Wondering on Wednesday 10/5/22

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

What's on my wondering mind tonight? Let's dive in.

First and foremost, I'm wondering what the heck is wrong with the national media - not the crazies, the regular old media - who can't seem to stop asking each other if they notice how amazing it is that the president, a Democrat, is collaborating with the Republican governor of a storm-ravaged state, and how amazing it is that's happening, this close to the midterms and all the rest. 

I'm not kidding - it was a topic on NPR, and on ABC and CBS and NBC and probably all the other networks I didn't check in on. I'm wondering exactly what they were expecting to happen; was Gov. DeSantis going to swallow his pride and refuse to ask for help for residents of his state? Where was he going to get help, from Martha's Vineyard or something? And what about President Biden? Was he to pretend he didn't know a storm had hit? Was he to blindly ignore Americans in a disaster because their governor's a jerk?

It's embarrassing, and insulting, that they are so gaga over this natural, totally expected partnering at a time like this. And, speaking of embarrassing, I wonder how I missed what was happening. I was having a hard time with all of this until I remembered the most recent president was a total jerk who wouldn't work with people who didn't suck up to him, or with anyone who said anything bad about him, or who laughed at him for things like throwing paper towels to disaster victims. So, in that context, I guess I should give the gushers a break. 

Donald Trump, who spent years calling CNN 'fake news' and 'the enemy of the people,' has sued the network for defamation, and is seeking $475M in damages. I wonder if his lawyers filed it with a straight face, or how the folks at CNN could have received it with one. And I wonder how he even still has lawyers?

Former Congressman Newt Gingrich has said that serial liar Herschel Walker is the most important Senate candidate in the country. He has a deep commitment to Christ, Newt said, and lots of concussions. I can't help wondering about the connection between either of those and the United States Senate, or why Gingrich talked so glowingly about Walker's concussion (and PTSD) as being among his qualifications for the Senate.

And, I can't help wondering which senator will be assigned to babysit Walker, should he be elected. If I had to guess, I'd say it's gonna be Coach Tommy Tuberville. During his tenure as head coach at Auburn, he managed to have a 5-5 record against Georgia, the school Walker left to pursue his pro football career. They'll speak the same language, if nothing else.

Finally, I'm wondering, in the back of my mind, if this post was meant to be all about disasters, or if it just worked out that way.

What are you wondering about? 

No True Supporter of Mine... Yeah, Right.

The twice-impeached president released another video letting us know how he feels about violence, apparently thinking that we don't already know how he feels about it. 

I want to be very clear -- I unequivocally condemned the violence that we saw last week, violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America great again has always been about defending the rule of law, supporting the men and women of law enforcement and upholding our nation's most sacred traditions and values. Mob violence goes against everything I believe in, and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence, no true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement, or our great American flag, no true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans. If you do any of these things you are not supporting our movement, you're attacking it, and you are attacking our country. We cannot tolerate it."

You've got to love how he puts his personal interests, his 'movement,' on the same level as he puts the country. Who else would do this? 

What he said in the video conflicts with his many documented instances of encouraging and condoning violence, as this article from Vox  points out.

Trump has continually refused to recognize what’s at the core of this violence: hate nurtured under a tense national climate that he has helped cultivate.

Trump’s campaign rallies have always been incubation grounds for violence, sites where Trump spewed hate speech that encouraged physical harm against dissenters. And as president, he has used his platform to encourage violence against American citizens, whether through the police and National Guard or militia groups — unless those citizens are his supporters.

The article gives examples of his rhetoric, and of his supporters listening and responding to it. Here are just a few of them.

August 19, 2015: Two Boston brothers invoked Trump when they were arrested for urinating on a homeless man and beating him with a metal pipe. While in custody, one of the brothers told the police, “Trump was right. All of these illegals need to be deported.” The 58-year-old Mexican American they assaulted was a permanent US resident.

In response to the news that the Boston assault was inspired by his rhetoric, Trump did not denounce the violence, instead calling his supporters “passionate.” “I think that would be a shame. I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that,” he told reporters the next day.

On August 21, Trump  backtracked a bit, taking a both-sides approach. “Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would never condone violence,” he tweeted.

