump to get his old job back as Director of the FBI. This is exactly what a coup d’etat looks like—albeit, thankfully, a failed coup d’etat.

The point here is that Rosenstein, McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and the rest of the corrupt bureaucrats failed and Donald Trump remains president. Not only that, but beyond all rational expectations of standard political calculation and despite the overwhelming bias of the media—coverage of Trump is estimated at 90 percent negative in just the last year— his popularity stands by at least one measure at a remarkable 52 percent, which is significantly higher than for Obama at the same time in his first term.

This is the dispositive proof that Donald J. Trump has changed America in ways that no “expert” ever could imagine.

They spied on him and tried to subvert his campaign for election to the highest office. Once installed in the White House, they plotted to remove him. And all the while the media and the establishment as a whole either was not on his side or actively working against him. Yet he is winning more than ever.

For more than 30 years, America has been held hostage by a political, economic, media and cultural elite which has been wrong on every major issue you can imagine. From foreign adventurism to trade policies; national sovereignty versus globalization; love of country to hatred of the principles upon which our nation was built—one man has broken the stranglehold of a morally bankrupt “elite” and he isn’t even a politician.

February 22, 2019 6:09 AM  
Anonymous Selling popcorn said...

Thanks ever so much for the right wing crap of the adoration of a trumpette above!

tЯump and his buddies will be doing their perp walks before all is said and done.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cases-factbox/factbox-guilty-pleas-indictments-abound-in-trump-russia-probe-idUSKBN1OH12M

Stay tuned March 8 when Manafort will be sentenced.



February 22, 2019 8:02 AM  
Anonymous Let's try Hillary again...LOL!!!!! said...

Mueller's report will be out in the next week. The attorney general has been briefed and doesn't appear alarmed. Most of the key deep state figures have committed the same crime Flynn pled to. Their 15 months of fame are imminent. In 2016, unless a GOP challenger arises, Trump will have cakewalk to re-election. A healthy economy and a President willing to take on China vs bankrupt socialism. Who do you think America will go with?

February 22, 2019 8:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

GOP loyalist Ana Navarro lamented during a “Late Show” appearance Thursday that the party has surrendered to “a president who’s pretending to be a Republican.”

“It feels like we’re in a little island of Republicans in exile ― Republicans who actually remember what Republican principles and Republican convictions used to be like,” Navarro, a CNN commentator known for her fiery on-air opposition to President Donald Trump, told host Stephen Colbert.

“There’s a lot of people who have compromised those principles and convictions in order to accommodate a man, a president, who’s pretending to be Republican and has no principles or convictions.”

Navarro said she has been a Republican since she was 8 years old, and “there’s no way in hell” Trump can make her reject the party. Trump, now the GOP’s de facto head, registered as a Republican only a few years before the 2016 election.

“He has staged not a hostile takeover, because there are willing fools and people willing to sell out their souls in order to go to a White House Christmas party,” Navarro said.

She added: “It’s going to take a while for the Republicans to ever go back to what they were.”

A top Harvard constitutional law professor involved in a lawsuit seeking an injunction against Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall has thanked the president for helping to make the case.

On Thursday’s broadcast of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” the host asked Laurence Tribe if he’d “ever been on the opposite side of a litigant who was so helpful to your case in public comments that you could then simply type right into your brief to support your position?”

“Honestly, I have never had an opponent who was quite as helpful,” Tribe, who is representing the Texas county of El Paso in the case, said.

Tribe also thanked Trump “for being as obvious as he is about the absence of any emergency and about the fact that he is simply trying to do what emperors and kings do, not what a president of the United States should do.”

February 22, 2019 9:18 AM  
Anonymous Rump's unnecessary trade war helps --- Rusia said...

American farm exports are expected to plunge $1.9 billion in fiscal 2019, compared to the previous year, largely due to President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Soybean exports have been hit particularly hard, the agency’s chief economist, Robert Johansson, told the USDA Outlook Forum in Washington on Thursday, Reuters reported. Because of the trade dispute, soybean exports to China will have “plummeted by 22 million [metric] tons, or over 90 percent” through this month, Johansson said.

China has dropped to the fifth largest market for American farm exports, Johansson noted. It was the top foreign purchaser in 2017. China is buying only about 6 percent of total U.S. exports, compared with nearly 18 percent in 2014.

The USDA estimates a net farm income of $66 billion for 2018, compared with $134 billion in 2013.

Early last year Trump admitted farmers would take a hit in the trade war, but he insisted that they would “understand.” These are “great patriots,” he added, referring to the farmers. “They understand that they’re doing this for the country.” The Farm Bureau, which represents the nation’s farmers, has spoken out against tariffs and the trade war. The administration has set aside $12 billion to bail out farmers hurt by the president’s trade war.

Russian farmers are one of the beneficiaries of the trade war. Their soybean exports to China more than doubled last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Russia’s overall trade with China rose more than 27 percent to over $100 billion last year, according to the Journal. The increase in trade between the nations has been reportedly nurtured by an increasingly powerful relationship between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are taking advantage of an America that is on the trade sidelines.

The trade war has also been linked to the highest number of Midwestern farm bankruptcies in a decade, according to an analysis of court records by the Journal.

Farmers’ fortunes could change if the United States and China work out their trade differences in talks that are underway. But even in the event of a trade deal, China’s recently developed commercial relationships with farmers in other countries could continue for years. Johansson also warned that unsold American soybeans now stored could take years to “unwind.”

As for the near future, the South American soy harvest “would make exports more competitive in the rest of the marketing year, dimming the prospects for an export recovery,” Johansson warned, according to Reuters.

February 22, 2019 9:41 AM  
Anonymous Republicans whine when they get stuff for free said...

"Not only that, but beyond all rational expectations of standard political calculation and despite the overwhelming bias of the media—coverage of Trump is estimated at 90 percent negative in just the last year"

Rump should be THANKING the media:

Donald Trump didn't spend nearly as much on advertising as typical presidential candidates, and he didn't have to -- he relied on billions of dollars of free mentions in media ranging from major TV news networks to Buzzfeed and Twitter instead.

The real estate magnate got $4.96 billion in free earned media in the year leading up to the presidential election, according to data from tracking firm mediaQuant. He received $5.6 billion throughout the entirety of his campaign, more than Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio combined.

"You have Donald Trump coming along and getting all this coverage without spending a dime," said Paul Senatori, chief analytics officer at Portland-based mediaQuant.

Over the past 12 months, the president-elect received more than $800 million in free earned broadcast media, compared to $666 million for Clinton, and $2.6 billion in free earned online news attention, compared to $1.6 billion for his rival. He edged out her and other major political names in American and worldwide newspapers as well.

To arrive at its estimates, mediaQuant tracks the coverage of each candidate and calculates dollar values based on advertising rates of the media in which the article or news broadcast appears. It weights mentions by the reach of the source (meaning how many people are likely to see it) and includes various mediums, including print, broadcast, online news, blogs and social. It makes adjustments based on sentiment, segment and search metrics.

Twitter (TWTR - Get Report) played an integral role. Trump regularly utilized the 140-character social network to deliver his message directly to voters, circumventing traditional channels and driving the broader conversation.

"He definitely throughout the election did show, in order of magnitude, better use of Twitter and better traction on Twitter than Hillary Clinton was able to captivate," said Senatori.

Election 2016 was an enormous one for Twitter: according to data from the company, over 75 million election-related tweets were sent on Election Day alone, compared to 31 million tweets during the entire 2012 election. There are questions as to whether Trump will be able to continue his unvarnished use of the platform once in the White House, but thus far, his behavior has been relatively unchanged: Trump has used the platform regularly as president-elect, largely to bat back at media reports from The New York Times.

During the election, Trump got about 50% more coverage than Clinton across all media but outdid her by 150% on Twitter. The platform delivered $402 million in free attention for Trump and $166 million for Clinton.

The self-described billionaire generated the most Twitter buzz in May, generating nearly $195 million in free attention compared to $23 million for Clinton. The explanation: the taco bowl tweet. Trump's now infamous Cinco de Mayo message fueled an enormous amount of chatter.

"It was amazing how much the taco story in May drove a lot of the Twitter volume," said Senatori.
Trump's free media gain was broadcasters' loss this election cycle, and many companies that expected a bump in political ad dollars were left holding the bag.

His camp's decision to eschew big television ad budgets hurt profits for television station owners like Gray Television (GTN - Get Report) and E.W. Scripps (SSP - Get Report) . Scripps CFO Tim Wesolowski in the company's third-quarter earnings call noted Trump spent "a fraction of what Republican presidential candidates have spent on television ads." The company's political sales for the period were about half what they expected. "You can't get blood from a Trump," Gray CEO Hilton Howell said during his company's earnings call.

February 22, 2019 9:58 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

"coverage of Trump is estimated at 90 percent negative in just the last year"


Given that 99.9% of everything Trump does is a disaster, he should be thrilled to death with the media portraying him better than he is.

February 22, 2019 11:32 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

So, Trump's off to North Korea to make more concessions and get nothing in return - what a loser. His people say they're worried Kim Jon Un will get the best of him - no shit Shirlock, that's obvious from their previous meeting and everything he's done as president.

February 22, 2019 7:41 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Trump Tax Cuts Mean Biggest Companies Pay No Taxes, Get Refunds

By the numbers:

GM is claiming a $104 million refund on $11.8 billion in 2018 profit.
Goodyear is seeking a $15 million refund on $693 million in profit.
Halliburton will pay $19 million in U.S. income taxes on $1.6 billion in profit.
Netflix filed for a $22.1 million refund on $845 million in profit.
U.S. Steel is claiming a $303 million refund on $957 million in profit.

After its HQ2 debacle in New York, Amazon has been under the most intense scrutiny of all — and now over its tax bill. In a report last week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the e-commerce giant is seeking a $129 million refund on $11.2 billion in profit…

Amazon is not a passive player in tax law, says the institute’s Matthew Gardner, who researched and wrote the Amazon report. “Amazon in particular has shaped tax law in its own image. They made the laws by lobbying so persistently and effectively,” Gardner tells Axios.

How they are doing it: Companies already were able to chip away at their effective tax rate when the top rate was 35%. The new rate of 21% approved under the Trump-backed legislation got them much lower, and then loopholes take effect.

If you’re looking for a reason why we run persistent federal deficits every year, look no further. In the 1950s, business taxes were over 30% of federal revenue. They are now around 9% (and that figure was before the most recent tax cuts; it will be even lower now). This is the golden rule in action — they who have the gold get to rule. They spend tens of millions on lobbying — read: paying off our elected representatives — and receives hundreds of millions, or billions, in return. And this at a time when businesses were already breaking all previous records for profit. It’s outright corruption, plain and simple.

And yet Trump’s followers still think he’s a populist, a man too rich to be bought off and interested only in protecting the interests of the average Joe Six-Pack. This is classic political strategy — distract the people by appealing to their bigotry and hatreds, tell them some other group (immigrants, “globalists,” etc) is to blame for their lot in life, and raid the treasury while they’re busy raging against the enemy du jour.

February 22, 2019 10:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Transgender teen commits suicide, cites Christian parents in blog

After years of abuse and rejection from strict Christian parents, an Ohio transgender teen commits suicide by stepping in front of a moving tractor trailer truck.

Leelah Alcorn, also known as Joshua Alcorn, was struck and killed by a passing semitrailer on southbound Interstate 71 in Union Township Sunday morning. The tragic event appears not to have been an accident, but a suicide.

On her blog at Tumblr, Leelah left a poignant suicide note, detailing a life of pain and rejection, a life dominated by Christian parents who refused to understand, or simply could not understand, that their precious child was a female trapped in the body of a male.

In her final blog post Leelah writes:

If you are reading this, it means that I have committed suicide and obviously failed to delete this post from my queue.

Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in… because I’m transgender. I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I feel like a girl trapped in a boy’s body, and I’ve felt that way ever since I was 4. I never knew there was a word for that feeling, nor was it possible for a boy to become a girl, so I never told anyone and I just continued to do traditionally “boyish” things to try to fit in.

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don’t tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don’t ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won’t do anything but make them hate them self. That’s exactly what it did to me.

My mom started taking me to a therapist, but would only take me to christian therapists, (who were all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I needed to cure me of my depression. I only got more christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.

February 22, 2019 11:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...


When I was 16 I realized that my parents would never come around, and that I would have to wait until I was 18 to start any sort of transitioning treatment, which absolutely broke my heart. The longer you wait, the harder it is to transition. I felt hopeless, that I was just going to look like a man in drag for the rest of my life. On my 16th birthday, when I didn’t receive consent from my parents to start transitioning, I cried myself to sleep.

I formed a sort of a “fuck you” attitude towards my parents and came out as gay at school, thinking that maybe if I eased into coming out as trans it would be less of a shock. Although the reaction from my friends was positive, my parents were pissed. They felt like I was attacking their image, and that I was an embarrassment to them. They wanted me to be their perfect little straight christian boy, and that’s obviously not what I wanted.

So they took me out of public school, took away my laptop and phone, and forbid me of getting on any sort of social media, completely isolating me from my friends. This was probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed, and I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. I was completely alone for 5 months. No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness.

At the end of the school year, my parents finally came around and gave me my phone and let me back on social media. I was excited, I finally had my friends back. They were extremely excited to see me and talk to me, but only at first. Eventually they realized they didn’t actually give a shit about me, and I felt even lonelier than I did before. The only friends I thought I had only liked me because they saw me five times a week.

After a summer of having almost no friends plus the weight of having to think about college, save money for moving out, keep my grades up, go to church each week and feel like shit because everyone there is against everything I live for, I have decided I’ve had enough. I’m never going to transition successfully, even when I move out. I’m never going to be happy with the way I look or sound. I’m never going to have enough friends to satisfy me. I’m never going to have enough love to satisfy me. I’m never going to find a man who loves me. I’m never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way out. I’m sad enough already, I don’t need my life to get any worse. People say “it gets better” but that isn’t true in my case. It gets worse. Each day I get worse.

February 22, 2019 11:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That’s the gist of it, that’s why I feel like killing myself. Sorry if that’s not a good enough reason for you, it’s good enough for me. As for my will, I want 100% of the things that I legally own to be sold and the money (plus my money in the bank) to be given to trans civil rights movements and support groups, I don’t give a shit which one. The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.

Goodbye,

Leelah Alcorn

Despite Leelah’s request that we be not sad, we should be sad. This was an avoidable tragedy. All that was required was a little more education, and a little less religious bigotry.

the truth is….it is still extremely difficult to be a transgender young person in the country.

We have to do better.

By reading her letter, Leelah makes it clear she wants her death to, in some way, help “trans civil rights movements.”

Please join me in making a donation (investment in our trans kids) right now to TransOhio.

Invest by clicking here: http://www.transohio.org

Leelah is gone but not forgotten – she is now yet another symbol of the unspeakable and often silent suffering of so many young people, LGBT and otherwise, forced to suffer oppression and abuse by parents blinded by religious superstition and bigotry.

February 22, 2019 11:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

While homeschooling can be a good fit for some children, often the parents are not qualified either by temperament or education to be homeschooling their children. Add to that the ignorance and bigotry associated with religious superstition, and one is left with a toxic brew ripe for abuse and neglect in the world of Christian homeschooling.

February 22, 2019 11:32 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Jim said "it is obvious and sensible not to destroy our own planet"

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "well, not if it means..."

This is how destructive the Right Wing Authoritarians are, they bizarrely think there are more important concerns than having a planet we can live on.

They're mental cases.

February 23, 2019 9:46 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current Supreme Court said...

From Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Covington Catholic kids to Jussie Smollett, many in the media have been quick to judge and slow to apologize.

It’s deeply disturbing how news coverage has often been turned into a propaganda machine, continuing to forge ahead with false narratives with no regard for truth. Facts just seem to get in the way.

In their hatred of Donald Trump and their desire to destroy a sitting president, the anti-Trump media have traded all journalistic objectivity and become completely desensitized to the fact that the American people continue to lose trust in them.

“Empire" actor Jussie Smollett was arrested Thursday and accused by Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson of orchestrating a “phony attack” to take “advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”

Smollett, a gay African-American, last month reported the elaborate claim that two masked men yelled “this is MAGA country” while they beat him, threw a supposed chemical substance on him, put a noose around his neck, and spewed homophobic and racist insults before fleeing. Police say the attack never happened and that Smollett lied about it.

President Trump called out Smollett, tweeting “what about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!?”

Even as Smollett’s story was falling apart, CNN’s Don Lemon asserted on air it wasn’t Smollett’s fault and he lost in the court of public opinion.

Of course he did … because he made the whole thing up! Never mind that. I guess we’re still supposed to feel sorry for him so we don’t disrupt the media’s racist, homophobic tale of Trump supporters.

After Smollett’s initial report of the incident, members of the news media, not to mention Hollywood celebrities, couldn’t wait to get their fingers moving and come to his defense. The New York Times even tweeted the “attack” out as fact.

Like kids in a candy store, Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey couldn’t wait to brand Trump supporters with a hate crime. Just a few hours after the reported crime, Harris tweeted that it was a “modern day lynching.” Booker, who also got Twitter-happy, took it a step further and called for anti-lynching legislation.

Twitter needs to invoke a 15-minute minute delay before it posts a tweet. This way your brain has a chance to move faster than the speed of your fingers, and you’re forced to consider what you’re putting out in Twitterville.

But hey, being first is better than being right. Isn’t that the new news slogan?

February 23, 2019 9:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So the left-wing media is reporting that the Smollet case doesn't appear to be an actual assault within a few days.

Can someone remind me of how long the right wing media kept the fake news Obama birth certificate story going?

February 23, 2019 10:11 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Smollet having lied about a hate crime has no bearing on reality - the majority of Trump supporters DO seek to harm (directly or indirectly) innocent minorities and LGBT people

Trump supporters ARE dangerous and racist.

February 23, 2019 1:58 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

The difference between Democrats and Republicans, is that Democrats stop supporting liars like Smollett when the truth comes out, whereas Republicans never stop defending their wrongdoers, Republicans never admit the truth that one of their own is a bad person.

February 23, 2019 2:04 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein deposition: Epstein was asked if he socialized with Donald Trump. He responded with "yes."

Then he was asked if he had ever socialized with Trump in the presence o females under age of 18? He pleaded the fifth.

February 23, 2019 11:42 PM  
Anonymous Captain Cassidy said...

“Aren’t you afraid of Hell?” is totally the wrong way to ask that question; it should run “Aren’t you afraid of this Hell idea that scares me so much?” There’s a breathless quality to the question, always. It’s never asked with disinterest or casual curiosity. It really couldn’t be. If it was real, then it would be indeed very terrifying. Christians who buy into the doctrine of Hell are very frightened of it. I’d be concerned to run across a Christian who did who wasn’t! Oh, their leaders are stuffed full of rah-rah about not fearing Hell–about how TRUE CHRISTIANS™ never fear it, about how TRUE CHRISTIANS™ have absolutely nothing to fear from it–but I can absolutely tell you as someone who was a TRUE CHRISTIAN™, who was involved in ministry and married to a preacher, that they are either talking out of their asses or seriously delusional. The preachers and pastors who crow the loudest about not being worried about Heaven are the ones I personally saw breaking down and crying in private out of fear, and then getting up, putting on a big Jesus smile, and leaping out onto the dais to preach again about how terrifying Hell is. The big problem is that for every Bible verse about not being afraid, there are oodles more about how yes, Christians should be very afraid. The real boogeyman here is Matthew 7:22-23, which advises that even Christians who do miracles and preach in Jesus’ name might be turned away from Heaven–and that they won’t even realize they’re not up to his standards till that moment.

So when a Christian asks me if I’m afraid of Hell, I know that I’m dealing with Christian who is hugely afraid of Hell. I remember what that was like. When I was Christian, I was hugely terrified of Hell (and being “left behind” by Rapture, but SSDD, amirite?). I never knew if I was doing enough, if I was fervent enough, if I was devoted enough, if I was good enough.

And that was the point of the whole doctrine of Hell: to inspire fear no matter what else happened, and especially to use fear to inspire obedience and compliance.

