May 1, 2018

Dear Sarah, I imagine you feel like an innocent victim in all this--I think you got off easy.

Dear Sarah,
MAY 1, 2018 /

I’ve been trying to reach you for a few days, but I know you’ve been busy lately with this whole White House Correspondents Dinner business—which I imagine you’re already pretty sick of talking about.

Honestly, I am too.

Please know this has nothing to do with that.

This is about you—and it’s about Jesus. (Well, sort of.)

You see, I’m a Christian and I’ve heard you claim that you’re a Christian too—and watching you work recently, it got me thinking:

How does she do it?

What I mean is, how do you reconcile your supposed faith in Jesus of Nazareth, with your current position as a mouthpiece for this morally malignant President?

As a professed Christian, how do you make peace with the reality that you regularly mount the largest bully pulpit in the nation—and you lie for a living on behalf of a serial predator?

How do you square your Christianity with the realization that you are the most visible and vocal surrogate for a man who is by nearly every measurement—fully devoid of Christlikeness?

Look, all Christians (myself included), feel some measure of fraudulence as we live this life while claiming we’re trying to perpetuate the character of Jesus in the world.

None of us can avoid the hypocrisy inherent in professing faith in a perfectly loving, compassionate, merciful Savior—while being profoundly flawed human beings. That tension and duplicity are ever-present.

But this isn’t that.
This is about actively working for the opposition.
This is about purposeful betrayal of your namesake.
This is about conspiring with the enemy.

I watch you every week as you repeatedly distort the truth,
as you attack journalists who come carrying facts.
as you vilify politicians who oppose your employer’s malfeasance,
as you categorically defend his every vile statement, every personal attack, every nonsensical Tweet, every baseless firing, every legislative assault.

I watch your face contort with the unmistakable tells of a person who doesn’t believe a word they’re saying; one who’s sold their soul and is now hopelessly trapped in a lie about a lie about a lie.

I wonder what Jesus-story you tell yourself, about the fact that every week you stand in front of a microphone and willingly perpetuate falsehoods that do great harm to millions of people?

That has to be rough—or maybe it isn’t.

Maybe it’s a breeze for you now.

Maybe you’ve convinced yourself it’s somehow all the Lord’s work.

Maybe you’ve been on this slippery slope of deception for so long that you actually believe the lies now too.

Or maybe your Jesus and my Jesus are just that different.

Maybe your Jesus is good with deporting immigrants.
Maybe your Jesus celebrates the poor staying poor.
Maybe your Jesus is fine with affairs with porn stars.
Maybe your Jesus is totally cool with supremacist Cabinet members.
Maybe your Jesus amens the banning and the wall-building.
Maybe your Jesus sanctions the fear of brown people.
Maybe your Jesus is pleased with sick people going broke trying to not die.
Maybe your Jesus applauds the racism and the bitterness and the cruelty.
Maybe your Jesus somehow blesses the lies you broker in on behalf of the monster you work for.

If that is your Jesus, Sarah—then know you are evangelizing brilliantly right now.
You are spreading the Gospel of that Jesus exponentially.
You are a powerful preacher of that Jesus to the watching world.

But for my money, that Jesus is the reason so many people want nothing to do with Christianity anymore.
It’s why the Church is hemorrhaging.
It’s why the pews are emptying.
It’s why people run from Christians.

I imagine you feel that thirty seconds of jokes from a comedian is terrible treatment; that you feel unfairly bullied, that feel that you didn’t deserve to be personally attacked.

I imagine you feel like an innocent victim in all this.

Given the countless hours you’ve spent lying to the world and claiming Jesus while you’ve done it—I think you got off easy.

Author & Pastor:
https://johnpavlovitz.com/

May 1, 2018

CNN 8/17-US intel intercepted Russians re:"conversations w Manafort-encouraging help from Russians"

Big Reminder

1. Most interesting Mueller Q is on "any outreach by...Paul Manafort to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign"

2. Recall CNN scoop Aug'17:

US intelligence intercepted Russians relaying "conversations with Manafort, encouraging help from the Russians":

https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/991321205796950016

May 1, 2018

More Appropriate WH Correspondent's Association Dinner Jokes For 2019

APRIL 30, 2018
MORE APPROPRIATE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER JOKES FOR 2019
TEDDY WAYNE

Good evening, and welcome to the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. After last year’s uproar, I’ve been instructed to use only dignified language and humor considered appropriate for our current cultural discourse.

Low-IQ crazy Kellyanne Conway is here tonight. Kellyanne came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also graced us with her presence. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.

I see Fox News in the back, which is a failing pile of garbage and the enemy of the American people. I never watch Sean Hannity, who I once called “the dumbest man on television!”

A few members of the Trump cabinet showed up this year, such as Liddle Jeff Sessions, who lied to Congress under oath. He is an untruthful slimeball. And there’s Mike Pence, who is weak, both physically and mentally. Don’t threaten gay people, Mike!

I’m so glad to see the Trump family represented. Let’s see, there’s Crooked Don Jr., who embarrassed himself and the country with his email lies. I refuse to call Ivanka Trump a bimbo, because that is not politically correct. And let’s not forget Eric, who should be forced to take an IQ test. Not very bright.

As for the First Lady, I did try and fuck Melania. She was married. I moved on her like a bitch. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

In closing, I will reserve my most civil words for the president himself, who has finally made an appearance at this dinner. Bad (or sick) guy!


with links:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/more-appropriate-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-jokes-for-2019

Good evening, and welcome to the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. After last year’s uproar, I’ve been instructed to use only dignified language and humor considered appropriate for our current cultural discourse.