November 21, 2015:  At a rally in Birmingham, AL, Trump demanded the removal of Black activist Mercutio Southall Jr. after he yelled, “Black lives matter!” Onstage, Trump exclaimed, “Get him the hell out of here! Get him out of here! Throw him out!” In a video captured by CNN, Southall fell to the ground as Trump made his statements and white men appeared to kick and punch him.

...Trump told Fox News the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing. I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble.”

February 1, 2016:  At a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, IA, Trump told the crowd that... “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. There won’t be so much of them because the courts agree with us,” he said.

March 31, 2016: Three people who say they were assaulted at Trump campaign rally in Louisville sued the then-candidate, alleging that he riled up his followers and encouraged violence when he repeatedly yelled, “Get ‘em out of here!” The group sued Trump for incitement to riot, and in April 2017, federal Judge David Hale ruled that their claim was valid since there was sufficient evidence proving their injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s comments. “It is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force,” Hale wrote. “It was an order, an instruction, a command.”

Trump appealed the case, and in September 2018, a federal appeals court  dismissed the protesters’ claims, saying that Trump’s words were protected under the First Amendment and did not “specifically advocate imminent lawless violence.” An attorney for the plaintiffs called the ruling “unprecedented” and “dangerous,” and a “free pass” for a candidate for public office.

How right they were. 

December 2016: After Trump bullied then-Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly for months, Kelly said that Trump’s social media director was responsible for inciting the many death threats she was receiving. “The vast majority of Donald Trump supporters are not at all this way,” Kelly said, according to the Guardian. “It’s that far corner of the internet that really enjoys nastiness and threats and unfortunately there is a man who works for Donald Trump whose job it is to stir these people up and that man needs to stop doing that. His name is Dan Scavino.”

Scavino is now Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, in addition to his social media role.

January 27, 2017: On the day the Trump administration instituted a ban against travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a Muslim Delta employee wearing a hijab was physically and verbally attacked at JFK International Airport in New York. The perpetrator told the victim “[Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS. Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you,” according to ABC. On the campaign trail, Trump said he was open to the idea of closing mosques and creating a database of all Muslims in the US, consistently saying that Muslims were a “problem” and a “sickness."

The article also notes a number of studies showing a significant increase in hate crimes during the Trump administration, including a 2019 report which found "counties that hosted a rally with Trump as a headliner experienced a  226 percent increase in hate crimes, and that Trump's rhetoric "may encourage hate crimes."

Back to the violence: 

October 18, 2018: At a rally in Montana, Trump celebrated Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte, who body-slammed a reporter in May 2017, telling the crowd, “Any guy who can do a body-slam ... he’s my guy.”

Gianforte assaulted journalist Ben Jacobs after Jacobs asked him a question about the GOP health care bill, on the day before Gianforte won election. He ultimately apologized (after his spokesperson first denied the assault) and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. Gianforte was sentenced with 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management, and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee, in addition to a deferred 180-day jail sentence.

August 5, 2019: A 39-year-old Montana man was charged with felony assault for choking, slamming, and fracturing the skull of a 13-year-old boy who didn’t take his hat off for the national anthem. The man’s attorney told the local newspaper that Trump’s “rhetoric” led to the violent act. “His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished,” the lawyer said, referencing Trump’s harsh words against athletes like Colin Kaepernick who protested for social justice.

I wonder what that man would have done had he been at Mar-a-Lago for Trump's Super Bowl party antics last year?  But I digress.

Back to the violence.

May 29, 2020: Following the first weekend of social justice protests after George Floyd’s killing...(h)is tweet thread showed the tone that would dominate his reaction to the unrest in the following months: 

...These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!  

Twitter flagged Trump’s tweet for “glorifying violence.”

There's so much more out there, including all of the stuff last year around state-level COVID responses (just ask Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer) and the "stolen election," culminating with his rally speech on January 6th. 

It is all a lie. 

I'll close with a tweet sent by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich yesterday (emphasis added). 

Jan. 6 was supposed to be about talking about the very real election fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election. To expose it. To talk about election reform. To review our systems so that this kind of distrust in our electoral process never happens again. Instead, it became a sad referendum on just how easily people are influenced and misled.