There sure is a lot of fear in Christianity, despite Christian party-line newspeak about not being afraid. Fear is used to convert people, and the game doesn’t end there; it’s then used to keep people in the pews–to stop people from leaving. Most of it’s centered around our very real and human fear of the unknown, and a lot of it plays on our equally very-human fear of being a day late and a dollar short. We fear missing out on something good, but even more than that, we fear accidentally landing in the middle of something bad we hadn’t foreseen, and we fear not heeding a warning that turned out to be correct. When we get scared, we’re more likely to make bad judgments or mistakes (that’s why wise investment gurus tell people not to make big financial plans from a place of fear). And we’re more likely to trust people who say they know a way to resolve that fear, especially if their suggestion sounds simple and easy.

And these fears take the place of evidence for claims. When someone tries to make me afraid of the unknown, then I know that person doesn’t have a bit of proof for anything being claimed–or that person would have already provided it. And I know that person wants the easy way out of those fears.

February 24, 2019 12:39 AM  
Anonymous Captain Cassidy said...

When we tell these Christians that no, we’re not afraid of their god, or their Hell, or whatever it is they’re trying to spook folks with in lieu of providing evidence for their claims, they give us one of two reactions: either they’ll think we’re lying or perhaps unaware of how bad the threat really is (which is the route I took as a Christian), or else they’ll be confused. If we short-circuit the standard proselytization script, which tries to inspire fear and thus willingness to listen to a religious blandishment, then they’re not really sure what to say next. Their script needs us to share the same fear that the Christian feels. If we cannot be inspired to terror, then nothing else in the script is going to make much sense to us.

This fear Christians peddle and suffer from is another symptom of the disease infesting their religion–but it is one of the oldest symptoms, originating with the Gospels themselves and manifesting over and over again through many centuries. It’s hard even to imagine a Christianity that doesn’t try to terrorize anybody by preying upon human beings’ fear of the unknown. I know some progressives are trying to create a religion wearing Christian trappings that doesn’t terrorize, and I think it’d be nice if they succeed, but take the fear out of the religion and a lot of its demands and assertions start looking awfully silly.

Leaving Christianity made me very sensitive to similar attempts to frighten me rather than persuade me with evidence, or to play upon my human fears, or to encourage me to take the cheap way out of resolving a fear. I’m glad of that at least.

A lesson hard-earned is one not soon forgotten, and a fear defeated through hard work is not likely to return.

February 24, 2019 12:40 AM  
Anonymous He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed said...

"“Manafort chose repeatedly and knowingly to violate the law,” prosecutors said, from “garden-variety crimes such as tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bank fraud” to “more esoteric laws” involving foreign lobbying.

He lied, they noted, “to tax preparers, bookkeepers, banks, the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice National Security Division, the FBI, the Special Counsel’s Office, the grand jury, his own legal counsel, Members of Congress, and members of the executive branch of the United States government.”

He committed crimes while leading a presidential campaign and while out on bail before trial, and then lied to investigators after pleading guilty, prosecutors said, revealing “a hardened adherence to committing crimes and lack of remorse.”

The charges in both cases flow from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The filing helps pave the way for Manafort’s sentencings in D.C. and Virginia scheduled for next month, as Mueller begins wrapping up his probe.

But the redacted, public document gives no details about Manafort’s campaign interactions with Russians. Prosecutors had previously asked the judge for permission to seal material either because it related to “ongoing law enforcement investigations” or “uncharged individuals.”

As part of his plea deal in September, Manafort, 69, acknowledged he was guilty of everything he was accused of both in Washington, D.C. and in Virginia: making millions as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukrainian politicians, hiding that money to avoid paying taxes, defrauding banks to pay his debts when his oligarch patrons fell out of power, and lying to cover up his crimes while trying to persuade witnesses to do the same."

February 24, 2019 7:38 AM  
Anonymous Captain Cassidy said...

I want to talk about disproportional threats today. The entire Christian religion is based on this idea, and it permeates how Christians tend to interact with others. So it’s worth a look, so when we see it happening, we can identify it and refuse to buy into it.

One thing I had to learn to do, as a Christian, was turn off my inherent sense of justice and fairness to buy into the Christian religion. Adam and Eve ate an apple–so the entire human race was condemned to hard lives and death (including untold billions of women and fetuses condemned to die in childbirth). Humans didn’t seem to be acting the way this god wanted them to act–so he drowned the whole wide world, every animal, bird, reptile, man, woman, child, fetus, insect, you name it, in his rage. Someone didn’t kowtow to my god–so that person would be spending forever and ever and ever and ever in a fiery pit of hell, suffering and burning and screaming forever and ever and ever, in pain and unable to make it stop or even apologize, all for a few decades’ worth of thought crimes.

I knew that wasn’t fair at all. I knew that it wasn’t fair to impose eternal punishment on someone. I knew it wasn’t fair to condemn people who weren’t even alive when the initial offense had occurred. I knew it wasn’t fair to punish animals along with people. But to be a Christian, I had to accept that completely out-of-whack punishments were totally fine and in fact “godly”–by definition, because my god liked them and used them.

I began to see that this god I considered the ultimate in goodness was actually pretty damned abusive because of how utterly disproportional his punishments were–and how punitive. I tried so hard to justify his torrential abuse: “Oh, people choose to go to hell!” and the like, stuff we’re all used to hearing from Christians who desperately need to excuse their god’s atrocities upon humanity. The simple truth is that no contortion I could make could erase the glaring reality: this god had set up a system whereby sentient beings face endless torture and pain that they cannot escape and can never rehabilitate out of, all because they simply could not summon belief or love for this god, who certainly had never given humanity any solid evidence of his existence in the first place and certainly was not in the least loving or lovable.

February 24, 2019 2:14 PM  
Anonymous Captain Cassidy said...



The threat of Hell kept me from questioning the love of the Hell doctrine. It kept me from wondering about the injustice of the entire cosmology of my religion. It kept me in the pew way longer than I should have stayed there. I was terrified of Hell. Of getting “left behind.” Of being found wanting at the great day of judgement. That terror propelled me and fueled me. But eventually, I was exhausted with terror and discovered, like the heroine in the movie V for Vendetta, that I simply did not fear anymore. It’d been burned out of me. The threat holds no terror anymore for me. I regard Christians who still face that fear with a detached sense of sympathy. I know exactly how it feels to be afraid like that, and I know there is nothing I can do to make it easier for those who still face that fear except to say that I do not fear it and that it is not fair–and that a god who is ultimately good and ultimately fair would never have set up a system like that...

When you’re inherently controlling and subscribe to a doctrine of completely disproportional threats, the idea of Hell as a threat to use on others becomes very appealing. The people using threats on women, on non-Christians, on children, these are people who have no idea how to really function in a society that is progressive, liberated, civil, and dignified. Their worldview is one of punishment and reward. They literally have no idea how else to get what they want, which is domination and control over others.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I still think it’s useful to keep in mind that people tend to use on others the arguments that worked on them. We need to be there to say “That’s totally unfair and won’t work to bring about the results you want” or “That’s completely out of proportion to the behavior you want to see stopped and designed only to bring back the privilege you’re sore about losing” when we see threats being deployed.

February 24, 2019 2:14 PM  
Anonymous I reeeeeeeeally like the Supreme Court we have now !! said...

Captain Cassidy, not sure why, of all places, you decided to spew your venom here.

How did you happen upon this blog?

Don't think you understand the concept of hell. You might want to read up on it.

"While homeschooling can be a good fit for some children,"

or, even, all of them

"often the parents are not qualified either by temperament or education to be homeschooling their children."

often public school teachers are not qualified by temperament or education to be simultaneously teaching herds of kids stuffed into trailers on a playground

"Add to that the ignorance and bigotry associated with religious superstition, and one is left with a toxic brew ripe for abuse and neglect in the world of Christian homeschooling."

Add to that the ignorance and bigotry associated with shallow humanism and materialism
and one is left with a toxic brew ripe for abuse and neglect in the world of public schooling

February 24, 2019 11:47 PM  
Anonymous hi, rememba me?, it's Merrick Garland again said...

When President Donald Trump tweeted, on January 20, that he had reached 50 percent approval among Hispanic-Americans, most fair-minded observers reacted with skepticism, if not outright disbelief. Trump was, after all, still the same man who announced his candidacy by accusing Mexico of sending “rapists” across the border, the same man who ordered refugee children separated from their parents, the same man who has made building a wall to shut out migrants the focal point of his presidency. Yet here he was, crowing characteristic bravado: “Wow, just heard that my poll numbers with Hispanics has gone up 19%, to 50%. That is because they know the Border issue better than anyone, and they want Security, which can only be gotten with a Wall.”

So, when even the pollsters responsible for the data Trump was touting—Marist Institute for Public Opinion, for NPR and "PBS NewsHour"—cautioned of the high margin of error for that subset, and a possible over-sampling of Republicans, many on the left promptly dismissed it as an anomaly.

One month later, however, and Trump is making an aggressive play for Hispanic-American votes in Florida and beyond. Meanwhile, polls suggest Marist might have been onto something—and that Democrats should be worried that Hispanic voters could help reelect Trump and keep the Senate in Republican control. If so, it would be a cosmic twist of fate: A party that has staked its future on a belief that America’s demographic picture is changing decidedly in its favor could find itself losing to a man whose politics of fear should be driving precisely those voters into the Democrats’ waiting arms.

In theory, the rosy predictions that once gave rise to chest-beating liberal books like “The Emerging Democratic Majority” are proving true: 2020 will be the first U.S. election in which Hispanics make up the largest racial or ethnic minority in the electorate, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew estimates that 32 million Hispanics will be eligible to vote—a full 2 million more than eligible black voters and more than 13 percent of the electorate. Hispanics figure to constitute at least 11 percent of the national vote, as they did in 2016 and 2018.

Many expected Hispanics to vote overwhelmingly against Trump in 2016. A Latino Decisions poll conducted just before the 2016 presidential election found Trump had the support of just 18 percent of Hispanics. But the actual figure was 28 percent, which—given Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about immigrants—some analysts and pundits refused to believe from exit polls until further studies confirmed it. That was just as good as Mitt Romney, as the 2012 Republican nominee, did with Hispanics—and it was enough to help Trump squeak an Electoral College victory.

If Hillary Clinton had improved her share of the Hispanic vote by just 3 percentage points in Florida (from 62 percent to 65 percent of the Hispanic vote) and Michigan (from 59 percent to 62 percent), she would have won both states and their combined 45 Electoral College votes. That would have been enough to make her president. Slightly bigger swings—let alone the Democrats’ 88 percent-8 percent margin among African-Americans—could have added Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin into the blue column as well.

Now, here’s the brutal truth for Democrats: If Hispanic Americans are in fact showing surging approval of Trump, he could be on his way to matching or exceeding the 40 percent won by George W. Bush in his 2004. If Trump does 12 percentage points better than his 2016 numbers with the growing Hispanic vote, it pretty much takes Florida, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina off the table for Democrats, who would need to sweep Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to reach the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House. At the same time, that 12-point shift would give Trump a clear shot at winning Colorado and Nevada, states where Hispanic voters make up well over 10 percent of the electorate and where Clinton won by 5 percentage points or less in 2016

February 25, 2019 12:05 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Captain Cassidy, not sure why, of all places, you decided to spew your venom here.".

There you go again with maximally distorting yours and your opponent's positions . And then when someone points out you're lying you'll get indignant and adamantly exclaim "I said no such thing!" and "That's a Lie that I lied!", etc. etc, falling back on the triviality that you didn't "technically" lie even though you are being grotesquely deceptive.

The truth is, that Captain Cassidy is not spewing venom, she's rightfully criticizing the socially and personally destructive venom that comes from christianity - look at you two here and your sadistic attacks on innocent lgbt people who do you no harm.

The foundational ideas of christianity couldn't be more morally wrong - unjust, hypocritical, irrational, and sadistic. No wonder it produces hostile sadistic people like Wyatt and Regina. No wonder they call me "a mental case" when I say my highest priority goal for society is to maximize their happiness as well as my own. Its not atheists like me and Captain Cassidy that are spitting venom, its Wyatt and Regina that are.

Wyatt/Regina said "Don't think you understand the concept of hell. You might want to read up on it."

NO, it is you who are maximally distorting the historical god given concept of hell found in the bible. Over and over the bible asserts a real, literal lake of fire and eternal torture - what part of the bible convincingly shows this concept of hell was not intended literally?

There isn't one.

Throughout history, the vast majority of christians have, given a blind acceptance of biblical claims, correctly interpreted the biblical depictions of hell as a place of eternal fiery torture - there is nothing in the bible that would lead one to question that that is the biblical hell.

February 25, 2019 12:41 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous always try to have it both ways. On one hand they assert their "morality" comes from a perfect god, so it is completely objective and eternal. And then they also want to assert the biblical concept of punishment for refusing to love god back has hugely softened over the decades, that their god's standards have changed.

The truth is, even christians like Wyatt/Regina can see the hypocrisy in the bible's depiction of eternal torture for finite crimes and the god that demands this being "loving and just".

February 25, 2019 12:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If today's christians find the biblical concept of hell too hypocritical for their "loving and just" god, then they'd be on stronger biblical ground to argue that Jesus was just joking about hell and there is no hell whatsoever - like it says in the Jewish bible.

Christians claim the Jewish bible as part of their own bible. It would be more literarily and biblically plausible to assert there is no hell of any sort, than to suggest hell is some sort of eternal timeout (imagine how torturous that would be!).

February 25, 2019 1:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Christian homeschoolers, the Turpins, pleaded guilty to torturing and shackling their 13 children and never letting them outside or even rarely take a bath. They forced them to memorize biblical passages, or even the whole bible and beat them when they couldn't correctly recite.

Its no surprise this sort of thing happens so often with parents so religious they insist on homeschooling their children. They deeply want to shackle and bind their children's minds and its inevitable this sometimes leads to shackling and binding their physical presence as well.

February 25, 2019 1:05 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Captain Cassidy said "often the parents are not qualified either by temperament or education to be homeschooling their children."

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "often public school teachers are not qualified [to be]... teaching herds of kids stuffed into trailers on a playground".

If that really bothers you, then do something about the funding of public schools, most of which is based on the wealth of the school's surrounding neighbourhood. This almost always results in poor school children getting the least educational resources and rich school children hogging all the educational resources for themselves. The truth is, you've done everything you can to make this situation worse, not better, as right wing authoritarians and their double standards are wont to do.

Captain Cassidy said "Add to that the ignorance and bigotry associated with religious superstition, and one is left with a toxic brew ripe for abuse and neglect in the world of Christian homeschooling."

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Add to that the ignorance and bigotry associated with shallow humanism and materialism and one is left with a toxic brew ripe for abuse and neglect in the world of public schooling".

Now, when you say "materialism", do you mean the desire to have material objects, or do you mean the theory that there is something beyond the physical, real world? Because I've seen you use it both ways and then deny you meant one or the other meaning as an obfuscation tactic.

Humanism says all we have is each other and so we should work together to make everyone's lives better. I have yet to hear a rational objection to that.

Wyatt/Regina's christianity says "People don't matter, only this all-powerful god does and he hates the same people as me,so I want to punish them and enrich myself at their expense" - you can see it in everything they've written here over the decades about lgbt, minorities, and the poor.

February 25, 2019 1:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Jesus, let me in."

"Why?"

"So I can save you."

"Save me from what?"

"From what I'll do to you if you don't let me in."

There's nothing more venomous than a god who can have whatever he wants telling people "Love me and accept my control of you or I'll torture you forever."

February 25, 2019 1:57 PM  
Anonymous Anne Hathaway said...

In my household, being gay was, and is no big deal. When my brother came out, we hugged him, said we loved him, and that was that...

There are people who've said that I'm being brave for being open supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption. With all due respect, I humbly dissent. I'm not being brave. I'm being a decent human being.

Love is a human experience, not a political statement.

February 25, 2019 2:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Former Staffer Sues Trump For Nonconsensual Kissing


The Washington Post reports:

A staffer on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign says he kissed her without her consent at a small gathering of supporters before a Florida rally, an interaction that she alleges in a new lawsuit still causes her anguish.

In interviews with The Washington Post, and in the lawsuit, Alva Johnson said Trump grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips as he exited an RV outside the rally in Tampa on Aug. 24, 2016.

Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth, which she called “super-creepy and inappropriate.” “I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she said. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”

February 25, 2019 7:15 PM  
Anonymous crewman said...

Christians are willing to destroy society to legitimize the weird way they seek control over others. So much of what they are about is fundamentally driven by fear at the deepest level. As a "therapy", their religion is maladaptive because it causes the condition it seeks to alleviate.

February 25, 2019 7:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

World's food supply under 'severe threat' from loss of biodiversity

Plants, insects and organisms crucial to food production in steep decline, says UN


The world’s capacity to produce food is being undermined by humanity’s failure to protect biodiversity, according to the first UN study of the plants, animals and micro-organisms that help to put meals on our plates.

The stark warning was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation after scientists found evidence the natural support systems that underpin the human diet are deteriorating around the world as farms, cities and factories gobble up land and pump out chemicals.Over the last two decades, approximately 20% of the earth’s vegetated surface has become less productive, said the report, launched on Friday.

It noted a “debilitating” loss of soil biodiversity, forests, grasslands, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds and genetic diversity in crop and livestock species. In the oceans, a third of fishing areas are being overharvested.

The study collated global data, academic papers and reports by the governments of 91 countries.

It found 63% of plants, 11% of birds, and 5% of fish and fungi were in decline. Pollinators, which provide essential services to three-quarters of the world’s crops, are under threat. As well as the well-documented decline of bees and other insects, the report noted that 17% of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats and birds, were threatened with extinction.

Once lost, the species that are critical to our food systems cannot be recovered, it said. “This places the future of our food and the environment under severe threat.”

February 26, 2019 3:59 AM  
Anonymous Pay to Play said...

Kelly Knight Craft was chosen to be U.S. ambassador to Canada, and now to the United Nations, because she and her third husband, the billionaire coal baron Joe Craft, are mega MAGA-donors. According to The Post, they gave “about $1.5 million to GOP candidates in 2016, including $270,800 to Trump’s campaign committee or his joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee.” Perhaps just as important from this president’s perspective, they are also “repeat, high-paying customers at Trump’s hotel in Washington.” Craft’s other recommendation is that, as a Kentucky native, she is a supporter of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and is said to be friends with McConnell’s wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

Those are the typical qualifications to be appointed the U.S. envoy to some prosperous and placid country where the ambassador’s role is primarily social. No president before Trump has ever treated the U.N. ambassadorship as a plum to be handed out to a campaign donor.

February 26, 2019 10:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"No president before Trump has ever treated the U.N. ambassadorship as a plum to be handed out to a campaign donor."

this is a lie

February 26, 2019 11:06 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Good anonymous said "No president before Trump has ever treated the U.N. ambassadorship as a plum to be handed out to a campaign donor."


Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "this is a lie".

Where's your proof? Based on history, its almost certainly Wyatt/Regina that are lying here, just again winging it off the top of their heads and blindly asserting something they want to be true, is.

February 26, 2019 12:02 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Notice how Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous are afraid to engage me on the biblical hell (or any other topic)?

Its because they know in their hearts their arguments don't stand up to scrutiny, logic, and rationality. They're afraid that if they let themselves think about it too much they'll see they're wrong.

February 26, 2019 12:04 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina couldn't care less about the loss of biodiversity and how its going to harm humans.

I guess when you tell yourself after you die you and everyone you like will live in eternal bliss, you don't give a damn what happens here now.

February 26, 2019 12:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is there anything more socially corrosive and destructive than a belief in the afterlife?

February 26, 2019 12:21 PM  
Anonymous Laughingstock said...

If confirmed, Craft will arrive at the United Nations as a laughingstock — just like her boss. It’s hard to escape the suspicion that this is precisely what Trump intends: He is showing his contempt for the United Nations, and indeed the world, by appointing an ambassador who is singularly unqualified for the position.

More than that, Trump is showing what kind of people he wants to surround himself with. The “Axis of Adults” who dared to stand up to Trump — economic adviser Gary Cohn, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — is long gone. The adults have been replaced by yes men such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, economic adviser Larry Kudlow and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan. One of the few holdovers who still dares to speak truth to power — Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats — has incurred Trump’s wrath and is said to be on his way out.

Trump wants to be surrounded by lickspittles and nonentities whose chief qualification is that they will cater to his insatiable ego. Is there any doubt that Kelly Knight Craft would happily join in the North Korean-level praise that Trump expects of his Cabinet? Only she won’t get the chance, since the U.N. ambassador is being downgraded from Cabinet rank. That is entirely fitting, because under Trump, America is being downgraded in the eyes of the world.