Low-IQ crazy Kellyanne Conway is here tonight. Kellyanne came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880410114456465411

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also graced us with her presence. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/27/donald-trump-alicia-machado-miss-universe-fox-and-friends

I see Fox News in the back, which is a failing pile of garbage and the enemy of the American people. I never watch Sean Hannity, who I once called “the dumbest man on television!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/business/trump-calls-the-news-media-the-enemy-of-the-people.html
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940223974985871360

A few members of the Trump cabinet showed up this year, such as Liddle Jeff Sessions, who lied to Congress under oath. He is an untruthful slimeball. And there’s Mike Pence, who is weak, both physically and mentally. Don’t threaten gay people, Mike!
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/917734186848579584?lang=en
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984763579210633216
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984767560494313472
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/976765417908776963

I’m so glad to see the Trump family represented. Let’s see, there’s Crooked Don Jr., who embarrassed himself and the country with his email lies. I refuse to call Ivanka Trump a bimbo, because that is not politically correct. And let’s not forget Eric, who should be forced to take an IQ test. Not very bright.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/754303051389861888
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/692312112115380224
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/621783757532626944

As for the First Lady, I did try and fuck Melania. She was married. I moved on her like a bitch. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.


In closing, I will reserve my most civil words for the president himself, who has finally made an appearance at this dinner. Bad (or sick) guy!
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/837996746236182529?lang=en



Hope I got all the links right, but here:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/more-appropriate-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-jokes-for-2019
via:
https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/991080034302603265

May 1, 2018

Wake Up - Before it's too late (1950s edition)

In case you think politics has gotten ugly recently, Willis Smith (assisted by a young Jesse Helms) won this race in 1950 — unseating an incumbent senator in the process.






https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/991316379327516672

May 1, 2018

Chapelle re: Wolf: "I gotta respect the gangsta"

Lovely snippet:

https://twitter.com/The_UnSilent_/status/991165633256620032

May 1, 2018

The "I can't believe that comedienne would say something so vulgar" starter pack.

http://liberalsarecool.com/post/173470835511/have-morals-that-reverse-on-a-dime-the-fuck-your

May 1, 2018

Netanyahu: Don't look here where we're shooting children, look over there at Iran -by Juan Cole

What is going on now is an attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes about that and to con them into spending $6 trillion on another ruinous Middle East conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a notorious warmonger, serial liar and supremacist racialist who used to lead the closest thing Israel has to a fascist party until parties even more extreme got elected to parliament, is attempting to bamboozle the clueless Trump into getting on a war footing with Iran.

Netanyahu’s breathless announcement that there was a potential weapons aspect to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program has been known for a decade and a half.

Netanyahu even seems to have provoked the White House to issue a communique falsely stating that Iran has a weapons program presently, which it promptly had to retract. The incident is so scary because it shows how easy it is to manipulate the erratic Trump and his not-ready-for-prime-time staff. That sort of thing, David Frum said on Twitter, can cause a war. And he should know.

But the retraction is incorrect, as well. Iran in the distant past had done some things that would be helpful if it had launched a full blown weapons program. It never did launch such a program.

...............

So why try to put Iran on the front burner of American war-making? It is a desperate attempt on Netanyahu’s part to divert world attention from the ongoing Israeli Apartheid discrimination against the stateless Palestinians, which it militarily occupies (directly with jackboots and colonial settlers on the West Bank, indirectly with military encirclement and the sniping of innocent protesters in Gaza).

In recent weeks, Israeli snipers have used live ammunition to kill some 40 and wound hundreds of Palestinians who were unarmed and peacefully protesting their imprisonment in the Gaza Strip (70% of their families were kicked out of their homes in Israel and now live in squalid refugee camps while European Israelis took over their houses and farmland and are living it up). The sniping victims have including children, journalists, demonstrators distant from the Israeli confinement fence, and worshipers at prayer with the mention of God on their lips. Shooting unarmed people who pose no threat is a war crime, and doing it systematically amounts to a crime against humanity. So too is the crime of Apartheid described in the Statute of Rome as a “crime against humanity,” and Israel manifestly and robustly practices Apartheid against the Palestinians under its military heel.



the rest:
https://www.juancole.com/2018/05/natanyahu-shooting-children.html

May 1, 2018

Gates To Trump: Offered White House Position Is 'Not A Good Use Of My Time'

When Bill Gates brought up the vacant White House science adviser position to President Donald Trump in an Oval Office meeting last month, Trump immediately offered him the position—only to be rebuffed.

“That’s not a good use of my time,” Gates responded, according to an interview he did with medical site Stat published Monday.



https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gates-told-trump-that-white-house-adviser-would-be-a-good-use-of-my-time
https://www.statnews.com/2018/04/30/bill-gates-vaccine-trump-meeting/

May 1, 2018

Mueller says he needs to question Trump -To see if he acted with "Criminal Intent" when firing Comey

This seems key.

Whether or not Trump would ever be charged w/obstruction...

...Mueller told Trump's lawyers that he needs to question Trump to determine whether he acted with "criminal intent" in firing James Comey:




https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/991276837790765056

May 1, 2018

Trump: "No questions on Collusion"?

13 of the questions are about collusion and there’s no indication it’s an exhaustive list. (Also the questions were leaked by someone who got them from Trump’s lawyers)

44. What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign [incl. Manafort] to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?

45. What did you know about Russian hacking, use of social media or other acts aimed at the campaign?


https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/991270739608309760

https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/991268364722065408

https://twitter.com/amyfiscus/status/991117277880815616

https://twitter.com/neal_katyal/status/991157106861596672

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/questions-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump-russia.html