I'm not a subscriber on Gingrich's website, so I don't know for sure who the easily influenced and misled people are, but I'd be willing to guess 

• it's not the Trump supporters who took, and continue to take, comfort in the president's often-repeated calls for, and approval of, violence in the MAGA movement; 
• it's not the Trump supporters who bought into the president's drumbeat about the election being rigged, which began in earnest with a May 1,2020 tweet stating "Do not allow RIGGED elections" and only ended January 8, 2021 with his permanent banning from Twitter; and
• it's probably not his fellow Republicans, who (for the most part) have been easily influenced by Trump, and misled by him - and who toed the line right up to the bitter end.

Sunday School 3/10/19

I wandered around three classrooms this morning. I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for, so I'm not exactly sure if I found it or not.

Let's start with Face the Nation and Ed O'Keefe's interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the declared presidential candidates. He kicked things off with her recently announced plan to break up tech companies, asking her why it needs to be done. Her answer?

Because the giant tech companies right now area eating up little, tiny businesses, startups - and competing unfairly. 

The thing is, Warren says, the platform companies should not be competing with people who use their platforms, putting their items ahead of the competition in the search returns, and so on.

So what I'm saying is we've got to break these guys apart. You want to run a platform? That's fine, You don't get to run a whole bunch of the businesses as well. You want to run a business? That's fine. You don't get to run the platform. Think of it this way, it's like in baseball. You can be the umpire or you can own one of the teams, but you don't get to be the umpire and own the teams.

So Facebook would have to sell off Instagram, Amazon would have to sell off Whole Foods, and "all those little businesses that they're running, competing businesses. Yup."

O'Keefe asked who the federal government was to tell these companies they had to do this; Warren mentioned long-standing anti-trust laws.  But, she's not anti-market, she pointed out, she's pro-markets-that-work:

The way markets work is they have to have rules and they have to have a cop to enforce them. A market without rules is theft and I'm not in favor of theft, I'm in favor of markets that produce real competition. 

She talked about taxing the ultra rich, noting that the top 1/10th of 1% will pay about 3.4% of their total net wealth in taxes while the 99.9% will pay about 7.4% and that's not fair because (paraphrasing here) when all of their inherited wealth was actually being earned by their families way back in the day, they did it on the backs of the rest of us -- along the lines of Obama's "you didn't build that" but in a way that seemed to be less offensive, if not more accepted. We 99-per-centers educated all of those workers back then, and built the roads, bridges, and factories, and so

So what we're really saying is look, just put a little back in the kitty. This is what we're asking for. Pay a fair share, so the next kid has a chance to build something great and the kid after that and the kid after that. 

She also said if anyone labels her as a socialist, "it's just wrong."

Sunday School 10/21/18

Let's do a quick stroll through the classrooms.

First up: Kentucky's junior senator Rand Paul and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talking with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

Speaking on the credibility of the statement from the Saudi government that Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a fistfight or some such nonsense, Paul said the statement was "absolutely" not credible, noting

I think it's insulting to anyone who's analyzing this with any kind of intelligent background to think that oh, a fistfight led to a dismemberment with a bone saw. So, no. 

He went on to suggest putting the attack on Khashoggi into context.

Saudi Arabia has basically over the decades been the largest state sponsor of radical Islam and violent jihad. They sponsor thousands of madrassas that teach hatred of Christians and Jews and Hindus around the world. So, this isn't the first instance. This is just another in the line of long instances of Saudi insults to the civilized world. 

And, in sharp contrast to the president,

I think we really need to discontinue our arms sales to Saudi Arabia and have a long and serious discussion about whether or not they want to be an ally or they want to be an enemy. 

Similarly, Gingrich did not mince words.

First of all, their explanation is insultingly stupid. I mean, the idea that this guy walked in the room with 15 security people, got in to a fight and was accidentally killed and they happened to have apparently an ability to dismember hm and get rid of him... This is just stupid.

Next up, Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate Minority Whip,North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

As did Wallace, Todd asked if there was anything credible in the Saudi's story. Durbin was clear no the lack of credibility, and our next steps:

No, and as a matter of fact, the only person on earth outside of the Saudi Kingdom who appears to accept it is president Donald Trump. Here's what we ought to do, and we ought to do it tomorrow morning. We ought to expel - formally expel the Saudi ambassador from the United States until there is a completion of a third party investigation into this kidnap, murder and God knows what followed that occur ed in Istanbul. We should call on our allies to do the same. 