February 26, 2019 12:32 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

North Korean Dictator Will Use Familiar Strategy Against Trump

If there’s one thing that has been obvious about Trump from the start, it’s that is a sucker for empty flattery. Say nice things about him and he’ll go along with pretty much anything you want. Intel experts say Kim Jong-Un will use that rather obvious strategy in negotiations to get his way.

In the eight months since President Trump declared North Korea “no longer a nuclear threat,” the reclusive state has advanced both its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and failed to provide an accounting of its deadly arsenal, according to multiple U.S. intelligence assessments.

And intelligence officials tell NBC News they have grown increasingly doubtful that Kim intends to dismantle the nuclear program at the center of Trump’s diplomatic gamble with Pyongyang…

After the fiery rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea in 2017 that included Trump referring to Kim as “little rocket man,” the president now talks about the close relationship between the two. “He wrote me beautiful letters. And they’re great letters. We fell in love,” Trump said at a rally in September.

This past weekend, Trump tweeted “Great relationship with Chairman Kim!”

This is how easily manipulated Trump is. Write him a nice letter or two and he’ll flatly declare that our intelligence services are wrong in their assessment that Kim continues to built up his nuclear capacity. He’ll invent an alternate reality that matches what he wants to be true, not what actually is true(sounds like Wyatt/Regina).

February 26, 2019 1:49 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

In 2018 there were 323 mass shootings in the United States and not a single one of them was done by a person who illegally entered the country.

February 26, 2019 2:39 PM  
Anonymous Barack Obama and Merrick Garland......ROFL!! said...

It's common knowledge that President give ambassadorships to big donors. The worst was, as usual, Obama the Worst

from August 2014:

More than half of President Barack Obama's second-term ambassadorial appointments have been political — not from the career Foreign Service pool — far outpacing his predecessors when it comes to rewarding supporters and donors with diplomatic posts.

According to the American Foreign Service Association, more than 53 percent of Obama's second-term appointments were political, while 47 percent came from the career pool. Overall, Obama's number of political appointees has climbed to 37 percent and is expected to go higher before he leaves office.

In comparison, under former President Bill Clinton, 28 percent of diplomatic appointees were political, and under former President George W. Bush, 30 percent were political.

It's not uncommon for U.S. presidents to use diplomatic posts to reward political friends, but most other major democracies no longer award ambassadorships to non-career diplomats.

"Obama is pushing the envelope," Christian Whiton, former State Department adviser said.

Obama has also appointed at least 44 political contribution bundlers to diplomatic posts since taking office, almost as many as Bush appointed during his two presidencies.

Such posts are often to plush locations in western European countries, to the Caribbean and other highly sought spots, such as a post to Japan that recently went to Caroline Kennedy.

Career diplomats, according to the American Foreign Service Association, tend to go to less popular locations, including Armenia, Bangladesh, and Mongolia, which have never had political appointees assigned.

As a result of the political appointments, the Obama administration is facing difficult questions from critics. Last week, for example, the president's nominee to Argentina admitted he had never been to that country.

The inexperience of Obama's political nominees is riling foreign policy experts.

"The Obama administration's appointments suggest that the president isn't being honest when he says that diplomacy is important to him," Henri J. Barkey, Lehigh University professor and former State Department policy staffer, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece. "It's illogical, and insulting, to presume that Norwegians are such wonderful and civilized people — and hence unlikely to cause any problems with Washington — that we can afford to send someone on a taxpayer-funded three-year junket to enjoy the fjords."

February 26, 2019 4:27 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "It's common knowledge that President give ambassadorships to big donors."


What you assert is "common knowledge" is most often a lie. You haven't come up with a single example other than Trump giving a UN ambassadorship to a major campaign donor.

Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "The worst was, as usual, Obama the Worst...".

Amongst the examples you give, there is not a single example of Obama giving a UN ambassadorship to a major campaign donor.

Only Trump has stooped to such corruption.

February 26, 2019 8:02 PM  
Anonymous I reeeeeeeeally like our Supreme Court.and the best is yet to come!!!!!!! said...

"Anne Hathaway said..."

Anne, you're a nice kid's movie actress

don't ruin your rep here

"In my household, being gay was, and is no big deal. When my brother came out, we hugged him, said we loved him, and that was that..."

see, you've made a self-contradictory statement

when you're brother told you he preferred chocolate chip cookies to oatmeal raisin, you didn't hug him and say you love him

why?

it was no big deal

however, when he said he was homosexual, you hugged him and said you loved him

why?

it was a big deal!

so, you were wrong when you said it was "no big deal"

apparently, it was a biggie

"There are people who've said that I'm being brave for being open supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption. With all due respect, I humbly dissent."

I dissent too

it would be much more brave to have the opposite opinion in Hollywood

if you aren't open supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption in the city of the angels, you will be unemployed

"Love is a human experience, not a political statement."

so, why are you cheapening a personal relationship by using it for political purposes?

February 26, 2019 8:35 PM  
Anonymous I'm so tickled with the composition of our land's highest court said...

"today's christians find the biblical concept of hell"

the biblical concept of hell is that it is a place where people who have continually rejected God get their wish and are cast out of his presence

all the metaphors about fire and darkness, contradictory if taken literally, simply are ways to convey what existence without God's presence is like

if you want to enlighten yourself, rather than reinforce your ignorance, try reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

"Christian homeschoolers, the Turpins, pleaded guilty to torturing and shackling their 13 children and never letting them outside or even rarely take a bath. They forced them to memorize biblical passages, or even the whole bible and beat them when they couldn't correctly recite."

calling such people "Christians" is slander

"Its no surprise this sort of thing happens so often with parents so religious they insist on homeschooling their children."

Its no surprise that TTFers can delude themselves into thinking this happens "often"

"They deeply want to shackle and bind their children's minds and its inevitable this sometimes leads to shackling and binding their physical presence as well."

secular humanists train their kids to believe in secular humanism

it hinders their children's ability to grow into thinking human beings

if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything

"A staffer on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign says he kissed her without her consent at a small gathering of supporters before a Florida rally, an interaction that she alleges in a new lawsuit still causes her anguish."

you can sue someone for kissing you now?

the appropriate thing would be to slap him, and move on

that is, on the fanciful assumption this story is true

February 26, 2019 8:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Christians are willing to destroy society to legitimize the weird way they seek control over others. So much of what they are about is fundamentally driven by fear at the deepest level. As a "therapy", their religion is maladaptive because it causes the condition it seeks to alleviate."

so says the man in the tinfoil hat, mumbling to himself

they's trying to control me, I tell ya, control me!

hey, here's some words from a Nobel prize-winning poet:

Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt
Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without
Laugh at him behind his back jut like the others do
Remember him of what he used to be when he comes walking through.

Stop your conversation when he passes on the street
Hope he falls upon himself, oh, wouldn't that be sweet
Because he can't be exploited by superstition anymore
Because he can't be bribed or bought by the things that you adore.

When the whip that's keeping you in line doesn't make him jump
Say he's hard-of-hearing, say that he's a chump
Say he's out of step with reality as you try to test his nerve
Because he doesn't pay tribute to the king that you serve.

Say that he's a loser 'cause he got no common sense
Because he don't increase his worth at someone else's expense
Because he's not afraid of trying, say he's got no style
'Cause he doesn't tell you jokes or fairy tales, say things that make you smile.

You can laugh at salvation, you can play Olympic games
You think that when you rest at last you'll go back from where you came
But you're picked up quite a story and you've changed since the womb
What happened to the real you, you've been captured but by whom?

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
Have you got something better?
You got a heart of stone.

February 26, 2019 9:06 PM  
Anonymous til it's over, over there said...

The Pentagon has spent nearly $8 million to treat more than 1,500 transgender troops since 2016, including 161 sexual reassignment procedures.

As of Feb. 1, 1,071 service members have been diagnosed to be mentally ill with gender dysphoria in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Public Health Service on active duty and in the reserve force.

Most of them are senior enlisted personnel, but there are 20 senior officers – majors and lieutenant commanders and higher – as well.

Overall, the troops represent a fraction of the total force of 2.1 million. The number of transgender troops serving who have not sought surgery for their illness through the military is not known.

Transgender troops and their medical and psychological treatment has been cited by President Trump as a reason that he wanted to ban them from the military. In January, the question reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that a modified ban could take effect.

On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the military's policy, which bans most troops with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

February 27, 2019 5:46 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeeeeally like our Supreme Court.and the best is yet to come!!!!!!! said...

In January, the question reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that a modified ban could take effect.

February 27, 2019 5:48 AM  
Anonymous come on, get happy!! said...

even the liberal mainline churches are returning to sanity:

The United Methodist Church shot down a plan that would have opened the door to gay marriage in the church on Tuesday, a blow to theological liberals within the third-largest Christian denomination in the U.S.

February 27, 2019 6:42 AM  
Anonymous Proverbs 13:20 said...

Read Michael Cohen’s full prepared testimony on Trump’s Russia plans, WikiLeaks email dump

TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL D. COHEN COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member Jordan, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today.

I have asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected from Presidential threats, and that the Committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. Thank you for your help and for your understanding.

I am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the Committee’s questions truthfully, and to offer the American people what I know about President Trump.

I recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. It is for this reason that I have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful.

Never in a million years did I imagine, when I accepted a job in 2007 to work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win. I regret the day I said “yes” to Mr. Trump. I regret all the help and support I gave him along the way.

I am ashamed of my own failings, and I publicly accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the Southern District of New York.

I am ashamed of my weakness and misplaced loyalty – of the things I did for Mr. Trump in an effort to protect and promote him.

I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience.

I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is.

He is a racist.

He is a conman.

He is a cheat...

February 27, 2019 7:37 AM  
Anonymous all ya gotta do is act naturally said...

He made a career of lying. He's going to jail for lying. He has motivation to lie now to reduce his sentence.

So, naturally, the Dems want to hear what he has to say!

February 27, 2019 9:17 AM  
Anonymous Thugs Я them said...

"He made a career of lying. He's going to jail for lying. "

And tЯump hired him as his personal attorney.

February 27, 2019 9:56 AM  
Anonymous How soon they forget said...

Updated 9:56 AM ET, Sun April 22, 2018

President Donald Trump aggressively defended his personal lawyer Saturday morning after The New York Times reported on Trump's sometimes poor treatment of the attorney, Michael Cohen, who the newspaper said might ultimately cooperate with federal officials investigating him.

In a series of tweets peppered with insults against the Times' White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman, and her sourcing, Trump wrote that she and the newspaper "are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will 'flip.' They use.......non-existent 'sources' and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family."
"Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected," Trump continued. "Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if........it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!"...

February 27, 2019 10:05 AM  
Anonymous Bernie Sanders ....LOL!! said...

it was disappointing lst week when Hillary said she wouldn't run for President

that would have been such a boost for the GOP

now, this encouraging statement from Hillary:

“There are things that I care deeply about that just because I’m not running, I’m not going to keep my mouth shut. I’m going to keep speaking out.”

who could ask for anything more?

Hillary Rodham C, the gift that just keeps on giving!

February 27, 2019 10:22 AM  
Anonymous From forgetting tЯump's glowing praise of Michael Cohen said...

to remembering the grandmother who won the popular vote but lost the electoral college.

Sad!

February 27, 2019 10:32 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I said "If today's christians find the biblical concept of hell too hypocritical for their "loving and just" god, then they'd be on stronger biblical ground to argue that Jesus was just joking about hell and there is no hell whatsoever - like it says in the Jewish bible. "

Wyatt/Regina said "the biblical concept of hell is that it is a place where people who have continually rejected God get their wish and are cast out of his presence"

There is nothing in the bible that would lead one to believe that. This is just another example of you christians re-writing the parts of the bible that show what a monster your "god" is. Throughout the bible it repeatedly says "You will be cast into eternal torture", "God will send you to hell", etc. - the bible is 100% clear, people don't choose to go to hell, god sends them there.

Christians like Wyatt/Regina find it too hard to say that god is just and loving, so they re-write their bible and falsely claim people "choose" to go to hell. That's like a Joe being in court for murdering someone he was trying to rob and pleading innocence because "The person I was robbing chose to die. I told him, it was his choice, give me all your money and clothes or I'll shoot you. They said "No way!" and so I granted her wish and shot her." - its a bullshit excuse if a human uses it, or if christians use it on behalf of their god.

Wyatt/Regina/bad said "all the metaphors about fire and darkness, contradictory if taken literally, simply are ways to convey what existence without God's presence is like if you want to enlighten yourself, rather than reinforce your ignorance, try reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis"

**raises hand** Oooo! Oooo! Pick me!

I know this one, I read about it in the book on Right Wing Authoritarianism I read about. It translates to: "Go away and read forever about my religion and then you'll see I'm right, or at least stop challenging me on my obvious logical fallacies".

The truth is, if I tell Wyatt/Regina's god, "leave me alone, I want no part of your eternal life, be it heaven or hell, just let me cease to exist when I die." they believe their god will send me by force to hell against my choice.

The truth is, there is nothing whatsoever in the bible that would excuse claiming anything other than the author of the bible meant hell is a real place of eternal torture where there is wailing and knashing of teeth in the lake of fire and the worm dieth not.

February 27, 2019 12:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just to give you an example of the sophistry of the "great" C.S. Lewis Wyatt and Regina so revere...

One of his famous "proofs" that Jesus is real was the claim that anyone claiming to be the son of god back then had to be "Liar, lunatic, or Lord". He then proceeded to "logic" that somehow the person back then referred to in the bible couldn't be a liar or a lunatic and therefore, the only possiblity remaining meant the Jesus of the bible had to be real. Its a specious logical fallacy,a false tri-lemma. C.S. Lewis claims there are only three possible scenarios when their are four. The fourth is that its all made up.

The fact that christians like Wyatt and Regina are so impressed by this sophistry shows how ineffective their minds are at ascertaining truth. For them its all simple, reflex thoughts and specious logical fallacies. That's what severe compartmentalization of ones contradictory beliefs allows people to do - ignore whats real and reasonable. And what's reasonable, that magic we've never seen or experienced exists, or that a pregnant teen made up a story about a virgin impregnation by a god, just like one religion after another has asserted over the millenia?

February 27, 2019 1:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wyatt/Regina said

"He's the property of Jesus

Resent him to the bone

Have you got something better?

You got a heart of stone."
--------------------------


Yes, I most certainly have something better.

And from everything I've seen you two post here and as Northdallas30 over the past two decades, its obviously the two of you who have hearts of stone.

I propose a highest societal goal of maximizing the happiness for all in a fair and equal way. You call me "a mental case" for that desire. You then "joke" repeatedly about harming innocent lgbt school children and angrily post how happy you are the illegitimate sharia law U.S. Supreme Court will unjustly punish those of here rebutting your b.s.

So, tell us again about how its people like me with hearts of stone, not people like you.

February 27, 2019 1:17 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt and Regina think humans are the property of their god and their god can callously torture and discard them on whatever whim and that's perfectly moral.

That's where they claim they get their "objective" "morality" from - scary, isn't it?

That's the double standard of people who score high on the Right Wing Authoritarian scale, they'd never say it is perfectly moral for parents to treat the child they created as a thing they can destroy on a whim at any point in their child's life. But they sure consider it moral for their leaders who hate all the same people they do.

February 27, 2019 1:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wyatt/Regina said "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything"

Yeah, I've heard that a lot, but I don't buy it. Even the most naive and unsophisticated person stands for preserving and improving the quality of their own life, so that bumper sticker slogan is false. Highly intelligent and well raised people get connned into cults all the time. Cults that cultivate unquestioned loyalty though mental shortcuts like compartmentalization of contradictory "truths"

I stand for maximizing the happiness and minimizing the pain for all in an equal and fair way.

What do you two stand for that's good?

Cause I have yet to see it.

It seems to be all about punishing the harmless people who won't live the way you two want them to and enriching yourselves at their expense.

February 27, 2019 1:29 PM  
Anonymous Wondering said...

"all the metaphors about fire and darkness, contradictory if taken literally, simply are ways to convey what existence without God's presence is like..."

Can you give some examples of how the descriptions of literal hell and lake of fire for eternity contradict? I don't see that in the bible.

Many people would say they exist without God's presence now, how would existing without god's presence after death be different?

If Hell is just "existence without god's presence", is that an eternal existence? Is it just eternal unbearable boredom with nothing to do?

Please back up your assertions with scripture.

February 27, 2019 2:10 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Good anonymous said "A staffer on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign says he kissed her without her consent at a small gathering of supporters before a Florida rally, an interaction that she alleges in a new lawsuit still causes her anguish."

Wyatt/Regina said "you can sue someone for kissing you now? the appropriate thing would be to slap him, and move on".

Riiiight...and let him continue his pattern of sexually assaulting women without any real consequences to change his abusive behaviour.

No, the appropriate thing to do is to use the justice system to punish and humiliate him enough that he stops treating women like sex toys to use and discard whenever he encounters them...and from sending the message to young men that sexual assault is no big deal and you can get away with it.

Its the conservative christian worldview - god owns man and man is subservient to god, man owns woman and woman is subservient to man, woman is man's possession, just like man is god's/Jesus's possession - remember when Wyatt/Regina said "He's [I'm] the property of Jesus...". Beliefs like these make for a harsher, less just, less productive society where the few live at the expense of the many.

February 27, 2019 2:56 PM  
Anonymous they did not burn, they were protected by the fourth man in the fire said...

"Can you give some examples of how the descriptions of literal hell and lake of fire for eternity contradict? I don't see that in the bible."

First of all, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not Priya. I've informed that individual that will not engage in any dialogue with them. So obsessed are they with me that they are now trying to conceal themselves, hoping to draw me in. If I see any sign of that, the conversation is over.

Anyway, most references to hell talk about a place of darkness. If there's fire everywhere, how would it be dark? If taken literally, that is.

An extended discussion, involving scriptural references, is not appropriate in this format, however. The subject couldn't be given justice. I will say that Dante and Milton weren't apostles and wrote no scripture.

Neither is it germane. A few commenters were attacking Christians because of their concept of hell. So, I explained the current view of hell among bible-believing Christians. It's irrelevant to those attacks what scripture says, they were attacking Christian views.

"Many people would say they exist without God's presence now, how would existing without god's presence after death be different?"

Those people would be wrong. They are enjoying the blessings of God, whether they know it or not. Without God's active blessing, life would be hell.

"If Hell is just "existence without god's presence", is that an eternal existence?"

I would assume so, although some modern theologians argue for "annihilism" where an unrepentant soul is destroyed after death.

"Is it just eternal unbearable boredom with nothing to do?"

Although, probably ungraspable from our perspective, existence is likely more profoundly horrible than mere boredom.

"Please back up your assertions with scripture."

see above

February 27, 2019 9:12 PM  
Anonymous tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies said...

Michael Cohen walked into Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing wearing a conservative blue suit paired with a powder blue tie -- a little more than three months before he must surrender that attire for a federal prison uniform.

Cohen, the personal attorney of President Trump for more than a decade, will soon begin serving a three-year sentence for tax fraud, securities fraud, and making false statements to Congress.

“It is the first time a convicted perjurer has been brought back to be a star witness in a hearing,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican ranking member on the committee, said early in the proceedings.

“And there is a reason this is a first, because no other committee would do it,” the Ohio lawmaker continued. “But the Democrats don't care. They don't care. They just want to use you, Mr. Cohen. You're their patsy today.”

February 27, 2019 10:09 PM  
Anonymous this can't end well for Dems said...

Comedian Bill Maher’s classist monologue on the Friday edition of his HBO show “Real Time” wasn’t funny, but it was revealing. He unintentionally showcased his blue-state contempt for the poor and revealed the new political battle lines: white progressives versus the white working class.

Maher said in the monologue that America suffers from “spatial geographic inequality,” which was a multisyllabic way to say that all the smart, rich people live in just a few East and West Coast cities. Far from being a rallying cry for more economic equality — maybe what you would expect coming from liberals who constantly talk about such issues — Maher sunk his teeth into this economic disparity and revelled in it.

First, he mocked their buying power. “Maybe that has something to do with why Trump voters are obsessed with ‘owning the libs,’” he said. “Because the libs own everything else.”

He bragged that he and his “blue state” friends were having a “prosperity party,” while the rest of the nation wears cheap clothing and eat inexpensive food. Mississippi is so poor, he said, liberals should buy it and “recolonize” that state.

