Here comes another scorcher. 98° and muggy forecast today. I’m writing early, because our fantasy football draft is less than two hours away. I’m missing my morning nap, so I’ll have a longer one this afternoon. Tomorrow is a Wendy day. I’m sure the neighbors are more than ready for me to be de-skunked.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Reverend Barber on White Supremacy
I agree with everything he says, and I have been exposing Republican racism for what it is and standing against it so long, that when I started, the racist Republicans were Democrats! RESIST!!
From The Last Word: Mueller may have new evidence of Trump obstruction
The New York Times reports that Robert Mueller has an early draft of a letter Trump and one of his aides composed when preparing to fire James Comey and is examining that letter in his investigation. David Frum, law professor Jed Shugerman, and Neera Tanden join.
Tick… tick… tick… RESIST!!
From Think Progress:
Evangelical Christians are up to something new.
At least that’s the position of many criticizing the “Nashville Statement,” a controversial document championing “biblical” sexual ethics that was penned this past week and signed by roughly 150 prominent evangelical leaders. The document [Republican pseudo-Christians delinked], divided into 14 articles and released by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), mostly parrots denunciations of LGBTQ identities and relationships common among right-wing evangelicals. But it drew added attention for doing something unusual: extending their condemnation to Christians who affirm queer people.
“We affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness,” Article 10 of the statement reads. “We deny that the approval of homosexual immortality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christian should agree to disagree.”
The statement triggered outrage almost immediately, especially among LGBTQ and LGBTQ-affirming Christians who saw it as a direct attack on their understanding of the faith. Within hours, several progressive Christian groups issued their own counter-statements refuting the evangelical document point-by-point, with some deriding it as “anti-LGBTQ bigotry.” Faithful America, an online advocacy organization for progressive Christians, already has thousands of signatures for a petition rejecting the statement.
Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are trying to violate the rights of LGBT Americans to their sexual identity and of authentic Christians to practice our faith through accepting and loving them, as is. Click through to sign the Faithful America petition. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
A perennial favorite!
9 Responses to “Open Thread – 9/2/2017”
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5:26 A little too much fiber, I think. Do have a good nap.
Random House/Penuin has an interesting whimsical quiz up.
Rev. Barber is a national treasure. I understand he has ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis which can fuse vertebrae and is quite painful. I wonder how Christian I could continue to behave in any very Christian manner with similar pain. But I digress. Let me share a couple of quotes –
“The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on behalf of white at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not.” – Scott Woods
“People know about the Klan and the overt racism, but the killing of one’s soul little by little, day after day is a lot worse than someone coming in your house and lynching you.” – Samuel L. Jackson
I could go on. But any time you try to tell a white person (who doesn’t know it already) that racism is more than hate, they get all defensive. And they call you divisive. That’s not a reason not to do it, just a heads up that that’s what will happen.
MSNBC – Screed: “a long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious.” Well, I learned something. I thought it had to be in writing. LOL!
Well, like our voting vunerabilities, this is something I just cannot wrap my head around, and for the same reasons. I can hardly say how terribly grateful I am to those who do care, especially those who, like Lawrence and guests, are in positions to give legs to that caring.
TP – This has real Christians stuttering and sputtering to the point we can hardly make ourselves understood. But the bottom line is that we can counter-state and promulgate truth until we are blue in the face, and no one who supports this atrocity will pay a lick’s worth of attention. They know they are right because teh gay is icky. I previously signed the Faithful America petition; thank you for sharing it here; and I previously read to article at Sojourners; thank you for sharing it here (read the comments with care. “otrotierra” and “stcroixcarp” are generally sound, as are a few others. Many are not. Watch your blood pressure. Kudos to Auburn Seminary and Open and Affirming (UCC).
Cartoon – Yes. It was. It didn’t appear to be following the money. Of course, it would torn out that Star Trek couldn’t die.
MOC: Reverend Barber is such an eloquent speaker. Excellent video, should be viewed by everyone, and students too, re: racism.”It is time for us to be the moral defibrillators that revive the heart of this Country.” A-MEN!!!