Tillis was also asked the question.

No, not at this point. I agree with everything Dick Durbin just said. We've, we've got to get to the bottom of it. In Saudi Arabia, you do not do something of this magnitude without having clearance from the top. We need to find out who that is and hold him accountable. 

Todd asked whether or not the US could have a positive relationship with the Saudis if the crown prince was still in the picture.

No, I don't think so.  I think, again, if the facts lead to what we all suspect they will, I think it'll be very problematic for our relationship going forward.

In the interview with Scaramucci, Todd asked how Dems should go after Trump when he insults them. After professing to not want to offer the opposition any information, due to his love for the president, The Mooch opened up a little:

...I think the big mistake they're all making is they go right into the Trump insect Twitter light. And so the minute he shoots at them, they cannot help themselves. And they drive themselves right into that light. And then they get vaporized by him...

The answer, he tells us? Read his book.

And so the incident with Senator Warren, she should really read my book, so she can understand how the president, you have to think about the miracle of what he did. He hijacked the Republican Party to get their nomination. And then he hijacked the base of the other party and moved it over to the Republican party. And I try to write about that in the book. Because I have experience, as a kid that grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood with a blue-collar family. And I think I've seen the whole bandwidth of this sort of stuff. 

Oh wait - that's not really his recommendation, after all.

But my recommendation to people is don't engage him in that area because you're going to lose.

And on that happy note, we'll call it a day. 

See you around campus.

Trump: In Transition (v1)

Reuters photo

Donald Trump reconfigured his transition team the other day, adding clarity to how his 'outsider' campaign is approaching the mind-numbing process of building a government.

As has been widely reported, including on the new GreatAgain.gov website (bookmarked that one, I sure did), Trump will have the opportunity to fill some 4,000 positions, over a quarter of which will need Senate approval. Dust off your resumes, if you're interested in working in the #MAGA administration, now's your chance!

Here's the team that's going to help him get ready to lead:

• Dr. Ben Carson

• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who had been leading the effort, and for whom the bell tolled after the conviction of two close aides in the Bridgegate scandal; word has it that Trump started losing trust after Christie failed to go along with theGropegate denial plan, and that seeing former Christie aide Bridget Kelly crying on TV was the last straw. 

• Georgia's Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who suggested in June, in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, that we need a new House Un-American Activities Committee to address the issue of ISIS infiltration. You know, root them out, make wildly crazy accusations, in the most Un-American way possible. He apparently forgot that the shooter was reported to the FBI and cleared (twice, if I recall), and that, based on the shooter's participation in the gay community, his allegiance to ISIS would seem to be in doubt.  As Dave Chappelle noted on SNL last night, if he yelled "Wu Tang" before engaging in sexual activities with a young lady, it doesn't mean that he's a member of the Wu Tang Clan. He (Gingrich, not Chappelle) also said we need to test all Muslims in the country but I doubt he'd agree with me that there are lots of other people who should be tested similarly to make sure they share my American values.

• Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, USA (Ret.), who apparently made quite a dent at an intelligence briefing, and has been called America's angriest general. As noted in both of these links, he was one of the 'lock her up' cheerleaders at the Five Dark Days in Cleveland.

• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani 

• U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who's been representing Alabama in Washington for 20 years, and who was known for being quite, shall we say, colorful. I particularly enjoyed his reported comments about the KKK.

• Pennsylvania Congressman Lou Barletta, reported to be an immigration hardliner, who gets a lot of financial support from the infrastructure space, and fellow Keystone stater Tom Marino, who was once chased across the House floor by Nancy Pelosi. 

• Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who was allegedly involved in exposing private information of doctors and researchers in the aftermath of the dramatically faked Planned Parenthood videos. 

• Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. You remember her, right? The one to whom Trump's Foundation gave a $25K contribution as she was in the middle of deciding whether or not to sign on to an investigation with other state Attorneys General into Trump's university? Yeah, her. It gets better:  in addition to other donations from Trump and his family, it seems that when the Trump campaign holds an event at Mar-a-Lago, it costs $140,000 but when Bondi held an event there, it cost less than $5,000. Funny how that works. 