He said that in Wyoming, people dress in non-designer clothes, opting instead for Target. He said red-state residents don’t eat well, either. “We have chef Wolfgang Puck, they have Chef Boyardee,” he said.

Normally, bragging about how much money you have is considered impolite. However, this economic disparity is considered fair game in today’s politics. Reihan Salam wrote about this phenomenon: “It is almost as though we’re living through a strange sort of ethnogenesis, in which those who see themselves as (for lack of a better term) upper-whites are doing everything they can to disaffiliate themselves from those they’ve deemed lower-whites.”

But Maher resorted to gross stereotypes of red-state Americans even before Donald Trump was a real political player. In 2011, New York Times columnist David Carr was a Real Time guest when he said people who don’t believe in evolution, were conducting the “dance of the low, sloping foreheads, the middle places, right.” (Maher agreed, pointing out that it’s fine if red states believe this, but “don’t f–k with the smart states.”)

Though his guests are probably be the type of people who pride themselves on progressive attitudes toward class, they laughed, nodded, and applauded him the entire time. Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist responsible for Evan McMullin’s presidential campaign, seemed delighted. Donna Brazile looked downright moved by Maher’s words. Claire McCaskill and Bernard-Henri Lévy slow clapped their appreciation. One can almost imagine this clip being used in a high school Sunday school class to decry peer pressure.

Salam described this mockery of certain segments of society as a psychological “way of establishing solidarity: All of us in this space get it, and we have nothing but disdain for those who do not.” And that’s exactly the vibe that these laughing pundits emanate. We’re in on the joke, and it’s really funny.

Maher has firmly established the new battle line in American politics. White progressives will double down on their hatred of working-class whites.

Hopefully, some liberals will finally have the guts to stand up to this bigotry.

February 27, 2019 10:18 PM  
Anonymous tЯrump trusts dictators over Democrats said...

2017: Trump calls Warmbier's treatment a 'total disgrace,' suggesting Obama is to blame

2019: ‘He tells me he didn’t know’: Trump defends Kim over death of U.S. student Otto Warmbier

February 28, 2019 7:59 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current Supreme Court said...

Every month. Dems dread the release of economic news. The GOP is getting sick of winning.

The U.S. economy grew by more than expected last quarter as business investment picked up, suggesting growth could be stronger for longer as the Federal Reserve takes a patient approach to interest rates.

The 2.6 percent annualized rate of gains in gross domestic product from October to December compared with the 2.2 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Growth was better than forecast after the best two quarters since 2014.

Consumption, which accounts for the majority of the economy, grew 2.8 percent, while nonresidential business investment accelerated to a 6.2 percent gain on equipment, software and research spending. Government spending slowed, trade was a minor drag but inventories gave GDP a boost.

Treasury yields and the dollar rose following the data.

The report shows how Republican-backed tax cuts have continued to aid growth and help bring the full-year figure to 3.1 percent, above President Donald Trump’s 3 percent goal. The expansion is poised to become the nation’s longest on record at midyear amid a still-healthy consumer, supportive Fed and robust labor market. It now looks likely to continue into 2020.

The strength in overall private domestic demand “is good enough to keep the momentum in the economy going,” with research and development spending being a “bright spot” in the report, said Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research LLC.

February 28, 2019 11:07 AM  
Anonymous Lovin' the Supreme Court!!!!!!!!!!! said...

What really scares them is the election year that reminds them of the eye doctor - 2020 !!!!!!!!

February 28, 2019 11:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Christian homeschoolers, the Turpins, pleaded guilty to torturing and shackling their 13 children and never letting them outside or even rarely take a bath. They forced them to memorize biblical passages, or even the whole bible and beat them when they couldn't correctly recite."

Wyatt/Regina said "calling such people "Christians" is slander"

Riiiiiight...just like calling Bernie Madoff an investor is slander to all investors. Or calling charles manson a man is slander to all men.

That's a logical fallacy known as the "No true Scotsman Fallacy" - making a general statment about a group of people being a certain way and then when given examples of people in that group who are different, the B.S. response is "No true christian would do that!". Well, yes, the fact is a lot of christians would do that. The difference between the Turpins and Wyatt/Regina is once again one of degree, not kind.

Wyatt/Regina have gone back to this logical fallacy over and over, in one case stupidly asserting that if a Muslim wasn't anti-gay, they were "not a true Muslim". There are 33,000 different sects of christianity and a majority of those would say it is Wyatt and Regina who are no true christians. The truth is, no one gets to decide for others what their identity is - Wyatt/Regina stupidly assert they have the authority to do so, its part of what so discredits them.

There is no big truth that the bible reveals. If there was, all the versions of christianity would be coalescing on it and the number of christian denominations would be continually shrinking, not growing. The truth is the bible is for most people a Rorshach test upon which they write the beliefs they want to have (most have not read it) - look at Wyatt/Regina and christians re-writing the bible to try to soften the image of the god character by falsely asserting the biblical God does not take responsibility for throwing people into eternal torture.

February 28, 2019 12:54 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina posted
“It is the first time a convicted perjurer has been brought back to be a star witness in a hearing,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican ranking member on the committee, said early in the proceedings.

Cohen faces additional years in jail if he is caught lying under oath to congress again. Mueller has all manner of evidence from dozens of other people that could expose another Cohen lie (as Mueller's evidence exposed the previous Cohen lies). Cohen is almost certainly telling the truth now.

The disgusting hypocrisy of Republicans during the hearing is that they went on and on about Cohen being a convicted and admitted liar, but they completely ignored that he lied at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump.

Republicans never asked a single question about the crimes Trump is implicated in, not just by Cohen, but by corroborating electronic and paper evidence.

Its obvious Republicans want to do everything they can to stop investigation into the criminality of the Trump administration. That's why they so vigorously oppose calling any of the two dozen witnesses/perpetrators the previous Republican controlled House Intelligence Committee "curiously" declined to interview.

As we've seen for the past few decades, Republicans are only interested in suppressing the truth.

February 28, 2019 1:02 PM  
Anonymous I'm just ecstatic about the Supreme Court! said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

February 28, 2019 1:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The bible should be called "The Goat-Herder's Guide to the Universe."

February 28, 2019 1:27 PM  
Anonymous Wondering said...

I said "Can you give some examples of how the descriptions of literal hell and lake of fire for eternity contradict? I don't see that in the bible."

You said "Anyway, most references to hell talk about a place of darkness."

No, there's only one reference to darkness and it only alludes to hell. Almost all references to hell talk of fiery eternal torture. I feel like you're trying to mislead Christians here.

You said "If there's fire everywhere, how would it be dark? If taken literally, that is. An extended discussion, involving scriptural references, is not appropriate in this format, however. The subject couldn't be given justice. I will say that Dante and Milton weren't apostles and wrote no scripture."

Well, God can do anything, right? Its no problem for the creator of the universe to have fire in darkness. Plus the bible is very consistent about hell being a place of eternal fiery torture God sends people to. There's only between a dozen and 20 references to hell in the bible anyway (depending on who you ask) and only one that talks about darkness:

Jude 13 " [These people are] wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever."

There's nothing about that passage that suggests the many previous descriptions of a literal hell of eternal fiery torture is a metaphor. In fact, its obvious that the passage is using "darkness" here as a metaphor, as in "this terrible thing happened, it is a dark day for us". The passage doesn't contradict anywhere, it does not say there is both fire and light/darkness as you falsely suggested. The passage certainly gives no justification for believing that the hell described in the bible is not literal.

You said "Neither is it germane. A few commenters were attacking Christians because of their concept of hell. So, I explained the current view of hell among bible-believing Christians."

That's very misleading. You're falsely implying if one believes in a literal hell, one is not a bible believing christian. The recent popularity of this idea that hell isn't real belies the reality that virtually all Christians throughout the millenia have understood hell to be a real place of fiery torture. We are bible believing Christians, you are not.

"It's irrelevant to those attacks what scripture says, they were attacking Christian views."

Its not possilbe for scripture to be irrelevant to Christian views.

I posted"Many people would say they exist without God's presence now, how would existing without god's presence after death be different?"

"Those people would be wrong. They are enjoying the blessings of God, whether they know it or not. Without God's active blessing, life would be hell.".

But how would life without God's presence be different to how their atheistic lives are today? It doesn't seem you have an answer, or more correctly, you're ignoring the clear answer of the bible - eternal torture.

"Is it just eternal unbearable boredom with nothing to do?"

You said "Although, probably ungraspable from our perspective, existence is likely more profoundly horrible than mere boredom.".

So, in your belief, hell is not a literal place of eternal torture in a lake of fire, but it is similar to that in how torturous it is, just different in a way you don't know of, despite the bible being very clear on this issue. If you're right, and it is not burning in a lake of fire, but an eternal existence of something "more profoundly horrible than mere boredom", isn't an infinite punishment of this sort for a finite crime grossly unjust?

February 28, 2019 1:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"First of all, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not Priya. I've informed that individual that will not engage in any dialogue with them. So obsessed are they with me that they are now trying to conceal themselves, hoping to draw me in. If I see any sign of that, the conversation is over."

It sounds like you're afraid to attempt to respond to the arguments she made.

February 28, 2019 3:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I personally had never heard of Anthony Flew when Wyatt/Regina claimed the "most important person in the history of atheism" had gone from atheist to theist. Of course that was not even remotely the truth.

Anthony Flew was 81 and in mental decline when he said he believed in a deist god. But believers waiting to welcome this most prodigal of sons back into the fold were to be disappointed. Flew's conversion did not embrace such concepts as Heaven, good and evil or the afterlife – let alone divine intervention in human affairs. His God was strictly minimalist – very different from "the monstrous oriental despots of the religions of Christianity and Islam", as he liked to call them.

In a letter to Carrier of 29 December 2004 Flew retracted his statement that a deity or a "super-intelligence" was the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature:

"I now realise that I have made a fool of myself by believing that there were no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction."

Wyatt/Regina suggested that the conning of a senile old atheist was good reason to reject the logic of the No True Scotsman fallacy - that's the adhominem fallacy.

Wyatt/Regina are full of logical fallacies - one after another, as their posts here show.

February 28, 2019 3:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tomi Lahren is not a fan of the latest trend in men’s fashion.

The host of “Final Thoughts” on Fox News took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the “assault on masculinity” using the growing trend of men wearing skirts as evidence.

“I just don’t get this ongoing and continual assault on masculinity by the Left,” wrote in an unprompted tweet. “You can be a proud part of the LGBT community and movement without attacking traditional men and marriage at every turn.”

Lahren followed up by sharing an article featuring Billy Porter, the star of the FX show “Pose” who made headlines at the 91st Academy Awards for wearing an elaborate gown by Cristian Siriano.

The Fox reporter and staunch Republican linked Porter, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and his fashion choice into her narrative of masculinity being under attack.

Twitter users were quick to slam Lahren for failing to see the difference between “traditional men” and toxic masculinity; which relies on socially constructed notions that to be masculine is to be violent, aggressive, unemotional and superior to minorities.

Regarding Lahren’s comments about Porter’s gown and the praise it received online, one male user replied, “Or they’re wearing dresses cause…they like wearing dresses? Regardless of the reason, if masculinity itself wasn’t the fragile construct that it is, it wouldn’t be concerned or bothered by this.”

He continued, “If you’re a man and your sense of masculinity feels attacked by a man in a dress, then your masculinity is a problem, not the man in the dress. Plain and simple.”

Others decided to spam Lahren’s tweet with photos of men wearing skirts throughout history, including King Henry VIII, as well as photos of men in kilts to show how the definition of what’s considered “masculine” has little to do with clothing.

February 28, 2019 11:14 PM  
Anonymous stress test said...

"No, there's only one reference to darkness and it only alludes to hell. Almost all references to hell talk of fiery eternal torture. I feel like you're trying to mislead Christians here."

"torture" implies that someone is taking an action

God is not torturing anyone in hell

hell is horrible, but it is existence without the presence of God

maybe the hellions will torture one another, who knows?

God won't be there to restrain them

btw, darkness is used as a metaphor for hell, a place outside of God's presence, many times

try Matthew 8:12, Matthew 25:30, for just a couple

as for being thrown out of God's kingdom as being hell, try Luke 13:24-28

"That's very misleading. You're falsely implying if one believes in a literal hell, one is not a bible believing christian."

what the deuce?

I implied nothing of the kind

"The recent popularity of this idea that hell isn't real belies the reality that virtually all Christians throughout the millenia have understood hell to be a real place of fiery torture."

I didn't suggest at all that hell is not real. I said it was separation from God. It's horribly real.

"We are bible believing Christians, you are not."

Who is we?

maybe you should explain your perspective, because it's not clear

"Its not possilbe for scripture to be irrelevant to Christian views."

it could be when someone is attacking what Christians believe

whether their beliefs are correct is irrelevant to that discussion

certain beliefs about the person of Jesus Christ are the essentials of what is a "Christian", not any doctrine of hell

"But how would life without God's presence be different to how their atheistic lives are today? It doesn't seem you have an answer,"

I gave the answer, you didn't want to hear it

"or more correctly, you're ignoring the clear answer of the bible - eternal torture."

torture implies a torturer, eternal anguish at separation from God is more accurate

the only action the Bible says God takes is to cast the unrepentant out of his kingdom

"So, in your belief, hell is not a literal place of eternal torture in a lake of fire, but it is similar to that in how torturous it is, just different in a way you don't know of, despite the bible being very clear on this issue."

I've never said what my belief is

I simply stated what most Christians currently believe

"If you're right, and it is not burning in a lake of fire, but an eternal existence of something "more profoundly horrible than mere boredom", isn't an infinite punishment of this sort for a finite crime grossly unjust?"

what "finite crime?

try reading the Sermon on the Mount and get back to us

"It sounds like you're afraid to attempt to respond to the arguments she made."

Priya became persona non grata because Priya refuses to show others respect

of course, there are many other sub-factors

for example, last month, Priya had a meltdown and was ranting that I had caused their mental problems by "torturing" Priya with my arguments

seriously

so why would Priya want to subject themself to torture?

I don't want to contribute to Priya's mental illness

surprised Priya's therapist let's Priya get on blogs

the stress is too much for the emotionally disturbed

February 28, 2019 11:39 PM  
Anonymous Nepotism tЯump style said...

You know you've got them when they have to stoop to bogus personal attacks.

Thanks for demonstrating exactly how deplorable you are, tЯoll.

This is who you support, unswervingly:

President Donald Trump ordered a top-secret security clearance be granted to Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, last May despite objections raised by intelligence and White House officials, four people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.

The Thursday report contradicts previous statements Trump made claiming he had no role in giving Kushner his clearance. Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife and a senior adviser to her father, reiterated that claim earlier this month.

Kushner lost his initial security clearance, which gave him access to some of the country’s most closely guarded secrets, last February after reports that he and others were operating with the clearance even though their background checks were not finished. It was restored to Kushner last May when the president overruled a decision by then-White House Counsel Don McGahn, the Times reported.

John Kelly, who was White House chief of staff at the time, was so infuriated by Trump’s demand that he wrote an internal memo stating he had been “ordered” to give Kushner the clearance, according to the Times’ sources.

It’s unclear what factors led to recommendations that Kushner not receive the top-secret clearance, but many have noted his own family’s foreign real estate dealings and unreported contacts he has made with foreign agents...

March 01, 2019 8:51 AM  
Anonymous Heterosexuals need to use more condoms said...

While anti-LGBT trolls have been harassing people here and conflating gay people with pedophiles, actual straight pedophiles have been monetizing YouTube videos for their their sick viewing pleasure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=O13G5A5w5P0

March 01, 2019 9:13 AM  
Anonymous I'm quite fond of our current Supreme Court!!!!!!!!! said...

"You know you've got them when they have to stoop to bogus personal attacks"

OK, well, let us know when that happens

"Thanks for demonstrating exactly how deplorable you are, tЯoll"

could you elaborate on this inane comment?

just for the sake of hilarity...

how, exactly, did I demonstratie exactly how deplorable I is?

"While anti-LGBT trolls have been harassing people here"

really?

it seems the other way around to me

just for the sake of hilarity...

could you give us some examples?

"and conflating gay people with pedophiles,"

I haven't seen anyone do that here

although, obviously, some gays are pedophiles

just think of all the gays that became priests to hide in an ecclesiastical closet and then abused boys in their parish

and let's remember the No Such Scotsman fallacy!

March 01, 2019 11:05 AM  
Anonymous I'm just ecstatic about the Supreme Court! said...

did you know that, after the Civil War, Southerners had more popular votes but were stopped from enacting Jim Crow laws nationwide by the electoral college?

little known factoid

in 2020, it will stop coastal elites from imposing socialism on the rest of us

it's true !

March 01, 2019 11:12 AM  
Anonymous Look in the mirror said...

"gays that became priests to hide in an ecclesiastical closet and then abused boys in their parish "

Agreed, it's the self-loathing religious types who think they have God on their side that are bad news.

But those hetero pedophiles who get off on watching little girls on youtube and the Jeffrey Epsteins who do more than watch them are bad news too.

Calls grow for [tЯump's Secretary of Labor] Acosta to resign as Epstein’s sex abuse victims demand justice

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article226816674.html#storylink=cpy

March 01, 2019 11:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In 2020, coastal elites will stop the desperate deplorables in flyover country from imposing fascism on the rest of us.

March 01, 2019 11:35 AM  
Anonymous Merrick Garland ... LOL said...

"In 2020, coastal elites will stop the desperate deplorables in flyover country from imposing fascism on the rest of us."

was Orwell only off by a few decades?

coastal elites think life can only be fair if a huge bureaucratic state regulates and controls every aspect of our lives

how can they call anyone fascist?

I'm looking forward to a vibrant and healthy primary season, where the socialists are exposed for what they are

March 01, 2019 11:45 AM  
Anonymous Heterosexuals need to use more condoms said...

"just think of all the gays that became priests to hide in an ecclesiastical closet and then abused boys in their parish"

Funny how you keep pushing that line to try and smear gay people, when the only evidence of an actual gay pastor is Ted Haggard, and he wasn't abusing children. Drugs yes, but children no.

The priests appear to have all been pedophiles - and I don't recall any of them being involved with actual gay people.

It has recently come out that priests were abusing nuns too. I notice you didn't mention that either:

"Pope Francis's public admission that priests have used nuns as "sexual slaves" - and may still be doing so - marks a new chapter in the abuse crisis rocking the Catholic church.
It is "the first time that the pope, but also the church as an institution, has publicly admitted this abuse is taking place, and that's hugely important," Lucetta Scaraffia, editor of the Vatican's womens' magazine, told AFP on Wednesday.

"There are some priests and also bishops who have done it," the pontiff said in response to a journalist's question on the abuse of nuns, speaking on the return flight from his trip to the United Arab Emirates.


The pontiff on Tuesday said Catholic priests and bishops had been sexually abusing nuns, and that his predecessor Benedict XVI had had "the courage" to dissolve a religious order of women because of "sexual slavery on the part of priests and the founder"

He was referring to a scandal concerning a French congregation called "Soeurs Contemplatives de Saint Jean".

That community admitted in 2013 that the priest who founded it had behaved "in ways that went against chastity" with several women in the order, according to French Catholic newspaper La Croix.

When pope Francis talked about "sexual slavery" he meant "manipulation, a type of abuse of power also present in sexual abuse", said the Vatican on Tuesday.

Francis said the Church has "suspended several clerics" and the Vatican has been "working (on the issue) for a long time."

The abuse was "still going on, because it's not something that just goes away like that. On the contrary," he added."

Francis's comments followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican's women's magazine, "Women Church World", over the rape of nuns.

It said the victims felt forced to have abortions or raise children not recognised by their priest fathers.
"Many complaints have been filed with the Vatican and have not been followed up," said Scaraffia, who raised the issue in the February issue of "Women Church World", a supplement distributed with the Vatican's Osservatore Romano newspaper.

"I very much hope that a commission will be set up to investigate, and that nuns expert in the issue will be called to take part," she told AFP."

Why don't you tell us again how gay marriage is going to destroy society.

March 01, 2019 11:53 AM  
Anonymous Heterosexuals need to use more condoms said...

"how can they call anyone fascist?"

That's right... just keep ignoring all the neo-nazis that have had a field day since the Rumpster started running for office a few years ago.