TLW: Gawd, this pile is getting bigger and bigger, isn’t it? WOW!
Cartoon: To this day, Star Trek survives in the hearts of many!
Hope that you have a relaxing evening, and take care, Tom.fyi: Texas lost to Maryland 51-41, they have a new coach too. Bummer.
YT/MOC: He says it so, very, very, well! The big distinction is the one that points out the insidious, hidden structure of systemic racism!. I did not know that about Woodrow Wilson, though I have read that he seriously considered going onto WWI on the side of the Germans, because of the number of German-Americans in the country. It might be safe to say that Wilson was deluded, but it is certainly safe to say that Trump, in his entire perspective on the world, is deluded.
“Delusion has the characteristic of blindness, of not penetrating reality, of covering the true nature of experience, of fostering unwise attention, of causing deluded action.” (Visuddhimagga, the Theravada Buddhist Path of Purification) This, and the vast insecurity that must rattle around in the emptiness that is Trump’s inner being, fuel his hatred, and viciousness!
TP: More blind idiocy from other deluded people! I seriously expect that they, ALSO, are taking their cues from the sick POTUS!
TC, “Live long, and thrive.”
MOC: Kudos to Reverent Barber.
TLW: It’s not so much that Mueller has been given new evidence of Drumpf obstructing the investigation into Russia-gate, but rather more of having been handed more conformation that Drumpf did obstruct. The case for obstruction must be pretty solid by now, and Drumpf’s lawyers know it, because all they are left with to argue with is that the president has the right to fire the head of the FBI, therefore it can’t be obstruction.
Mueller is now probably trying to make an equally solid case for the reason(s) behind the obstruction: Drumpfs direct ties to Russia, knowledge of or direct involvement in election interference and a number of financial deals which range from shady to outright criminal. I’m sure that Mueller soon can take the pages on bodily harm and murder out of the law book and then throw the rest of it at Drumpf.
TP: To me this “Nashville Statement,” concocted by some 150 Evangelical leaders, sounds like the death throes of a morally corrupt and terminally ill church, but that could also be wishful thinking on my part.
Cartoon: Still watch the reruns if I get a chance.
Authentic Christianity is not morally corrupt. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity is.
And the Evangelical/Talibangelists are?
Evangelical/Talibangelists are not Christians. They are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the polar opposite of authentic Christians.
Puzzle — 4:50 I was just rolling along but obviously not fast enough!
MoveOn — “To denounce hate is not necessarily to denounce white supremacy.” — AMEN!!! White supremacy to me is about a lack of respect for any other race other than the white race. It is an ideology that says the white race is better than any other and deserving of more advantages for that reason, which is a load of bullshit. I am a white authentic Christian (as opposed to a right wing evangelical pseudo Christian) who knows that I have and have had advantages that others have not had. But I do not believe in the supremacy of any race — we are all children of the Creator, equal in the Creator’s sight. Rev Barber is spot on! Loved his line: “It is time for us to be the moral defibrillators that revive the heart of this Country.”
The Last Word — It is very evident to me that Robert Mueller has a plethora of information and evidence with which to prosecute Drumpf and his cronies, not the least of which are Drumpf’s own ideas that are contained in the draft letter, aka the screed, about the firing of Comey. Drumpf is his own worst enemy . . . perhaps with the exception of Robert Mueller who is leaving no stone unturned in the investigation.
Think Progress — People are people no matter their sexual orientation and all are created by the Creator. People who are so concerned about LGBTQ individuals and those authentic Christians who accept and love LGBTQ individuals just as God created them, should be concerned more about their own sin. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Petition signed. That’s a no brainer.
Cartoon — “Live long and prosper.”
I apologise for not making the draft. I had password ready etc but I slept in until 1030 hours and wasn’t exactly coherent until some time after that. I was so tired last evening that I kept doing face plants on my laptop keyboard and actually didn’t comment on yesterday’s articles until this afternoon. I will go in and set my line up this weekend as I know things will start quickly. At least I previously set 2 protected players.
Thanks all! Hugs!