• Buffalo-area Congressman Chris Collins, who has a surprisingly sketchy conservative voting record.

• Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and the reason why he can't get hold of Ivanka on Saturday, and a man who may or may not have been offended with his father-in-law's comments to Jewish Republicans. Kushner owns the former NY Observer, which as of last week is now a digital-only publication, no longer tied to New York.

• Rebekah Mercer, who with her father is a mega-donating Clinton hater with connections to both Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway (or maybe I should say, both Bannon and Conway have connections to Mercer). 

• Steven Mnuchin, Trump's campaign finance chair, possible Treasury Secretary and, according to this article, the Anti-Populist from Hell who was intricately involved in everything that was wrong with the banking industry that led to the Great Recession. 

• California Congressman Devin Nunes. Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and strong defender of a tiny US base off the coast of Portugal, which no one really understands, perhaps other than to point to his Portuguese heritage.

• Anthony Scaramucci, another big money Wall Street guy who once called Trump a political hack and who is known as The Mooch. 

• Peter Thiel, tech gazillionaire, outed gay man, and taker-downer of media company Gawker. I'm not sure which of those biographical points was the one that attracted Trump.

• Donald Trump Jr., number one son, a top executive of the Trump Organization, and of course, a Tweeter like his father; remember the infamous Skittles tweet?

• Eric Trump, who to his credit runs a charity that has raised millions of dollars for St. Jude's Children Research Hospital, but that has some of the same 'challenges' as his father's foundation. He also famously said that his sister was too strong to put up with sexual harassment and that women should just go to HR and report it.

• Ivanka Trump, apple of her father's eye, outside-the-US clothing manufacturer, and brains behind the Trump child care plan, which only applies to married women, and would give a tax credit to families with children that don't have any child care expenses -which would, of course, be considered welfare in a different administration.

• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, just named Chief of Staff,  Breitbart executive and Trump Campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon, who was just named Chief Strategist, and VP Mike Pence are also key players.

It will be interesting to see how this group comes together to shape the Trump administration.

There is also the question of the Trump children being so closely involved, at the same time they are also involved in trying to get the Trump Organization structure figured out so that President Trump and Businessman Trump are not entwangled.

Giuliani has recommended a blind trust, but it seems a little hard when your global brand has your name all over it, for anyone to be blind to it, especially someone like Trump. This may be a more interesting thing to watch than which Swampy people get tapped for the new administration.

More to come.

The Update Desk: Newt's Sniff Test

Friday's post on the religious sniff test that Newt Gingrich believes is the way to solve the American problem of terrorist attacks in Europe needs a couple of updates.

First: Oops. Newt has apparently remembered that deporting American citizens is a no-no.

With an American citizen, deportation is impossible. It's not appropriate under the Constitution and there, historically we've always said, if you fought against the United States, that the correct answer were basically jail as opposed to deportation. I think we have to talk through what should be the right way of handling people who are here, but are not citizens. 

Second,  officials in France are holding several 'suspects' for questioning in the horrific Bastille Day attack. According to this article in the Washington Post, the ex-wife of the killer was held and then released, and there are a handful of others currently being questioned.  It seems the killer's cell phone has provided at least some insight, including a text right before the attack asking someone to 'bring more weapons' and it's believed the recipient of that text is one of the folks in custody.

The article also opens the door for Gingrich and others of similar beliefs to expand their attacks on Americans beyond merely religious grounds. Referencing public statements from ISIS that the killer was "a soldier of the Islamic State" but offering no proof of any kind,

The link underscores the difficulty of preventing the spread of extremist ideology in a world where even people like (the killer)  - whose family and neighbors portray him as a troubled loner - can be spurred to attack without training, resources or connections.

I can picture the SWAT teams now, cruising around town with Troubled Loner Cans (TLC),  like the ones they use to check license plates for parking tickets, slamming on the breaks whenever they spot someone with a pierced nose, or Goth tattoos.

That girl with the nerdy glasses with her face buried in a book. The millennial sitting on a park bench, face up turned to the sun.

Anyone walking around town without a fitness tracker. Men wearing black socks with sandals.

A person eating alone at a sidewalk cafe. A woman in the grocery store who has more cat food than people food in her grocery basket.

Someone who actually goes to the teller window instead of an ATM.