Keep blaming everything on the "socialists" and hope no one notices the takeover of the Republican party by white supremacists.

March 01, 2019 11:59 AM  
Anonymous The lies never stop from this administration said...

Remember this from last months interview with the New York Times?

HABERMAN: Can I switch gears for a second? There’s been a story in the news the last two weeks about your son-in-law’s security clearance.

TRUMP: Yeah.

HABERMAN: Did you tell General Kelly or anyone else in the White House to overrule security officials? The career veterans —

TRUMP: No. I don’t think I have the authority to do that. I’m not sure I do.

Haberman: You do have the authority to do it.

Trump: But I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do it.

HABERMAN: O.K.

TRUMP: Um, Jared is a good —

HABERMAN: You never —

TRUMP: I was never involved with the security. I know that he — you know, just from reading — I know that there was issues back and forth about security for numerous people, actually. But I don’t want to get involved in that stuff.

HABERMAN: O.K. Why would you want to — why stay out? You do have the authority to —

TRUMP: I don’t know. I just don’t — I just, I never thought it was necessary. I also know him. He’s a very solid person, and I just can’t imagine he would have — I guess even, Ivanka, they, they, I heard that, uh, something with Jared and Ivanka —

HABERMAN: Mhm.

TRUMP: But, uh, I don’t believe I’ve ever met any of the national security — of the people that would do clearances. Um, and there’d be nothing wrong, I don’t think, with me calling them up to the Oval Office and say, “Hey give these people, you know, clearances” —

HABERMAN: You just told me — [inaudible]

TRUMP: Yeah, yeah, so there, I, I mean, I take back the other — I didn’t, I was answering a little bit different question. Uh, I have the right to do it, but I never thought it was necessary, Maggie. I never thought it was necessary.

SHOCK HE WAS LYING!

President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance.

The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner — including by the C.I.A. — and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance.

The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.

March 01, 2019 12:26 PM  
Anonymous Nancy Pelosi said...

I’m not sure what else to say -- other than I desperately need your help and your $1 right away.

This morning I woke up to disappointing news.

For the first time since we won back our Majority, we failed to hit our goal.

Make no mistake: Right this very moment Trump and his Republicans are celebrating.

They’re looking at this early test as a sign we won’t have it takes to protect our historic Majority.

And I’m not going to let them gloat. Not for one minute.

That’s why I’m coming back to you for the third time in 24 hours.

I need 3,5OO gifts in the door to show Trump that our grassroots Democrats always step up when our backs are against the wall.

Please, will you rush in $1?

March 01, 2019 1:15 PM  
Anonymous Another anti-science Republican wants to put kids in harm's way said...

As cases of measles continue to rise across the United States, public health advocates have cast a critical eye on state policies that make it easy for parents to avoid vaccinating their children. The Food and Drug Administration has even warned that it may try to act if the virus continues to spread.

Facing that possibility, Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend (R) took to Facebook on Thursday bemoaning not the transmission of a wholly preventable illness but communism, for some reason.

“Dearest friends and people of Arizona, it seems we are prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles,” wrote the five-term lawmaker.

“I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to,” she continued. “The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist.”

Townsend’s belief that vaccines cause harm — a claim researchers have repeatedly debunked — stems from her 22-year-old daughter’s unspecified health problems, according to The Washington Post. The lawmaker blames vaccines she gave her daughter at 10 months.

Townsend ended her statement with a couple of paragraphs on “fundamentals” before closing with a Benjamin Franklin quote: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

The irony of that quote, which refers to a tax dispute, is that Franklin was a strong proponent of vaccinating children. After his son died from the disease, he even teamed up with a London physician to write an instructional guide on smallpox vaccinations.

The current measles outbreak is particularly affecting regions in New York, Washington state, Texas and Oregon where there are groups of unvaccinated people.

While all states allow vaccine exemptions for medical reasons, some also let parents skip them for religious or philosophical reasons.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb lamented such policies in February, telling Axios, “It’s an avoidable tragedy.”

“Too many states have lax laws,” he added.

Townsend’s home state scrapped a vaccine education program for parents late last year after protests from those who don’t vaccinate.

But this week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) threatened to veto legislation currently under consideration in the state that would create a religious exemption from required vaccines.

“I’m anti-measles,” Ducey said.

March 01, 2019 1:23 PM  
Anonymous Look who doesn't want to be left out of the church sex abuse scandals said...

Willow Creek Community Church is one of America’s largest megachurches. The South Barrington, Illinois, church also has global reach through the affiliated Willow Creek Association (renamed the Global Leadership Network last month), a leadership training initiative with ties to more than 11,000 churches worldwide.

Last March, the Chicago Tribune published accusations by several women that Hybels had engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior stretching back to the 1990s. The alleged behavior included prolonged hugs, lewd comments, and in one case, an unwanted kiss and invitation to a hotel room.

Hybels’ former executive assistant told The New York Times in August that the pastor had emotionally abused her, groped her and once insisted on oral sex.

The report found that for multiple decades, Willow Creek Community Church’s boards were “unable to provide effective oversight” of Hybels. It also argued that the Willow Creek Association should have taken “greater responsibility” to investigate the allegations against Hybels even though the pastor wasn’t officially its employee.

March 01, 2019 4:30 PM  
Anonymous 2 years in to the 16-year Trump-Pence era said...

A perjurer soon to be serving three years in prison had a great many charges to level against President Trump on Wednesday. Michael Cohen, once the president’s personal lawyer, told the House Committee of misbehavior and possibly criminal conduct on the part of his former client ranging from paying off mistresses and lying about a real estate deal in Moscow to inflating the value of his assets for insurance purposes and deflating them when paying his taxes.

Yet Mr. Cohen testified that he had no evidence of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia and was never explicitly ordered by Mr. Trump to lie to Congress. Mr. Cohen had inferred, however, that Mr. Trump wanted him to lie. Mr. Cohen’s lies under oath are one of the reasons he is headed to a federal prison.

For all the sensationalism and political excitement of Mr. Cohen’s testimony, it is worth remembering that Mr. Trump has not, in fact, been found guilty of any crime, something that cannot be said about his former lawyer. Would any of the president’s critics credit Mr. Cohen’s veracity if he were testifying in support of his former employer, rather than against him? Whatever you think about Donald Trump, Michael Cohen simply is not an honest person. The idea that he suddenly becomes one as soon as he has something bad to say about the president is far-fetched, to say the least.

Benghazi and Fast and Furious were real policy scandals involving life-or-death matters. The Cohen hearing, by contrast, was little more than an opportunity for scattershot attacks on the president and his business dealings. It was hardly a focused investigation into Russian collusion, supposedly the central concern of the president’s critics. It was seven hours of innuendo, speculation and largely unsupported allegations about wrongdoing and offensive behavior of whatever sort Mr. Cohen or his congressional interlocutors cared to bring up. The hearing was sleaze for the sake of pure partisan pleasure, not a serious attempt at uncovering lawbreaking.

There is scant possibility that anything Mr. Cohen said Wednesday will even be grounds for Democrats to attempt impeachment. Some in the party are eager to do to President Trump what Republicans did to Bill Clinton 20 years ago. But if impeaching a president for lying under oath about sex was partisan overreach then, impeaching President Trump now, when not even that much legal wrongdoing on his part has been proved, would be absurd. Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives seem to understand this.

Impeaching a president is a thoroughly partisan endeavor, as the only two impeachments that have gone to trial in the Senate, those of Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, demonstrated. But up to now, “high crimes and misdemeanors” has involved at least some basis in legal fact — President Clinton’s perjury or President Johnson’s defiance of the Tenure of Office Act. Mr. Cohen’s claims about supposedly coded signals from President Trump indicating that he should lie to Congress fall short of the probative value of a stained blue dress.

More public hearings are to come. Republicans did a poor job getting to the heart of the Benghazi fiasco when they held the gavels before the 2016 election. But at least the G.O.P. was investigating a scandal related to policy. The Democrats’ most high-profile investigations are personal.

While Democrats may find much to dislike about this president’s policies, he has suffered no policy debacles like Benghazi or Fast and Furious. Unemployment is low, wages are rising, and the country is as close to peace as it ever has been since the “War on Terror” began. Whether or not there is proof of Russian collusion or crooked business dealings, the president’s opponents may have to keep their focus on his personal affairs because in seeing to the nation’s interests, he has been embarrassingly successful.

March 02, 2019 6:59 AM  
Anonymous U.S. Economy Cooled as G.D.P. Grew at 2.6% Rate in Fourth Quarter The pace slowed from midyear after losing the momentum generated by tax cuts. said...

The American economy slowed at the end of 2018 — and there could be a further slowdown to come.

Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the United States — grew at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That marks a significant slowdown from the middle of the year, when a sugar high fueled by tax cuts and government spending increases briefly pushed growth above 4 percent.

This year seems to be starting at an even slower pace. Many economists expect growth to drop below 2 percent in the first quarter, in part because of the partial government shutdown, which began in December and extended through most of January.

It’s important to keep the cooling economy in perspective. The fourth-quarter slowdown wasn’t as severe as many forecasters had feared, and even with the loss of momentum late in the year, 2018 as a whole was among the best years of the decade-long recovery from the Great Recession. And most economists do not expect a recession this year, putting the current expansion on track to become the longest on record.

“I think this is a slowing,” said Lewis Alexander, chief United States economist for Nomura. “I don’t think this is ‘we’re falling into an abyss.’”..

The stimulus effects are fading

Thursday’s report left little doubt that the midyear surge in growth has dissipated, just as many economists predicted at the time. Tax cuts and federal spending increases provided a temporary lift, but that was offset by higher interest rates, trade tensions and a slowing global economy. And the effects of the stimulus will fade further in 2019.

Residential investment, a proxy for housing construction, fell for the fourth straight quarter, as higher interest rates and declining affordability weighed on construction and sales. Retail sales dropped unexpectedly in December, which could be a sign that consumers are starting to pull back. And growth in the fourth quarter was driven in part by companies building up inventories, which could reverse in 2019.

“On the one hand, I was encouraged that there wasn’t as much of a slowing as I thought,” said Ben Herzon, an economist at Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm. “But on the other hand, what propped up growth in the fourth quarter was unsustainable.”

The government shutdown came too late to make much difference to the fourth quarter, but it could be a significant drag on growth early in the year. The funding lapse idled hundreds of thousands of federal workers, left hundreds of thousands more working without pay and disrupted air travel, among other effects. Consumer confidence plummeted. Macroeconomic Advisers on Thursday cut its estimate of growth in the current quarter to 1.1 percent.

Growth that weak would leave the United States with little buffer against an unexpected round of bad news — an escalation in the trade war with China, for example, or another round of fiscal gamesmanship around the debt ceiling. A rising share of economists expect a recession in 2020 if not sooner.

“The economy’s already slowing and there are a bunch of reasons why it could slow down even more, and that just makes you vulnerable,” said Mr. Alexander of Nomura. “It would take less of a shock to push you over the edge” into a recession...

March 02, 2019 8:05 AM  
Anonymous 2 years down, 14 to go said...

"The American economy slowed at the end of 2018 — and there could be a further slowdown to come"

seems like liberal Dems are always most excited about what "could" happen

Mueller "could" find something on Trump, all the glaciers "could" melt by the 23rd century, China "could" win the trade war, recession "could" happen again someday

journalism used to be about what happened

then, the media became advocacy groups

now, news is whatever will further their agenda

sad

democracy can't survive long without a real press

"This year seems to be starting at an even slower pace. Many economists expect growth to drop below 2 percent in the first quarter"

hate to discourage you but every time economic news has been reported since Trump became President, it is invariably better than predicted by economists

so, not only are you jumping the gun, you're almost certainly wrong

March 02, 2019 9:26 AM  
Anonymous I got 2020 vision ! said...

The press has declared this week’s summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim in Hanoi a “failure.” From the headlines of the New York Times and Washington Post to the Blob, Trump has been indicted for diplomatic malpractice. As Richard Haass summarized: “The Hanoi summit showed the dangers of a president who over-personalizes diplomacy.”

If this were just another card in the political war between Trump and the anti-Trumpers, I would not be moved to comment. But since the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program is one that could lead to a nuclear bomb exploding in an American city, the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent that really matters. So, here are my four takeaways.

Takeaway 1:

In their approach to North Korea, Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have departed dramatically from established Washington diplomatic practice. The reason why is best explained by a Chinese proverb: “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” Over the past two decades, as the administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush followed the advice of the foreign policy establishment, what happened? A small, isolated hermit kingdom proceeded to test a nuclear device, develop missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons against American troops and allies in South Korea and Japan, produce an arsenal of as many as sixty nuclear warheads, and reach the threshold of an ability to deliver nuclear-armed ICBMs against the American homeland.

Trump and Pompeo rightly judged that to be an American failure.

March 02, 2019 9:40 AM  
Anonymous I got 2020 vision ! said...

Takeaway 2:

In contrast, the Trump administration took a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook in his dealings with Mikhail Gorbachev—a playbook that eliminated all Soviet intermediate nuclear forces and ultimately precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Reagan’s case, the primary target was not the items about which the United States and the Soviet Union were negotiating—numbers of warheads, missiles, etc.—but the mind of an autocrat whom he thought he could persuade to try to transform his entire country.

Takeaway 3:

To understand Trump and Kim in Hanoi, remember Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik. In 1986, what Reagan described as a “beautiful” letter from Gorbachev led an American president to announce a two-day summit on short notice in an out-of-the-way place in Iceland. The two leaders met for an hour one-on-one before pulling in their advisors for successive rounds of negotiations. But when it became clear that there were key differences in their positions, Reagan “walked away” without an agreement.

The press berated him and the summit was declared by the press to be a failure. But as Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz said at the time, “Reykjavik came unexpectedly close to an unexpectedly ambitious agreement.” The meeting was not a failure, but a critical opportunity for both sides to understand each other’s bottom lines.

Sure enough, what the Blob deemed a failure paved the way for what happened a year later when Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty that zeroed out all the Soviet Union’s intermediate nuclear-armed missiles. In explaining his willingness to do that, Gorbachev credited the Reykjavik summit “for having given an impetus to reduction by reaffirming the vision of a world without nuclear weapons and paving the way toward concrete agreements.”

Takeaway 4:

Consider Trump’s selection of Hanoi and Singapore last spring as the sites for his summits with Kim Jong-un. If the objective were to excite the imagination of the leader of one of the most impoverished, isolated nations on earth, it is difficult to imagine a more captivating venue.

Only fifty-five years ago, the United States was at war with Vietnam and Singapore was a notoriously corrupt, poor port that could have reminded one of North Korea today. Even with authoritarian leadership, they embraced the magic of market economics and integrated into the global economy, becoming economic powerhouses.

This message was surely not lost on Kim.

Putting the summit into a broader context, I am reminded of a Chinese maxim that says “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Although the road to denuclearization is long, my bet is that history will remember the Hanoi Summit as a significant step along that road.

March 02, 2019 9:40 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current and near future and through 2036 apponited Supreme Court said...

With the president of the United States practicing nuclear diplomacy 8,000 miles away in Vietnam, Americans at home got to watch former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen stand up on his hind legs and beg for a reduced jail sentence.

Cohen, testifying on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, told Americans who think they already know exactly what they wanted to hear: Trump is a vulgar con man, a racist, and a cheat. Also, water is wet.

The media is burying the lede: Michael Cohen did not provide any evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, nor of collusion, active coordination, or conspiracy with Wikileaks. Cohen’s accusation of a Trump crime while in office is at best an evidence-free rendering of an unclear violation of a campaign finance law usually settled with a fine.

Any action going forward would be a big ask. It would mean building a criminal case, or even impeachment, around the uncorroborated testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon who violated attorney-client privilege to plead for a shorter sentence. Absent corroborating evidence, it is hard to see Cohen’s testimony leading to much of anything. It all sounded very dramatic and will be played as such by the media, but when read closely, it’s just another faux smoking gun. There’s no meat on these bones.

On Russian collusion, Cohen stated, “Questions have been raised about whether I know of direct evidence that Mr. Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. I do not. I want to be clear. But I have my suspicions.” Cohen claimed he saw Don, Jr. tell his father that some meeting had been set. “I concluded that Don, Jr. was referring to that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on Hillary with the Russian representative when he walked behind his dad’s desk that day.” A defense lawyer would laugh as she labeled Cohen’s “conclusion” speculation and uncorroborated supposition. He had no idea what meeting was mentioned.

On business in Russia, Cohen claimed that Trump “lied to the American people” about negotiations to build a hotel in Moscow. Leaving aside that there is nothing illegal about this, a review of Trump’s statements show that Cohen’s supposed lies would be labeled by a defense lawyer as a careful parsing of words. Slate concluded after its own parsing that at worst Trump may have misled by omission, and even that requires one to dig into tweets where he used the present tense rather than the past.

On Stormy Daniels, Cohen showed a check for $35,000 from Trump to him, which was supposedly part of the total $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet. The check does not show what the payment was for. It does not have Stormy’s real or fake name on it. Cohen said it was part of the reimbursement for “illegal hush money I paid.” It is a receipt for a crime only because Cohen now says it is.

March 02, 2019 10:10 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current and near future and through 2036 apponited Supreme Court said...

Under questioning, Cohen claimed there was no corroborating evidence beyond 11 similar checks he received after sending invoices to Trump for “retainer fees.” Don’t bother with Cohen’s invoices because Cohen now says he lied on them, claiming they were retainer fees when he meant “hush money reimbursements.” Those 11 checks will total over $400,000, because supposedly Trump rolled Cohen’s fee and bonus into the amount. So we just have to take his word for it that some of that money was for Stormy. Cohen said some of the checks were signed by Don Junior and the Trump Organization’s CFO. So if the checks are going to be used as evidence, the hope will be to implicate personally someone who did not sign them.

Left unsaid at the hearing was that paying money as part of a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is not illegal. People legally pay others to be quiet all the time. Legal services such as Cohen provided are a standing campaign cost. (Lawyers regularly obtain discreet resolutions of issues that threaten the interests of their clients. It’s usually called a settlement, not an impeachable offense.) The alleged illegality comes from the supposition by Cohen that he can speak to Trump’s intent. He can affirm that the NDA was not, say, to spare Trump’s marriage from fresh embarrassment, but, as the text of the law puts it, “for the principal purpose of influencing an election.” And that amid everyone already knowing that Trump was a serial philanderer anyway.

Campaign finance law also requires proof that a person willfully violated the law. Cohen’s testimony does not prove Trump knew the payments he was making were illegal. Prosecutors would somehow have to prove that he did if they wanted to charge the president. It is hard to imagine impeachment hearings centered on the intricacies of federal election law.

On Trump ordering Cohen to lie to Congress, Cohen said, “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That’s not how he operates. In conversations…he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing. In his way, he was telling me to lie.” Cohen later referred to some sort of telepathic-like Trump “code” that was used to order him to lie.

On Wikileaks, Cohen stated, “In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” The NSA will need to prove the call happened because Cohen says there were no others present to corroborate his claim.

Cohen said the phone call took place July 18 or 19. Trump could have read on Twitter on July 7 that Wikileaks had pending releases. Earlier, in The Guardian on June 12, Assange announced that he’d be releasing more Clinton emails, which the newspaper stated will “provide further ammunition for Donald Trump, her Republican presidential rival, who has used the issue to attack her.” The Stone call, if it took place, was based on public knowledge. The core of Cohen’s bombshell was available online.

March 02, 2019 10:21 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current and near future and through 2036 apponited Supreme Court said...

The emerging media bleat that Trump lied in writing to Mueller about contact with Stone, and thus, if Cohen is to be believed, committed perjury, is based solely on unconfirmed anonymous sources. No one outside the White House and Mueller’s office knows what Trump wrote in answer to the special prosecutor’s interrogatories.

So that’s it? A saga that began in the summer of 2016, that commanded a special prosecutor to investigate whether the Russian government worked with the current president of the United States as an intelligence asset to help him get elected, is going to hinge on the minutiae of campaign finance law backed up by the word of Michael Cohen? That is going to be lawyered into impeachment? Heaven help us when #BelieveCohen starts trending.

Remember, first it was going to be Comey’s testimony that took down Trump. Then Papadopoulos was going to flip, or maybe Manafort, or Flynn. There were video tapes of something naughty and a Russian spy with red hair. Books by Comey and Clapper were going to blow the roof off. The walls were closing in again and again and again. And then it would be Mueller time! Or maybe Southern District of New York time, because the media seems to be prepping us for a Mueller letdown.

It is all exhausting. We’ll see soon enough whether voters feel like a dog with a mean owner always holding out a Scooby treat he’ll never let go. Eventually that dog might say, I’m either gonna bite that SOB or just stop giving him the satisfaction of salivating.

March 02, 2019 10:22 AM  
Anonymous Trump fans behind bars said...

This is undoubtedly what Cohen was afraid of:

An heir to the Gambino crime family has issued a stark warning to Michael Cohen, predicting that President Donald Trump's former personal attorney may face retaliation behind bars over his Congressional testimony.

'A message for Michael Cohen: He better keep his mouth shut,' Giovanni Gambino told DailyMail.com on Wednesday morning, blasting Trump's former fixer shortly before he publicly testified.

Giovanni, the 43-year-old son of late Sicilian mob boss Francesco 'Ciccio' Gambino and cousin to infamous crime boss Carlo Gambino, speculated that Cohen's withering testimony could have harsh consequences.

'Inmates love Trump, and hate rats. If he wants to get out alive, he better keep his mouth shut about Trump,' Giovanni said.

Here's the story about the picture of Trump and LiButti:

"A newly uncovered video appears to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he never knew a high-stakes gambler who was banned from New Jersey casinos for alleged ties to organized crime.

The reputed mob figure, Robert LiButti, can be seen standing alongside Trump in the front row of a 1988 “WrestleMania” match in Atlantic City, N.J. LiButti wasn’t there by accident, according to his daughter, Edith Creamer, who also attended the event. “We were his guests,” she told Yahoo News in a text message this week.

The video was given to Yahoo News by a confidential source who discovered it in the online archives of World Wrestling Entertainment, the sponsor of “WrestleMania.”

The video appears to lend new support to assertions Trump once had close relations with LiButti, who was banned from the state’s casinos in 1991 because of his ties to Mafia boss John Gotti, then the chief of the Gambino crime syndicate.
[...]
In the past, Trump has consistently downplayed his relationship with LiButti. “If he was standing here in front of me, I wouldn’t know what he looked like,” Trump told the Philadelphia Inquirer when he was first questioned by Johnston about LiButti in 1991.

Earlier this year, when questioned again about LiButti by Yahoo News, Trump emailed a reporter: “During the years, I very successfully ran the casino business, I knew many high rollers. I assume Mr. LiButti was one of them, but I don’t recognize the name.”"

He knew him. And it's the same mob family that made that threat against Cohen in the article above.

I don't know how many inmates love Trump but there is no doubt that Trump has mob connections --- and that he used the word "rat" to describe Cohen to send a message to them.

This is what happens to "rats". If I were Cohen I'd be scared too.

March 02, 2019 10:32 AM  
Anonymous Whitey Bulger’s Fatal Prison Beating: ‘He Was Unrecognizable’ said...

The inmates who killed James (Whitey) Bulger, Boston’s notorious crime boss, deliberately moved out of view of surveillance cameras in a West Virginia prison before pummeling him with a padlock that was stuffed inside a sock, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday, as investigations began into how such a murder could have taken place in a supposedly secure facility.

Despite the attackers’ efforts to hide, officials said, cameras caught video images of at least two inmates rolling Mr. Bulger, 89, who was in a wheelchair, into a corner where the attack took place. Mr. Bulger was bleeding profusely when he was found by prison authorities at 8:20 Tuesday morning. Guards immediately undertook lifesaving measures, officials said, but he was pronounced dead.

A prison official identified one of the suspects as Fotios (Freddy) Geas, 51, a Mafia hit man from West Springfield, Mass. He is serving a life sentence at the Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia for the 2003 killing of the leader of the Genovese crime family in Springfield.

Daniel D. Kelly, who has represented Mr. Geas for many years, said in an interview that he had no idea whether his client was involved in killing Mr. Bulger, who was an informant for the F.B.I. [AKA "a rat"]...

This is how crime families operate and President Thug knows it.

March 02, 2019 10:40 AM  
Anonymous electoral college...LOL! said...

There's an old political saying that presidential candidates appeal to their parties' wings -- left for Democrats, right for Republicans -- in the race for the nomination and then appeal to the center in the general election campaign. It was put in canonical form by Richard Nixon, one of only two Americans our major parties nominated for national office five times (the other was Franklin Roosevelt).

The dozen or so already announced Democratic candidates seem to be following Nixon's rule, and with more reckless abandon than Nixon ever did. Maybe they figure that whoever gets the Democratic nomination will inevitably beat Donald Trump. After all, no one they ever talk to would vote for him.

But a skewed sample can produce misleading results. If President Trump's job approval hasn't risen above 44 percent level since March 2017, it has not fallen below 40 percent either this year or last. That's about where opinion was when he got elected. And remember that his national rating is depressed by 2-1 disapproval in California, which casts 10 percent of the nation's votes. He'll never win its 55 electoral votes, but in 2016 he carried the other 49 states and Washington, D.C., by 1.4 million votes.

Like his three predecessors at this point in their first terms, he seems vulnerable. But each of them was re-elected.

Despite this, Democratic presidential candidates have been going out on potentially shaky left-wing limbs, including the Green New Deal sketched out by the exuberant freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Endorsers include putatively serious candidates such as Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The idea is to ban net carbon emissions in just 10 years, which evidently means no gasoline-powered cars, no beef from methane-producing cattle and no passenger airplanes. AOC wants a national passenger rail network "so that air travel becomes unnecessary," as well as guaranteed jobs, free college and government-provided health care, all financed, it seems, by printing money.

March 02, 2019 10:47 AM  
Anonymous electoral college...LOL! said...

Obamacare, passed nearly 10 years ago, is no longer enough for Democrats. In his 2016 campaign, Sanders called for "Medicare-for-all," and he and other declared candidates are echoing that this cycle. When asked about the large majority of Americans who are satisfied with their current health insurance, Harris said they shouldn't have to fill out forms anymore to get treatments approved. "Let's eliminate all that," she said, without getting into details. "Let's move on." More than 100 House Democrats are sponsoring a bill to do just that.

Then there is the issue of reparations for descendants of slaves, urged without much visible effect by longtime Rep. John Conyers and author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose widely praised best-seller argues that America today is just as racist as ever, and always will be. Polls show this unsurprisingly unpopular, but Harris, Warren and fellow candidate Rep. Julian Castro have signed on for "some form" of reparations.

Support for legal abortion has been a Democratic staple for years. But Democrats have recently moved left to pass laws allowing it up to nine months. They did so successfully in New York and unsuccessfully in Virginia, after Gov. Ralph Northam suggested it would apply after birth.

That's an unpopular position, to say the least. For years, polls have shown majority support for legalizing abortion in the first trimester and prohibiting it in the third. But all six Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate voted against Sen. Ben Sasse's bill to ban ninth-month abortions.

Did this extreme position affect public opinion? A February Marist poll showed equal numbers, 47 percent calling themselves pro-life and pro-choice, a sharp change from January's 55 to 38 percent pro-choice advantage. Maybe this poll is an outlier, but maybe putting the spotlight on ninth-month abortions changed opinion.

An overwhelmingly pro-choice press has long covered for Democrats, refusing to explain that the "health of the mother" exception to abortion bans means (because "health" includes mental health) abortion on demand. Predictably, CNN and MSNBC ignored the Sasse bill vote, and media like Politico provided spectacularly biased accounts.

But liberal media doesn't have a monopoly on megaphones anymore, and Donald Trump has shown himself capable of using invective, ridicule and serious argument to attack extreme positions, as he did Hillary Clinton's on abortion. He has no compunction about raging impolitely against what liberals insist is politically correct.

Democratic presidential candidates, perhaps isolated in liberal cocoons, don't seem to understand their vulnerability on issues like ninth-month abortions and the Green New Deal. They assume their media friends can rescue them.

Maybe not.

March 02, 2019 10:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Climate Change Takes A Bite Out Of Global Fisheries, Study Finds

Warming of the world’s oceans has already had significant impacts on a number fisheries around the globe, triggering population losses as high as 35 percent in some regions.

“We were really surprised to see that warming has had a really important impact already,” Chris Free, the study’s lead author and a post-doctoral ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told HuffPost.

Areas hardest hit by rising ocean temperatures include the North Sea, located northeast of the United Kingdom, as well as the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. Estimated losses in those areas ranged between 15 and 35 percent.

“The North Sea supports really important commercial fisheries. And those East Asian ecosystems are home to some of the fastest-growing human populations and populations that depend heavily on seafood,” Free said. “These impacts are really a big deal.”

Overfishing has only exacerbated the problem, making fish populations less resilient to climate change, according to the findings. Furthermore, the study notes that “climate change will likely hinder efforts to rebuild overfished populations.”

Free called overfishing a “one-two punch” for heat-stressed fisheries. Eliminating overfishing and accounting for climate change in fisheries management decisions will be key to building resilience in a world where people are increasingly relying on fish as a source of food, he said.

The average global temperature on Earth has risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius, or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit, since 1880. A dire United Nations report released last October warned that if humans continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current rate, global warming will likely hit the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark sometime between 2030 and 2052, leading to an estimated $54 trillion in damages. And an analysis early this year found that oceans are warming up to 40 percent faster than previously thought, as The New York Time reported.

March 02, 2019 12:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trump rants about socialism, but the military is socialism, Medicare is socialism, and Trump is definitely in favor of socialism when it benefits him and his rich friends.

One of his golf courses cost $124 million to build. Taxpayers payed the full cost of building it and Trump takes over almost all of the profits.

March 02, 2019 1:30 PM  
Anonymous Proud GOP Boys said...

Prosecutors are recommending as much as a year in jail for members of the Proud Boys extremist gang, two of whom have pleaded guilty so far to charges stemming from a vicious attack outside a GOP event in Manhattan late last year.

Ten members of the Proud Boys appeared in New York Supreme Court on Friday, having initially faced charges of assault and rioting after they were caught on video ruthlessly beating protesters outside the Metropolitan Republican Club on the Upper East Side in October.

Initially, the Proud Boys ― a gang of right-wing extremists founded by Gavin McInnes, known for attacking protesters across the country ― blamed anti-fascists for starting the fight that night. But in December, surveillance video from a nearby building, along with footage taken by journalist Sandi Bachom, made it clear that the Proud Boys were the aggressors.

Two of them have taken plea deals in the case. Jake Freijo and Eryk Kacznyski pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct in exchange for their freedom and five days of community service. Another two ― Irvin Antillon and David Jacob ― are due back in court later this month.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office recommended a variety of sentences for an additional six men, from probation up to a year in jail. Each was offered a plea deal to various assault and rioting charges.

March 02, 2019 2:13 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

At February 27, 2019 9:12 PM Wyatt/Regina said "....A few commenters were attacking Christians because of their concept of hell. So, I explained the current view of hell among bible-believing Christians."

Good anonymous said "That's very misleading. You're falsely implying if one believes in a literal hell, one is not a bible believing christian."

Wyatt/Regina said "what the deuce? I implied nothing of the kind".

An obvious lie by Wyatt/Regina - clearly they described (vaguely) a non literal hell and then said that was "the current view of hell among bible-believing Christians." - clearly and strongly suggesting if one believes in a literal hell, one is not a bible-believing christian.

That was not unintentional, they do this sort of thing so that no matter what position they take on an issue they think they have an excuse to lie and say "I never said that!".

March 02, 2019 2:44 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

"It sounds like you're afraid to attempt to respond to the arguments she made."

Wyatt/Regina said "Priya became persona non grata because Priya refuses to show others respect"

Whewww!! Talk about hypocrisy! Wyatt/Regina call me and others mental cases, diseased, destroyers of society, perverts and advocate for sticking lgbt schoolchildren's heads in toilets sometimes filled with urine and feces and then claim I am the one refusing to show respect!

I've never advocated harming Wyatt/Regina, I've only criticized their socially destructive and unjust beliefs and actions and advocated for maximizing their happiness as well as my own!


They've called me all manner of names for that and over and over again posted about how thrilled they are the anti-democratic Supreme court will hurt me by punishing the non-anti-gay Americans I care about.

Wyatt/Regina then alluded to a high stress time I had a month and a half ago and claim they aren't talking to me so as to "not contribute to her mental illness.". Its obvious that I'm back to my old self and the truth is, they are afraid to engage in debate with me because they can see their worldview is immoral and they can't defend it.

People like Wyatt/Regina think the mere fact of beliefs being religious, makes one's beliefs deserving of respect - that has caused tremendous harm to society over the millennia and couldn't be more wrong.

March 02, 2019 3:16 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

When Wyatt/Regina describe an innocuous hell that is merely "separation from god" and then assert "this is what bible believing christians believe", or that most christians believe in an non-literal hell, they are lying.

The truth is 58% of U.S. adults also believe in hell — a place “where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished.”

March 02, 2019 3:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wyatt/Regina said "the biblical concept of hell is that it is a place where people who have continually rejected God get their wish and are cast out of his presence

all the metaphors about fire and darkness, contradictory if taken literally, simply are ways to convey what existence without God's presence is like ".

So, on one hand they describe hell as innocuous, as being merely away from the presence of god, that its not at all like the eternal burning in a lake of fire that the bible describes....

Imagine the implications of this "eternal time-out". I once spent 5 hours in a jail cell, it felt unbelievably long and boring, it seemed like a week. Imagine being in a dark, empty room for millions of years, let alone forever, no tv, no eating, no sleeping, nothing - the mental torment would be unimaginable. And this is the soft version of hell a minority of christians like Wyatt/Regina present to soften the image of their barbarous, unjust god from what is described in the bible.

and then on the other hand, they describe hell as "probably ungraspable from our perspective, existence is likely more profoundly horrible than mere boredom."

Like their stance on whether or not the planet has warmed, their stance depends on whatever they think is most useful to get others to do what Wyatt/Regina want - hell is just "being away from the presence of god" when they want to pretend their religion isn't unjust and "different from, but just as bad, or almost as bad as eternally burning in a lake of fire" when they want to apply maximum pressure to conform to some poor innocent person.

There is no internal logical consistency in the beliefs of christians like Wyatt and Regina.

March 02, 2019 3:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"the biblical concept of hell is that it is a place where people who have continually rejected God get their wish and are cast out of his presence".

You left out the part about this being an eternity of existence - that's not my wish. My wish is to cease to exist after I die, I don't want eternal life with or without a god.

So, any way you look at it, god will ignore my wish and impose on me something I don't want after I die.

March 02, 2019 3:50 PM  
Anonymous I reeeeeeeeally like our Supreme Court.and the best is yet to come!!!!!!! said...

"Warming of the world’s oceans has already had significant impacts on a number fisheries around the globe, triggering population losses as high as 35 percent in some regions.

“We were really surprised to see that warming has had a really important impact already,” Chris Free, the study’s lead author and a post-doctoral ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told HuffPost.

Areas hardest hit by rising ocean temperatures include the North Sea, located northeast of the United Kingdom, as well as the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. Estimated losses in those areas ranged between 15 and 35 percent."

these people wonder why they're considered extremists

first, global warming caused fish losses of 35%

then, it's in some areas

and it's 15-35%

oh, and it's an ESTIMATE

so, in other words, perhaps nothing

maybe, cold water fish are declining to be replaced by more moderate water fish

every change is not a disaster

"Overfishing has only exacerbated the problem, making fish populations less resilient to climate change, according to the findings. Furthermore, the study notes that “climate change will likely hinder efforts to rebuild overfished populations.”"

or, maybe, overfishing is the problem and global warming has nothing to do with it

yeesh!

"The average global temperature on Earth has risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius, or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit, since 1880. A dire United Nations report released last October warned that if humans continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current rate, global warming will likely hit the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark sometime between 2030 and 2052, leading to an estimated $54 trillion in damages."

well, the billions who have lived since 1880 have found our planet a very pleasant place to live, despite that 1.4 degree rise

but we're to believe another .1 degree to 1.5 degrees will cause 54 trillion in damages?

gee, that sounds so dire

"And an analysis early this year found that oceans are warming up to 40 percent faster than previously thought, as The New York Time reported."

even the NY slime should know that, as nothing from nothing leaves nothing, nothing times nothing does as well

40 percent faster than trivial ain't much to talk about

"Trump rants about socialism, but the military is socialism, Medicare is socialism, and Trump is definitely in favor of socialism when it benefits him and his rich friends."

do explain to us how the military is socialism

"One of his golf courses cost $124 million to build. Taxpayers payed the full cost of building it and Trump takes over almost all of the profits."

so, why did the government do that?

there must be a reason

go figure it out and stop acting like a moron

"Initially, the Proud Boys ― a gang of right-wing extremists founded by Gavin McInnes, known for attacking protesters across the country ― blamed anti-fascists for starting the fight that night."

glad that got straightened out

I hate to antifa's rep tarnished

"You left out the part about this being an eternity of existence - that's not my wish. My wish is to cease to exist after I die, I don't want eternal life with or without a god.

So, any way you look at it, god will ignore my wish and impose on me something I don't want after I die."

I realize you aren't being disrespectful so I'd like to answer but your comment was too close in time to Priya's so I have to assume you are Priya, desperately trying to initiate a dialogue with me

if you aren't, sorry

try again with some distance from Priya's comments

March 02, 2019 6:24 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

God is like a man who yells at a passing woman "I love you, marry me or I'll put your through hell." Except when the man proceeds to torment that woman for the rest of her life for refusing to marry him, Wyatt and Regina say it is her fault, she chose that.

March 02, 2019 6:37 PM  
Anonymous Dems are so screwed in 2020- there won't a liberal left in America by 2024 !! said...

In the longest speech of his presidency to date, President Donald Trump excited the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, letting loose on topics ranging from the Russia investigation and the Democratic presidential field to free speech on college campuses.

Trump pointed out that comments he made during the 2016 campaign urging Russia to hack Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails were "sarcastic" and "having fun with the audience."

"With the fake news, if you tell a joke, if you are sarcastic, if you're having fun with the audience, if you are on live television with millions of people and 25,000 people, in an arena, and if you say something like 'Russia, please, if you can, get us Hillary Clinton's emails! Please, Russia, please! Please get us the emails! Please!'" Trump said in a mocking tone.

Trump was referring to a press conference in July 2016 when he said, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens, that'll be next."

According to an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller, Russians made their first attempt to hack Clinton's personal servers that same day.Although Trump's address at the annual gathering of conservative activists came just days after he returned from a trip abroad to meet with North Korean leaders, he kept the focus largely on domestic issues and the national political fray."

All of the sudden they're trying to take you out with bull----," Trump said, in reference to Mueller's probe. "Robert Mueller never received a vote and neither did the person who appointed him," Trump continued, as he said Mueller's team was a group of the "angriest Democrats."

Trump again disparaged his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation, a move Trump took as an act of betrayal."

And as you know, the attorney general says, 'I'm going to recuse myself," Trump said, mimicking a Southern accent. "And I said, 'Why the hell didn't he tell me that before I put him in?' How do you recuse yourself?"

March 02, 2019 8:06 PM  
Anonymous Dems are so screwed in 2020- there won't a liberal left in America by 2024 !! said...

Saturday marked the president's third CPAC speech since he was elected president. In the past, Trump has used CPAC to energize his conservative base — and this was no exception.Trump attacked Democrats as socialists, warned once again of a caravan at the southern border full of "stone cold killers," and referred to 2020 Democratic candidates as "maniacs" and accused their party of supporting "extreme late term abortion.

"With midterms behind him, Trump foreshadowed issues he will focus on in his re-election campaign. The Green New Deal was front and center on Saturday."Nothing is more extreme than the Democrats' plan to completely take over American energy and completely destroy America's economy through their new $100 trillion Green New Deal," Trump said, describing the Democratic plan to tackle climate change as a "high school term paper written by a poor student."

Trump also attacked 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, lamenting that he should not have referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as "Pocahontas" so early on in the election cycle."I should've saved the Pocahontas thing for another year because I've destroyed her political career and now I won't get a chance to run against her and I would've loved it," Trump told the crowd. "I don't want to knock out all the good stuff and end up with somebody that's actually got talent."

Trump also invited activist Hayden Williams on stage as he announced he plans to sign an executive order "very soon" requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want to receive federal grants.Williams, 26, who is not a college student, was viciously attacked on the UC-Berkeley campus while he was attempting to recruit students to his conservative activist group.