The guy in the kayak taking bird pictures.

And bonsai gardeners -- I mean, come on -- someone who spends their days torturing trees into crazy shapes, twisting them up with wires and then cutting them up with tiny scissors?

Clearly. Troubled Loners.

Newt Gingrich's Religious Sniff Test

Politico.com photo

Newt Gingrich, fresh off his stinging defeat in the VPPrentice, as CNN called it, fought for relevance by offering these comments on Fox News after the attack in Nice:

Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported. Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door. But we need to be fairly relentless about defining who our enemies are. Anybody who goes on a website favoring ISIS or Al Qaeda, or other terrorist groups, that should be a felony, and they should go to jail. Any organization which hosts such a website should be engaged in a felony. It should be closed down immediately. 

Our forces should be used to systematically destroy every internet-based source. And frankly if we can't destroy them through the internet, we should destroy them with kinetic power, using various weapons starting with Predators, and frankly just killing them.

The ever-helpful fair and balanced Sean Hannity, noting his "whole-hearted" agreement with Gingrich's "powerful statement" asked a followup:

How do we ascertain - how do you possibly ascertain whether or not that person really wants assimilation, really wants a new life, or whether or not they want to expand that caliphate, which is what we're at war against?

Here's the response:

Look, the first step is you have to ask them the questions. The second step is you have to monitor what they're doing on the internet. The third step is - let me be very clear. You have to monitor the mosques. I mean if you're not prepared to monitor the mosque, this whole thing is a joke. Where do you think the primary source of recruitment is? Where do you think the primary course of indoctrination is? You've got to look at the madrasas. If you're a school which is teaching Sharia, you want to expel it from the country. We have to understand - we are behaving as though we are insane. We're like sheep wondering why the wolves keep killing us.

After you're done monitoring the mosques, Newt, and the internet, and doing your religious sniff tests and looking under the burqas and hijabs and niqabs, can we take a look at the people that I want to investigate and deport or send to jail?

No -- wait -- these folks are all over the place, they've been here forever, they're easy to find on the internet so people - even politicians - can emulate them-- let's start with these folks and when we're done purging the scum that incite honest-to-goodness homegrown terrorism, and talk about rape and sexual assault as if they're jokes, and approve or turn the other way when it comes to attacks on gays, or children, you can go ahead and take on the Muslims:

• Good Christians who think it is impossible for a man to rape his wife, and OK for him to sexually abuse her? Or good Republicans who justify rape in any number of ways?
• Good Christian pastors who believe that gays should face a firing squad or that the 9/11 attacks were punishment from God? And if they have schools, well, we surely need to shut them down so these ridiculous, hateful and dangerous beliefs cannot be spread.
• And of course, there's the Westboro Baptist Church - shouldn't they go to jail for terrorizing funerals of fallen heroes, spitting on our soldiers, mocking their sacrifice?
• Catholic priests? I mean, this one's easy, right? Thousands of victims, millions of dollars in payments, let's shut 'em down. 
• White supremacist groups such as the ones that radicalized the Charleston terrorist on the internet? And presidential candidates who can barely bring themselves to disavow these groups and their leaders, as well as everyone who supports such a candidate? We cannot possibly have room for this type of terrorist thinking in America, can we? 

Let me know if you need any more examples of groups or people who terrorize us right here at home, every single day, and likely don't have a Muslim belief among them. 

Oh - and let us not forget that if it's the rhetoric that causes the problem, we'll need to go after the irresponsible media who fan the flames of hatred every day, on television and the related websites, radicalizing impressionable Americans, young and old -- starting with the talking heads at Fox News and their guests.

Return of the Trifecta

A trifecta is generally described as a type of bet where, in order to win, the bettor must pick the top three finishers in the correct order. Here are the top three from the past couple of days:

According to a published report, New Gingrich is 'really puzzled'.  Honest: he's not sure what to call a cell phone.

Think about it. If it is taking pictures, it’s not a cell phone. If it has a McDonald’s app to tell you where McDonald’s is based on your GPS location — that’s not a cellphone. If you can get Wikipedia or go to Google — that’s not a cell phone. If you can watch YouTube — that’s not a cell phone. Or Netflix. This device is something new and different. I have been calling it a handheld computer.