March 02, 2019 8:07 PM  
Anonymous I super-tickled when I think about the Supreme Court and the future - surprises are coming !! said...

It's amazing, the difference a $250 million defamation lawsuit can make.

The Washington Post published an editor’s note Friday evening admitting, way too late, that it badly bungled its coverage of the Covington Catholic High School story.

Major newsrooms, including the Post, falsely reported in January that a group of Covington Catholic High School students had abused and taunted an elderly Native American protester, Nathan Phillips, after the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The students did no such thing, as publicly available video showed. Sadly, the truth of the matter came out only after the press, most especially the Post, had already spread a narrative based entirely on vicious falsehoods.

On Friday, the Washington Post Staff published the following note — which is behind a paywall:

A Washington Post article first posted online on Jan. 19 reported on a Jan. 18 incident at the Lincoln Memorial. Subsequent reporting, a student’s statement and additional video allow for a more complete assessment of what occurred, either contradicting or failing to confirm accounts provided in that story — including that Native American activist Nathan Phillips was prevented by one student from moving on, that his group had been taunted by the students in the lead-up to the encounter, and that the students were trying to instigate a conflict. The high school student facing Phillips issued a statement contradicting his account; the bishop in Covington, Ky., apologized for the statement condemning the students; and an investigation conducted for the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School found the students’ accounts consistent with videos. Subsequent Post coverage, including video, reported these developments: “ Viral standoff between a tribal elder and a high schooler is more complicated than it first seemed”; “ Kentucky bishop apologizes to Covington Catholic students, says he expects their exoneration”; “ Investigation finds no evidence of ‘racist or offensive statements’ in Mall incident.”

A Jan. 22 correction to the original story reads: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips said he served in the U.S. Marines but was never deployed to Vietnam.

The teens abused no one. They mistreated no one. Yet, they were treated like monsters all the same, and all because newsrooms couldn't be bothered to double-check whether there was a longer, uncut version of the viral footage that had sparked this especially grotesque news cycle. The Covington boys were pilloried, publicly condemned by even their own bishop, and threatened with violence. One student in particular, Nick Sandmann, received the brunt of the hate because he is the most visible of the teens captured in footage of the incident.

Unedited tapes of the confrontation between Phillips and the Covington students show the teens were accosted first by Black Hebrew Israelites, a loathsome fringe hate group. The footage also show that it was Phillips who approached the students, not the other way around.

Sandmann filed a defamation lawsuit against the Post in early February, seeking $250 million in damages — the same amount the Post’s owner, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, paid for the newspaper in 2013

March 02, 2019 8:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I said "No, there's only one reference to darkness and it only alludes to hell. Almost all references to hell talk of fiery eternal torture. I feel like you're trying to mislead Christians here."

You said "torture" implies that someone is taking an action God is not torturing anyone in hell. hell is horrible, but it is existence without the presence of God"

That's the same excuse the Nazi leaders used in WWII - I didn't torture anyone, it was all people beneath me. The fact is, that if someone locks you in a house and sets fire to it and then claims "I didn't torture you, the flames did", they ARE responsible for torture, just as in the bible it repeatedly makes it clear god does the torturing:

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, Jehovah, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? (Lamentations 3:38)

When disaster comes to a city, has not Jehovah caused it? (Amos 3:6)

You said "btw, darkness is used as a metaphor for hell, a place outside of God's presence, many times try Matthew 8:12, Matthew 25:30, for just a couple."

Both passages talk about wailing and knashing of teeth - a response to torture. The reference to darkness is exactly the same as when the hypothetical person above locks the victim in a house and just before setting it on fire says "This will be a dark day for you!" - there is nothing whatsoever in the bible that can be reasonably understood to mean hell is merely some sort of innocuous "place outside God's presence" - the bible is crystal clear - hell is a place of eternal torture god sends you to for not loving him back.

March 02, 2019 8:57 PM  
Anonymous Wondering said...

I said "Many people would say they exist without God's presence now, how would existing without god's presence after death be different?"

You said "Those people would be wrong. They are enjoying the blessings of God, whether they know it or not. Without God's active blessing, life would be hell."

No matter how badly any person wants to go see hell, they are absolutely unable to do so. To go to hell requires supernatural intervention - only god can send people to hell as humans have no supernatural abilities.

God created the universe and all its rules, and god created hell. So, if "life without God's active blessing is hell" or "existence without god's presence is hell", its entirely God's doing, not any human's. And he says so throughout the bible.

I said "Its not possilbe for scripture to be irrelevant to Christian views."

You said "it could be when someone is attacking what Christians believe whether their beliefs are correct is irrelevant to that discussion"

I can't believe you said that! Whether or not he beliefs are correct couldn't be more important!

You said "certain beliefs about the person of Jesus Christ are the essentials of what is a "Christian", not any doctrine of hell"

That's obviously not true. There is nothing more essential to Christianity than whether God sends one to heaven or hell. You've admitted as much when you said "hell is profoundly and ungraspably horrible"

March 02, 2019 9:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I'd like to answer but your comment was too close in time to Priya's so I have to assume you are Priya, desperately trying to initiate a dialogue with me"

Her arguments are just as deserving of a response as anyone else's. A lot of people find it painful to hear their cherished beliefs are wrong, or socially destructive. There is nothing disrespectful about stating that. Beliefs don't deserve respect merely because they are religious.

She's attacking your beliefs, not you as a person - you know, "love the sinner, hate the sin."

March 02, 2019 9:25 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Good anonymous posted "Warming of the world’s oceans has already had significant impacts on a number fisheries around the globe, triggering population losses as high as 35 percent in some regions.

Areas hardest hit by rising ocean temperatures include the North Sea, located northeast of the United Kingdom, as well as the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. Estimated losses in those areas ranged between 15 and 35 percent."

Wyatt/Regina said "these people wonder why they're considered extremists
first, global warming caused fish losses of 35%
then, it's in some areas
and it's 15-35%
oh, and it's an ESTIMATE
so, in other words, perhaps nothing"

Wow! Just look at the wild distortions in those few lines. Let's take it line by line,
1) "first, global warming caused fish losses of 35%"

No, it said "as high as 35 percent in some regions." Your "summation" of the quote you just posted is a gross misrepresentation of what was actually said (much like when you lied and said my definition of morality is "Do anything you want")

As is S.O.P for you, you wildly distort both yours and your opponent's position as it suits you, its a fundamental dishonesty at the very core of who you two are.

2) "then, it's in some areas and it's 15-35%"

No, that's what it was from the very beginning and was clear from the first sentence you quoted but you're lying by saying it meant something very different.

3)"oh, and it's an ESTIMATE so, in other words, perhaps nothing".

That's a crazy distortion of reality we see out of these two again and again. They're claiming that anything that is an estimate is no better than a wild guess, "perhaps zero", which we all know from experience is nonsense. Of course its an estimate! What else, count every single fish in the ocean? When fish catches throughout the world shrink year after year for several decades your assertion that "maybe there's no decline at all in fish stocks", is just malicious.

This is the dishonest game these two constantly play, taking the dishonest stance that unless there is an impossible succsessful count every single fish in the ocean this means we haven't the slightest idea of whether or not fish stocks are declining overall.

There is no doubt fish stocks are declining. And the world population is exploding. It doesn't take a genius to see where this is heading

You know that, but you're so determined not to admit you're wrong and so want to prevent societal changes to address this existential threat you just lie at every very well substantiated warning.

March 02, 2019 10:03 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

And the places where the fish stocks have declined by 35%? They're where the richest countries fish. Where the unbridled capitalists seek on constantly maximizing immediate profit at the expense of the future. The capitalists who are cheering the repeal of regulations that protect the environment that produces the food we eat.

Certainly overfishing has been going on a very long time, but it is a scientific fact that more CO2 in the air acidifies the ocean, and it has already increased so much in acidity more than half the world's coral reefs (fish and other animals habitat) have died.

Human Caused Global Climate Warming is going to reduce wild fish populations as well. Its a double whammy that's going to spell disaster, war, famine. Its not a matter of if, its a matter of when.

March 02, 2019 10:09 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Oh yeah, and I forgot:

Wyatt/Regina keep making this naive/disingenuous argument that people and animals will "just" adapt to global warming, just move inland and towards the poles and everything is wonderful.

While its true that some species will benefit from a warmer climate and their populations will grow, it takes hundreds of thousands of years for a species to evolve a little bit. The changes to climate that are happening now, are happening so suddenly (compared to an evolutionary time scale, decades or hundreds of years) there is no time for species to adapt and they are going extinct at the same rate as they disappeared during great extinction events of the past 3.5 billion years.

Many of the species we like, want, and depend on, are going extinct. And the ones that are thriving due to the warmer planet are far more often than not invasive species people don't want to, or can't eat or use. They take over, biodiversity is lost.

Any biologist can tell you a loss of biodiversity, especially the huge one we're now experiencing, is just as harmful to us eventually as it is to the entire ecosystem.

March 02, 2019 10:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just watched a movie called "First Reformed".

Pretty eerie given the discussion here.

March 03, 2019 1:41 AM  
Anonymous I feel like the Supreme Court is going to fine for decades now said...

"Her arguments are just as deserving of a response as anyone else's. A lot of people find it painful to hear their cherished beliefs are wrong, or socially destructive. There is nothing disrespectful about stating that. Beliefs don't deserve respect merely because they are religious."

I never said they did. I've responded to your comments, didn't I? I've also responded to untold numbers of these same types of comments by Priya over the years. As a matter of fact, Priya was here ranting about a month ago, accusing me of "torturing" her by responding to her comments and saying that by responding to her I had caused multiple mental breakdowns. I gotta tell you, people don't have a mental breakdown because they're winning an argument. Then, she started spouting out all this TMI stuff about herself and accusing me of being other people who have also "tortured" her online in other forums and making other wild accusations about me harassing her by sending stuff to groups she's involved with. Then, to top it all off, she was threatening to start a campaign to enlist gay advocacy groups across the country to harass me. Clearly, she has a sick obsession with me. I simply want nothing to do with this deranged person. If you think her comments are so deserving of response, no one's stopping you from responding.

As for Wondering, I still think the comments seem curiously timed too close to Priya's. In any case, I told someone the other day that blogs aren't adequate to host discussion of theological topics. Maybe it was you or Wondering or maybe you're all the same person but, in any case, it applies. I've indulged it to an extent but it's too important a topic and to adequately address the topics would take way too much time and energy. Especially with the word-twisting going on above. And, for what? These people (or person) making them clearly have their minds made up long ago. If you really have these burning questions, stop by a church and talk to the pastor.

The topics on this blog that are appropriate, in my opinion, are politics and the misuse of science to accomplish political and social agendas. Those topics look so bleak for liberals right now that they naturally would like to change the topic.

March 03, 2019 6:01 AM  
Anonymous Developing backbone said...

Sen. Rand Paul is throwing his support behind a resolution that would block President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, defying a warning from the president and putting the measure on track to passage.

Paul (R-Ky.) said in a speech Saturday at the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner that he “can’t vote to give extra-Constitutional powers to the president,” the Bowling Green Daily News reported.

“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said, according to the newspaper. “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”

Paul joins fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) in opposing Trump’s move, a reflection of some resistance within the GOP to what lawmakers see as executive overreach and a test of the constitutional separation of powers.

The disapproval resolution has already passed the Democratic-controlled House and requires a simple majority to pass the GOP-led Senate. Fifty-three senators caucus with Republicans and 47 caucus with Democrats, meaning that four Republican defections would be enough to ensure passage.

While the resolution is likely to clear the Senate, an embarrassing rebuke to Trump, lawmakers in both chambers lack the votes to override a threatened presidential veto...

So far

March 03, 2019 3:34 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina said "Priya was here ranting about a month ago, accusing me of "torturing" her by responding to her comments and saying that by responding to her I had caused multiple mental breakdowns."

And there you go again, wildly distorting what was said in the past on this blog. At no point did I say Wyatt/Regina were torturing me with their comments or that they had caused me multiple mental breakdowns. Just more of the blizzard of lies that they rely on in the place of facts and rational arguments. I was very clear this thread that the stress I described that threatened to overwhelm me appeared suddenly when I started distributing the links to these three threads below, and it was the distribution of this ass-kicking I delivered to the two of you that was causing the stress. Clearly it had nothing to do with the two of you, I never stopped aggressively going after your b.s. arguments, and its the two of you who repeatedly ran away from discussion with me, not vice versa.


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2018/12/flynn-free-trump-continues-to-march-off.html#comments


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2018/12/drowning-accomplished.html#comments


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2019/01/moco-hunkers-down.html#comments


So, no surprise here, Wyatt/Regina pretending they're master debaters that drove me off when anyone can see in reviewing the threads it is I who have run them off with facts and logic - they just admitted so in their comment above.

They are knowingly and dishonestly attributing solely to themselves and claiming affecting solely me what I've said about christians in general torturing lgbt people with threats of hell for their harmless behaviour. They try to soft peddle this threat by presenting a public face of "Oh,that eternal torture and lake of fire stuff in the bible is just a metaphor for being separated from god.". Then they later admit in a private comment that they believe hell is ungraspably and profoundly horrible, another typical example of them taking multiple positions on the same issue depending on what they think best works to manipulate others for their benefit.

Wyatt/Regina said "I told someone the other day that blogs aren't adequate to host discussion of theological topics....I've indulged it to an extent but it's too important a topic and to adequately address the topics would take way too much time and energy."

Lol, that's not remotely true. The truth is the issues are very simple and straightforward and Wyatt/Regina are pretending it takes years of deep study of multiple books by Dante and C.S. Lewis. They do this to get rid of people asking inconvenient questions - refuse to answer and pretend its because the simple answer is deeply involved and complex so as to save face when you're running away.

March 03, 2019 3:54 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

For example, they rested their entire argument that the hell repeatedly described in the bible as eternal torture in a lake of fire is a metaphor for a innocuous "separation from god" based on the pathetic claim that the descriptions of hell were contradictory because some places it talked about hell being dark and other places about fires everywhere, so they absurdly assert this is good reason to think the 10-20 descriptions of hell in the bible are gross distortions of what hell "really" is. Let's take a look at the two biblical passages they referred to as "proof" it's reasonable to think hell isn't so bad:

" Matthew 8:12, Matthew 25:30 for just a couple"

The passages are extremely short, Wyatt/Regina could have easily posted them in their entirety:

"12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

"30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

But they didn't post those two passages to support their very weak argument that the passages"prove" the many descriptions of a literal hell in the bible are really metaphors for something innoccuous, something that doesn't make their god look so grotesquely unjust as the bible actually does. They instead only posted these biblical references, thinking few would bother to search out what they say and rebut their "hell as metaphor claim".

The idea is to appear scholarly and imply this is a deep issue only they with their years of religious study can understand when in reality, its as plain as the nose on one's face. Wyatt/Regina's argument about "conflicting descriptions of hell" meaning hell is not a literal place of torture in a lake of fire, is desperatly pathetic and not even remotely plausible for any honest interpretation of the bible. The bible is very clear hell is literal and a place of eternal torture at the hand of god. They don't want to discuss it, not because "blogs aren't adequate to host discussion of theological topics" or "it's too important a topic and to adequately address the topics would take way too much time and energy." but because their view of hell is easily rebutted.

Look at that contradiction in claims by Wyatt/Regina - Hell is "too important to discuss..." and just yesterday they said "certain beliefs about the person of Jesus Christ are the essentials of what is a "Christian", not any doctrine of hell"

So, again, standard operating procedure for Wyatt/Regina - hell is either "too important to discuss here", or "hell is basically only trivially relevant to the essentials of what a christian is."

With them, its just whatever bullshit works at the time, who cares if it contradicts what they said a few minutes earlier. people who score high on the Right Wing Authoritarian scale are not deep and rational thinkers...

March 03, 2019 3:55 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

And for the record, those three TTF threads where I totally intellectually dominated Wyatt/Regina I posted in my previous comment that I was so stressed out about distributing to the world 1&1/2 months ago?

I've so far distributed links to them over 100 opinion leaders including every Democratic member of the California Legislative Assembly, 900 emails to go!

I will spread the message that to address the existential threats facing humanity all religions must willingly subordinate themselves to a highest priority social goal of maximizing the happiness and minimizing the pain for all in an equal and fair way.

Help spread the Good News!

March 03, 2019 3:59 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina said "Especially with the word-twisting going on above. And, for what? These people (or person) making them clearly have their minds made up long ago. If you really have these burning questions, stop by a church and talk to the pastor. "


You have not given a single example of a point you disagree with that was erroneously made or distorted - it's been solely the two of you who have wildly twisted the meanings of words, as I demonstrated with your contradictory definitions of hell as both an innocuous "separation from god" to a place that is "ungraspably and profoundly horrible".

Obviously, I'm not going to talk to a pastor and get the same bullshit runaround the two of you are doing here. The point is to make clear to the public the moral bankruptcy of your religious beliefs.

March 03, 2019 4:02 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina will, to save face, falsely claim they caused me so much stress with their arguments, but anyone can see from looking at this thread, it is they running away from debating me, not vice versa.

March 03, 2019 4:09 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina want to claim this blog is "not the appropriate place to discuss theological issues" but they advocate harming innocent people on this blog based on their theological beliefs.

What a couple of pricks.

March 03, 2019 4:15 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I mean, think about it, people:

Back around chrismas I posted about a whole bunch of crimes I committed, put my real name to it, and then decided I wanted to send all that stuff to 1000 opinion leaders around the world - wouldn't you find that stressful if it was you?

March 03, 2019 4:28 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

The Independent of Ireland:

"The Michael Cohen hearing was the perfect metaphor for the maggot-eaten rotting corpse of the Republican party under Trump...To say it was a circus is greatly disrespectful to circuses. Circuses bring joy."

March 03, 2019 4:54 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Where I blame Wyatt/Regina for unreasonably causing me and the readers of this blog stress is their constant dishonest/insincere argumentation that never changes from maximally distorting reality while maintaining (what they think is) plausible deniability for not having lied because their post wasn't technically a lie - like the Pharisees.

That stress Wyatt/Regina have unjustly caused me certainly wasn't concentrated around the few weeks after chrismas, its been over the entire two decades I've been posting here.

March 03, 2019 5:04 PM  
Anonymous Republicans showing themselves to be idiots said...

"The topics on this blog that are appropriate, in my opinion, are politics and the misuse of science to accomplish political and social agendas. Those topics look so bleak for liberals right now that they naturally would like to change the topic."

It's hilarious when conservatives want to talk about the misuse of science.

These are the same people who don't actually believe in science - from evolution, to birth control (Todd Akin: "women who are victims of what he called "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.") to the age of the planet, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and climate change. And here's what one of them has to say about vaccines:

"With the rise of conspiracy theories surrounding vaccines, some lawmakers are spreading lies that could further propel disease outbreaks.

Texas state Rep. Bill Zedler (R), a major ally of Texans for Vaccine Choice, recently claimed the measles vaccine isn’t necessary because of the existence of antibiotics.

“They want to say people are dying of measles. Yeah, in Third World countries they’re dying of measles,” Zedler told the Texas Observer on Tuesday. “Today, with antibiotics and that kind of stuff, they’re not dying in America.”

Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. Measles, however, is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that can spread through the air. It can cause fever, runny nose and small red bumps over the entire body.

There is no prescription medication that treats measles. In worst-case scenarios, the disease can weaken the immune system, potentially leading to complications like pneumonia and encephalitis and even to death.

Despite Zedler’s claims, measles can still be deadly in the U.S. The last reported death from measles in the country occurred in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Before vaccination against measles became available in the U.S. in 1963, the disease killed 450 to 500 people annually nationwide."

March 03, 2019 10:25 PM  
Anonymous Republicans showing themselves to be idiots said...

"The disease is easily preventable with the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children receive two doses of the vaccine, at 12 to 15 months and at 4 to 6 years old. Getting two doses of the vaccine is roughly 97 percent effective at preventing measles, according to the CDC.

The World Health Organization identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the major threats to global health in 2019.

For Zedler, though, vaccine resistance is a matter of “freedom of conscience,” he said. “This is not the Soviet Union, you know.”

That line of thinking has likely helped propel several recent measles outbreaks across the U.S., including one in Washington last month that led the governor to declare a state of emergency.

Texas has also witnessed a measles outbreak, with eight confirmed cases of the disease so far this year.

Yet Texas state Rep. Matt Krause (R) filed a bill this month that would make it significantly easier for parents to receive vaccine exemptions for their children. The bill, which is backed by Texans for Vaccine Choice, would also prevent the Department of State Health Services from maintaining records of the number of exemptions and the individuals who request them.

Krause dismissed medical consensus surrounding vaccines, claiming that immunization proponents are merely fearmongering. “They did a very good job of painting the worst-case scenario,” he told the Observer. “I’m not so sure those fears are founded.”

Three similar bills in Arizona recently advanced through the state legislature and could, like Krause’s bill, make it much easier for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children. One of the Arizona bills would also require doctors to provide information to families about the supposed risks of immunization ― potentially fueling bogus theories about the dangers of vaccines.

Many people opposed to vaccines incorrectly believe that the government is covering up a connection between vaccines and autism — a theory scientists have thoroughly debunked."

Talking to a conservative about science is about as useful as visiting a pastry chef when an unexpected lump makes you suspect that you have breast cancer.

It was a religious leader that put Galileo under house arrest for the audacity to claim that the earth rotated around the sun, rather than the other way around - like the church believed.

Without liberals pulling them kicking and screaming into the future, conservatives would gladly shove us all back to the dark ages in terms of scientific knowledge.

March 03, 2019 10:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks to improvements in law for trans- and intersexuals as well as initiatives against hate crimes, Portugal has succeeded in moving from 27th rank to 1st rank for the first time in the SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index. It shares 1st rank with Sweden and Canada.

The annually updated SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index informs travellers about the situation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) in 197 countries and regions.

Among the rising stars of the year is India, which, thanks to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and an improved social climate, has risen from 104th to 57th rank. In Trinidad and Tobago and Angola, too, the criminalisation of homosexual acts was abolished in 2018.

With the introduction of marriage for all, Austria and Malta were also able to secure a place among the top ranks in the SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index 2019.

By contrast, the situation for LGBT travellers in Brazil, Germany and the USA has worsened. In both Brazil and the USA, the cause lies in the right-wing conservative governments and their initiatives to revoke LGBT rights that have been achieved, as well as the associated increase in homophobic and transphobic violence.

The United States ranked in 47th place.

March 04, 2019 1:34 AM  
Anonymous love the shape of the Supreme Court said...

"It's hilarious when conservatives want to talk about the misuse of science."

glad to give you a chuckle

you might want to take your head out of Bernie Sanders' arse, though, so you can get a glimpse of life around you

"These are the same people who don't actually believe in science - from evolution, to birth control to the age of the planet, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and climate change. And here's what one of them has to say about vaccines:"

even though liberals are know for closed minds, you can still find a liberal that agrees with any one of those positions you cite

but by misuse of science, I was referring to skewing the result of every study to make its worst-case scenario a fact and treating informal polls of scientists as incontrovertible fact and acting as if every opinion they have is based on some scientific study

science by definition is meant to be treated with skepticism and discussed critically

liberals act as if a peer-reviewed study is sacred, infallible, and beyond question, and could not possibly be tainted by political and social bias

then, there are areas where liberals suppress science: the viability of unborn children, gender identity

and studies on AGW are tainted by the fact that students going into the field are blackballed if they don't accept certain pre-determined conclusions

"Before vaccination against measles became available in the U.S. in 1963, the disease killed 450 to 500 people annually nationwide."

not a major cause of death, even then

think of all the unborn children killed every year

think of all the kids murdered in cities were gun control is the strictest

where's the outrage at these liberal Dems running these cities for decades that can't create a safe environment for kids to grow in?

"It was a religious leader that put Galileo under house arrest for the audacity to claim that the earth rotated around the sun, rather than the other way around - like the church believed."

this is a myth

the church wasn't opposed to heliocentric theory

Galileo had insulted the pope and the pope was simply making up something to retaliate

"Without liberals pulling them kicking and screaming into the future, conservatives would gladly shove us all back to the dark ages in terms of scientific knowledge."

liberals are only pro-science when it advances their agenda

for example, science tells that shifting to nuclear energy, fracking, and massive forestation projects would reduce carbon quickly but liberals oppose all three

"Thanks to improvements in law for trans- and intersexuals as well as initiatives against hate crimes, Portugal has succeeded in moving from 27th rank to 1st rank for the first time in the SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index. It shares 1st rank with Sweden and Canada."

the first place with a livable climate to achieve this wonderful distinction

now we know where to avoid if we don't want to see guys getting gross with each other in public restrooms

Among the rising stars of the year is India, which, thanks to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and an improved social climate, has risen from 104th to 57th rank.

"By contrast, the situation for LGBT travellers in Brazil, Germany and the USA has worsened. In both Brazil and the USA, the cause lies in the right-wing conservative governments and their initiatives to revoke LGBT rights that have been achieved,"

that sounds great

give us some details

"The United States ranked in 47th place."

take that, India!

we've got more AIDS too

March 04, 2019 7:01 AM  
Anonymous I reeeeeally like our current and near future and through 2032 appointed Supreme Court said...

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html

March 04, 2019 8:32 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

So, again Wyatt/Regina is hiding from my criticisms of their socially destructive religious beliefs. So much for their attempt to save face by absurdly suggesting they brought me to the brink of a nervous breakdown with their "logic" - its obviously the other way around.

March 04, 2019 10:52 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt/Regina said "science by definition is meant to be treated with skepticism and discussed critically".

But not your morally bankrupt religious beliefs, eh? There's that Right Wing Authoritarian double standard again.

You don't discuss science critically, you wildly distort and/or lie about the scientific reality. Like when you claim counts that are necessarily estimates are no more accurate than a blind guess, "perhaps zero". That also means that the poll you posted below (that you're inexplicably thinking is a good thing for Trump) shows Trump's approval rating is "perhaps zero".

You can't have it both ways, if science should be looked at skeptically, so should your religious beliefs be (something you've never done).

March 04, 2019 10:53 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Bock, bock, bock bock! <-----chicken noises

March 04, 2019 10:54 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Evangelical christians like Wyatt/Regina have weaponized the First Amendment and are using it to entrench in law that religion never be questioned, but that science continuously be.

March 04, 2019 11:18 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

#Umbrella Values

March 04, 2019 11:22 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

As always with blind christians, when you question their dogma, beyond the bumper sticker slogans is nothing but "How about you go read these three authors and their multiple books", in other words, if you question the morality of the biblical hell the answer is always to Jesus harder.

March 04, 2019 11:27 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Good anonymous said "By contrast, the situation for LGBT travellers in Brazil, Germany and the USA has worsened. In both Brazil and the USA, the cause lies in the right-wing conservative governments and their initiatives to revoke LGBT rights that have been achieved,"

Wyatt/Regina said "that sounds great give us some details"

Wyatt and Regina, I wish for you to have maximum happiness and minimum pain, just as I wish for myself :)

March 04, 2019 11:37 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

**sticks a flower in their gun barrel**

March 04, 2019 11:44 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I got a nice letter from the son of the professor's research I keep quoting here. You can find a link to that research on Right Wing Authoritarianism by clicking on my profile and going to my Fairness First blog.

Apparently the father is still alive and his son forwarded my email to him with the links to these three ass-kicking threads:


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2018/12/flynn-free-trump-continues-to-march-off.html#comments


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2018/12/drowning-accomplished.html#comments


http://vigilance.teachthefacts.org/2019/01/moco-hunkers-down.html#comments

He says his father gets a lot of emails these days so don't be surprised if it takes a while for him to get back to you. Yes, its easy to imagine he's a very busy man, I don't really expect to hear back from the man who was the foundational research for John Dean's book "Conservatives Without Conscience".

March 04, 2019 11:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Imagine how much crime would drop if everyone agreed society's highest priority was maximizing the happiness and minimizing the pain for all in an equal and fair way...

March 04, 2019 12:48 PM  
Anonymous Wondering said...

"Imagine how much crime would drop if everyone agreed society's highest priority was maximizing the happiness and minimizing the pain for all in an equal and fair way..."

We need to teach that in schools.

March 04, 2019 12:51 PM  
Anonymous Wondering said...

...instead of the pledge of allegiance.

March 04, 2019 1:00 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Jim said "You're a lefty if you think it is wrong for American companies to use slave labour and terrible working conditions around the world. But what kind of person wants that? Ask a Republican, would you want to be forced to work in a factory for thirty cents a day? The answer is, of course not. Everybody knows that is wrong. Even Republicans."

Republicans know its wrong for them to be forced to work in a factory for thirty cents a day, but they believe its perfectly acceptable to force people they don't like to work for thirty cents a day. Seriously.

Click on my profile, the Fairness First blog and click on the link to the research on Right Wing Authoritarianism. And these are the followers of corrupt leaders like Trump, they are not generally leaders themselves. There would be no president Trump if it weren't for the wilfully mentally shortcircuited Right Wing Authoritarians like Wyatt and Regina.

Jim said ""The rest of the civilized world has free healthcare,"

Wyatt/Regina said "no, they don't they pay taxes that go to pay the doctor"

Much of the worst off bottom half of the population pays no income tax, health care is free for them and the rich pay, as it should be.

Wyatt/Regina said "adding a middle man doesn't make it free"

Medicare for all takes away the insurance company middleman and cuts costs.

Right now the middle man is the insurance companies seeking to provide as little care as possible for the highest possible cost. The total current costs of health care through private insurance companies is only 1/3 actual medical expenses, the rest of the cost is for the salaries of insurance company managers/owners. This is why the United States has the highest cost of health care per capita in the western world and amongst the poorest of health outcomes.

Jim said "Nobody really minds if two men or two women fall in love, as long as they're happy. All this is just common sense and human nature."

Its the truth, ain't it. For bigots like Wyatt/Regina, lgbt people are the proxy target symbolizing a world that's changing towards fairness and taking away their undue privilege and special rights.

March 04, 2019 1:52 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

One of these days I must get to writing that bit about evolutionary psychology and how its counter-productive to living in modern society that I promised back in January, lol :)

March 04, 2019 3:28 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

And for the record:

Any survey estimates of fish stocks in key fishing areas that have been in error over the past 100 years, have almost always overestimated the amount of fish believed to be there.

So, as for Wyatt/Regina's disingenuous and grossly misleading (not technically a lie, they would say!) claim that the actual drop in global fish stocks that range in the surveys from 5 to 35% negative (depending on the area) is "possibly zero global decline in fish stocks"...well, that's another gross distortion of reality so typical of them over the past couple of decades.

They claim to be university educated, if that's true they know better than to dishonestly assert any counts that are necessarily estimates are no better than a blind guess.

But then, for them, truth is irrelevant when they're waging war on those who won't live like Wyatt/Regina want them to.

March 04, 2019 4:13 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Wyatt and Regina want everyone to ignore that the world's population is exploding and our food supply is shrinking, or soon to shrink.

March 04, 2019 4:39 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

This capitalist idea, that if a business isn't growing, its failing...is really destructive.

Wyatt/Regina showed above they have a hard time understanding the difference between infinite and finite - they claimed not to grasp what was meant by finite crime in the phrase "it is unjust to apply infinite punishment (an eternity of torture) for finite crimes. All human crimes are finite you two, by definition of humans having a finite life span.

At some point capitalists need to accept that the world has finite resources and a limit to how many people it can sustain. Capitalists need to start planning for zero growth economy, none of this constantly increasing the gross domestic product.

March 04, 2019 4:48 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

The Fermi Paradox:

Why with hundreds of billions of planets that are in the habitable zone around the stars in the milky way, why after decades of searching have we found no technologically produced radio waves from outside our solar system, no sign of technological life beyond our own?

Because, as we see in nature, a lot of repetition exists, a large number of species have penises and vaginas. So it is with the development of life and technological civilization elsewhere in the universe, it evolves similarly to our own.

Technological civilizations elsewhere in the universe are going to discover similar technologies to us, like burning fossil fuels on a massive, planetary disrupting scale, or nuclear weapons. We see no sign of technological life elsewhere in the universe because the universe is 20 billion years old and really advanced technological civilizations like ours only exist for hundreds of years, maybe a few thousand years. They're gone in a blink compared to the 20 billion year old universe. For this reason its extremely rare, if it ever happens, that one technological civilization exists in our galaxy concurrently with any others, on an evolutionary time scale technological civilizations have extremely short life spans.

Its clear from our own, technological civiliations destroy themselves in what is a brief flash after they come into being, on the vast time scale of the existence of the universe.

Like us,other technological civilizations will have discovered the tremendous short term advantages of burning fossil fuels, and be unable to unify their populations to stop the greenhouse effect on their planets, because evolved intelligent beings don't have the psychology to grasp such an existential threat and react successfully to it. Intelligent minds just aren't evolved that way, or at least not a big enough percentage of the population is psychologically aware enough to make a planet saving reversal of massive use of fossil fuels. So technological civilization like ours flare brightly and then die quickly.

March 04, 2019 5:13 PM  
Anonymous we sure do have a nifty Supreme Court, and they know how to rule!! said...

why transwomen cannot be allowed to compete as women in sports, just like they don't belong in the military:


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6769265/PIERS-unfair-transgender-women-compete-womens-sportand-outrageous-bully-Martina.html

March 04, 2019 9:16 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Thank you Wyatt/Regina!

Its nice to see that after I gave you two such a rough time you're still thinking of me :)

How long did you have to search the internet to come up with the "appropriate" article?

March 05, 2019 1:14 AM  
Anonymous Patrick Green said...

Dear Ms. Lynn,

I rarely comment here but have been reading the comments the last couple of months. At this point, I feel compelled to say something. You need help, and you should seek it out. Your writings here display many of the classic hallmarks of mental illness. You appear, for example to have narcissistic personality disorder, thinking that every comment made is directed at you. Why would story about the unfairness of transwomen athletes competing as females have anything to do with you? From the details you posted in an exhibitionist spree not long ago, the only sports you are fit for are a hot-dog-eating contest or, with a little coaching, sumo wrestling. When you think about it, your feeling that everything is directed at you makes little sense. Find a good psychiatrist. Most people can get better for about the price of a good used car. Maybe it's not too late for you.

March 05, 2019 9:05 AM  
Anonymous we've made the Supreme Court great again !!!!!!!!!!!!! said...

Trump appears on track to landslide a re-election, just like Reagan and W Bush before him. When you read these polls, you have to realize they are skewed by his enormous unpopularity in the land of movie actors and tech billionaires and the gayest major city in America, California. Take that state away and his approval rating is phenomenal. Here in America, we elect Presidents by an electoral college, which doesn't allow one area to impose its will on the rest of us. The shape of our courts appears set for a generation.

President Trump's approval rating on the economy has reached a new high, according to a Gallup poll published Tuesday.

The poll showed that 56 percent of adults in the U.S. approve of Trump's handling of the economy, the best mark of Trump's presidency.

The poll also found that a majority of voters approve of Trump's handling of unemployment and of the situation with North Korea, with 54 percent approving of Trump's job with unemployment and 51 percent approving on North Korea.

March 05, 2019 9:24 AM  
Anonymous Democrats in 2020...LOL! said...

President Donald Trump's job approval numbers continue to climb, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published Monday put Trump's approval rating at 46 percent among registered voters, his highest mark since October 2018 following the widely popular and triumphal confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump's highest RCP average of his presidency was 46 percent, just after his inauguration. Two months later, it dropped below 44 percent and stayed there, only briefly returning above that level in May, June and October of 2018.

Trump's rising poll numbers come despite the record 35-day government shutdown and his use of an emergency declaration to secure funding to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Last month, Trump touted a 52 percent approval rating from a Feb. 19 poll by Rasmussen Reports, the only poll that surveys LIKELY voters.

"93% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. 52% Approval Rating overall! Not bad considering I get the most unfair press in the history of presidential politics! And don’t forget the Witch Hunt!" Trump tweeted.

March 05, 2019 9:37 AM  
Anonymous Bill Frist to Patrick Green -- armchair diagnoses are deplorable said...

Frist Satisfied With Schiavo Autopsy Report

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (search), a surgeon who had questioned Terri Schiavo's (search) diagnosis during the intense national debate on whether to remove her feeding tube, said the autopsy documenting her severe brain damage brings "a very sad chapter to a close."

"She had devastating brain damage, and with that the chapter is closed," Frist said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Frist, R-Tenn., said he never made his own diagnosis but did argue there wasn't enough information about Schiavo's condition to justify allowing her husband to remove her feeding tube against her parents' wishes.


"I raised the question, 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?' I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not. I did say that certain tests should be performed to determine that before starving her to death," Frist said in the interview.

In March, Frist and other Republicans pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation, signed by President Bush, aimed at prolonging Schiavo's life by allowing the case to be reviewed by federal courts. But federal courts rejected the parents' request to have her feeding tube reinserted.

Polls found a majority of Americans opposed to federal involvement and the issue contributed to a drop in approval ratings for the Republican-controlled Congress.

Debating the emergency legislation on the Senate floor, Frist questioned the diagnosis of the court-appointed doctors, referring to video footage provided by her family that seemed to show Schiavo responding to people around her.

"I question it based on a review of the video footage. ... And that footage, to me, depicted something very different than persistent vegetative state," Frist said at the time.

Other doctors said her reactions were automatic responses and not evidence of consciousness.

The autopsy by a medical examiner in Florida, released Wednesday, showed irreversible brain damage, consistent with a persistent vegetative state.

"The diagnosis they made is exactly right. It's the pathology, I'll respect that. I think its time to move on," Frist said on CBS' "The Early Show."

March 05, 2019 11:31 AM  
Anonymous America is as lucky as lucky can be said...

I don't think Bill Frist would appreciate your misuse of his statement to encourage someone to not seek help

Patrick Green only noticed common symptoms of mental illness and suggested someone see a professional

does that threaten you in some way?

March 05, 2019 12:14 PM  
Anonymous in 2020: healthy economy vs Green New Deal, you decide said...

The latest numbers confirm what Americans can see all around them: The Trump economic surge is still in full swing and beating expectations.

Following a delay in reporting caused by the longest government shutdown in the country’s history, we finally have the initial Commerce Department data for economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Not only were there no signs of a coming recession that some had warned about, but also actual gross domestic product growth of 2.6 percent in the quarter exceeded the 2.3 percent consensus estimate of economists polled by Reuters.

Those initial Commerce numbers released last week provide the first comprehensive look at the economy’s performance for the full calendar year 2018, revealing that, by at least one measure, the United States just hit the strong 3 percent growth rate that President Donald Trump had promised on the campaign trail.

In fact, as the Trump administration had forecast, GDP grew by an impressive 3.1 percent between fourth quarter 2017 and fourth quarter 2018. That growth was significantly higher than the Federal Reserve’s December 2017 median projection of 2.5 percent growth for 2018.

The 3.1 percent Q4-to-Q4 growth rate in 2018 means the United States just had its strongest calendar year of economic growth since 2005, well before the Great Recession.

Where did that growth come from? Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic growth, was robust, driven by the strongest jobs market in decades, the best wage growth in a decade, low energy prices and increased take-home pay resulting from the 2017 tax cuts.

With consumer spending up and the Trump administration having reined in unfriendly regulations, business investment was also strong, accelerating in the fourth quarter and laying the groundwork for future economic growth.

Contrary to the defeatist narrative that many on the left will surely advance, this economic success is a direct result of the president’s pro-growth policies.

Indeed, the boost in economic growth that the country just experienced nearly matches predictions made by the president’s economic advisers, based on the anticipated effects from his economic policies. That is an unusual occurrence in economic forecasting. Those same economic advisers now foresee 3.2 percent growth for 2019.

The U.S. economy isn’t just surpassing its own benchmarks; it’s also outpacing every other country in the developed world.

For the past year, the United States has been blowing away the rest of the countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the main grouping of the world’s developed economies. The fourth quarter numbers confirm that this trend is continuing, while the United States’ main developed trading partners go in the opposite direction.

Germany and Italy, for example, both slipped into recession in the fourth quarter. Even the best-performing OECD countries, such as the Britain, are lagging well behind the United States.

Naysayers have been predicting a U.S. recession for months, but the latest GDP growth report strongly contradicts that pessimistic view. Far from shrinking, the economy is growing at a faster pace than it has in well over a decade. Of course, the naysayers also scoffed at Trump’s promise to create a roaring economy with full employment and a robust manufacturing sector, but that’s exactly what his policies have produced.

March 05, 2019 12:23 PM  

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