I kid you not. Apparently the lights might go out in Georgia if we don't get a better name for the thing that most of us call a smart phone.  Newt's team doesn't think that's the right term, because it places too much emphasis on 'phone' and they're  not used all that much as phones.  I'll give a dollar to the person who comes up with the next great name for the little time-sucking, occasionally-ringing, picture-taking, web-searching, pocket-vibrating distracto machine. 

Yesterday, Tiger Woods won The Player's Championship, his fourth victory of the year. I think it's pretty clear that he's back in the swing of things, if you know what I mean (wink wink nod nod).  Woods didn't win much in the immediate aftermath of his Thanksgiving 2009 flame out but now that he's got a steady girlfriend, and is at least apparently settling in to co-parenting his children with his ex, things seem to be on the upswing. I still don't think much of him as a person, but when he's playing well, he sure is fun to watch.

And last but not least, today Barbara Walters announced that she's retiring. Next year. Yep, she's leaving TV. Except for when she's going to be on TV, doing specials or whatever she wants to do. Because I doubt that any network would turn her down if she felt like asking some famous person what kind of tree they'd be, if they were a tree.  

She's had an amazing career, but do we really need to take a year to say goodbye to her?  And was it Oprah who started this whole goodbye tour for talk show hosts?  I'm thinking we need to have these folks sit down with Dr. Phil and figure out why they feel the need to put us through this long goodbye.

Dirty Snowpile Awards: Buerkle, Obama, Kyl, Gingrich, & More

(Editor's note: this post from April 2011 has been updated to correct formatting issues.)

Today's lesson of Sunday School has been postponed so that we may bring you the following special presentation: the 2011 Dirty Snowpile Awards. The DSA were presented for the first time last year, and included a mostly New York State focus.  This year, snow was prevalent in many areas outside the Empire State, and where you have snow, you will always have dirty snow. Without further ado, the winners. 

The Rookie of the Year Dirty Snowpile, to Ann Marie Buerkle (R-Onondaga). A freshman member of the House, Buerkle won a closely-contested delayed decision last fall, and went to Washington representing a deeply-divided district. There’s no divide, however, in her allegiance to the Issas and Cantors and Boehners; in fact, she’s actually told us, her constituents, that what she thinks doesn’t matter – she’s there to do what she’s told by the House Leadership. Her (ahem) refreshing honesty the key reason she’s deserving of this award.

President Barack Obama (D-USA) gets the All Talk, Very Little Action Dirty Snowpile.  Doesn’t matter what the issue is, Obama talks a very good game – some of his speeches are both inspired, and inspiring – but they don’t generate the action needed to actually get things accomplished timely, or even at all.  He’s too willing to throw stuff  out there but not willing to roll up his sleeves and work to get things accomplished until the bitter end.  He’s too willing to let people slip and slide along in the icy streets, all the while talking about the need for snow to be removed from the sidewalks.  It’s time for him to pick up the shovel and throw the first pile of snow…and the second…and the third...

Jon Kyl (R- AZ) gets the 90% Dirty Snowpile. Senator Kyl is just one of the folks who has been mouthing off about Planned Parenthood supposedly spending federal tax dollars on abortions, which has been illegal for some 30-odd years and which no one has proven. He’s the who recently said that abortions represent something north of 90% of what Planned Parenthood does - when in fact, it’s about 3%.  But it’s OK – he didn't mean for the statement to be factual, and he only lies about things he cares about. Besides, the dirt on his snowpile is only skin deep; it's not like its really 90% dirty. 

Contract with America author and exploratory 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich gets the It’s Not My Fault Dirty Snowpile, for his bad marital behavior. First, he admitted that he himself was having an affair at the same time he was engaged in impeaching Bill Clinton for, well, you know, Monica and stuff. And allegedly perjury, but really Monica. More famously, though, Newt has blamed his cheating on his patriotism. Seriously. Clearly this filthy snowpile simply could not be his fault. 

The 50/50 Dirty Snowpile goes to elected officials around the country – and you know who you are. With very few exceptions, 50% of the time, you can’t believe a word they say and the other 50% of the time, you know even they don’t believe a word they say. About the only ones in Washington who are spared this mountain of dirty snow are the Gang of Six, who are actively trying to come up with a budget plan that helps us move forward, without being beholding to the flavor-of-the-day special interests. 

For those outside of Washington who ran on one platform and began immediately doing something else, this snow’s for you.  For those of you in statehouses across the land, of both stripes, if you tell a lie about why you’re doing something, this snow’s for you.  For those of you at local levels across the country, who gerrymander districts, refuse to consider consolidation or other money-saving opportunities, take obscene salaries and benefits from taxpayers, obstruct progress, and pander to your base, this snow’s for you. Like I said, you know who you are. And so do we.

And a special award, the You’re So Vain, You Probably Think This Snowpile’s About You Dirty Snowpile, goes to Donald Trump.  The Donald, who’s flirting with a run for President, didn’t
even know where his polling place was a while back, and lies about President Obama's birth certificate and a few other hot topics even as he's doing well in the polls, but that's not why he's getting this award. 

It's because he's got the "number one show on NBC" (Celebrity Apprentice) and it would be "unfair" to announce a potential candidacy because they'd have to cancel the show. Honest.

So there you have it – the cream of the crop, this year’s Dirty Snowpile Award winners. There are likely a plow-ful of other likely candidates - who would you have chosen?

Sunday School 3/27/11: Jesus, the anti-tax revolutionary?

I was working on another post when I came across a reference to Rediscovering God in America, a book, movie and theme park (OK, I made up the theme park part) from the Newt Gingrich camp and their friends at Citizens United. Historian Gingrich (as opposed to Likely 2012 Candidate Gingrich) went on a mission to educate folks on the real role that religion has played in throughout our history, including a travelogue of monuments in DC. I don’t fault him for doing this; I commend him as a thrice married sinner who has by his own admission sought forgiveness from God and from the Republican Party.

Fast forward to Rediscovering God in America, the pastor's conference, which was held this weekend in Des Moines, IA. No significance there, natch; had nothing to do with Iowa being first in the presidential season. The conference included a showing of Newt's movie, an opportunity to spend hard-earned cash on books and DVDs, and some interesting sessions on religion and politics.

Take this example, where David Barton, the founder of WallBuilders (the folks who brought you the Texas school curriculum) points out (about as fast as humanly possible) a number of bible verses to show that Jesus was against taxes. Yep – Jesus was anti-tax. Very specifically he was against the capital gains tax, the estate tax, and the progressive income tax. He was also anti-minimum wage. Honest. Here's the proof.

On the estate tax, three verses were referenced; to the untrained, non-Republican eye, they seem to be more about abiding by the word of the Lord and being good. If you are, you will have something to pass on to your children's children - their inheritance would be your goodness, if you will. If on the other hand you don’t choose to live a god life, or if you try to pass on ill-gotten gains, they’ll be taken from you; and you can only pass on what is yours, not something that you have taken from others. 

• A good [man] leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner [is] laid up for the just. (Proverbs 13.22)
• Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave [it] for an inheritance for your children after you forever. (1 Chronicles 28.8)
• Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession. (Ezekiel 46.18) 

The verses allegedly related to the progressive income tax appear to be more about tithing than about taxation. The fact that a tithe is required or recommended doesn’t preclude a tax also being applied.

• And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, [even] of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. (Leviticus 27.32). Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year (Deuteronomy 14.22) 
• Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the priest. (Numbers 18.28-29)

The next set of verses cited seem to indicate that the 'haves' will get more, and the 'have-nots' will lose what they have; basically, the rich tend to get richer, and the poor tend to stay poor. We all get that.  But I don’t see this as a biblical imperative against the capital gains tax.

• For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. (Luke 19.26)
• For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. (Matthew 25.29)

Last, on minimum wage, the verses from Matthew are about paying the same amount of money to everyone, regardless of their effort, but not about how much everyone should get paid.

• These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take [that] thine [is], and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee (Matthew 20.12-14). 

I’m no Bible scholar, not by a long shot. But I’m not seeing these verses as being at all indicative of Jesus being anti-tax. What I do see, instead, is people closely associated with a potential presidential candidate, one who's allegedly on the righteous path now, twisting the Bible to meet their needs, and directing pastors to interpret the Bible in a specific way as to promote an extremely selfish position.

Now that seems to be something that Jesus would have definitely been against.