There have been reports floating about that Saudi Arabia and the Vatican have agreed to build churches for Christians in Saudi Arabia. These reports are currently being denied by the Vatican:
The Vatican has denied making a deal with Saudi Arabia to build churches for Christian worshippers in the Arab country.
Reports in Middle Eastern media claimed a historic agreement had been made between Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa of the Muslim World League.
But a spokesperson for the Vatican said the report was ‘false’…
But the fact that even rumors of such a thing exist indicate the sea-change which is currently taking place in Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We can’t say for sure where all this is going, but it seems pretty clear to me that bin Salman wants to reform his Kingdom. Don’t expect pluralist democracy and casinos in Riyadh any time soon, folks. The Saudi people, themselves, are very conservative in outlook. But I think we will see ever more relaxation of the extremist Islamist activity which has ruled to social and political roost in Saudi Arabia for some decades now. It appears that once upon a time the Saudi monarchy cut a deal with the Islamists (ie, don’t try to overthrow the monarchy, we’ll let you be as Islamist as you like)…now, it seems that this deal is being undone.
There are quite a large number of Christians in Saudi Arabia. I once knew a priest who had actually said Mass for them. All very, very quiet – the Christians keep their heads down and as long as nothing is out in the open, the authorities look the other way. Most Christians there are foreign or children of foreigners…Saudi Arabia having quite a lot of immigrants who do the more difficult and dirty work of living. But, I also understand that even some Saudi natives have converted – which is something almost unheard of in history. Any attempt to actually open a Church in Saudi Arabia will be done with great care on both sides, to prevent an overt reaction. I’ve long said that the cure of Islamism is to have a Church in Saudi Arabia (a Synagogue, too…but let’s take it one step at a time). Once that happens, then there can be real peace between Islam and the West. I hope this all works. I think it will work; but, we’ll just have to see.
Rosie O’Donnell is alleged to have done the same sort of campaign finance violations that got Dinesh D’Souza arrested. We’ll see if there’s equal justice under law.
You know me and polls – but some recent polling indicates that Trump and the GOP are starting to rise against the Democrats. My view remains that the number of GOPers now exceeds the number of Democrats in the United States for the first time since the 1920’s. If I’m right, then the pundit class will be shocked in November. If I’m wrong…so, what? I don’t make my living by punditry.
You might have missed Judge Ellis ripping Mueller’s team a new one:
A federal judge on Friday sharply criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case in Virginia against President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and openly questioned whether Mueller exceeded his prosecutorial powers by bringing it.
“I don’t see what relationship this indictment has with anything the special counsel is authorized to investigate,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in the Eastern District of Virginia said.
There’s nothing to investigate so, yes, Mueller is exceeding his authority – which was to investigate the paranoid delusion of Trump-Russia. So, anything he’s done is going to be outside the scope of that. Nice to see some judicial push back against Mueller’s flailing investigation.
Baghdad isn’t doing so badly these days. We did have a hand in this…and it shows what the Middle East still might become.
UPDATE: NY’s Attorney General has resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you’re really missing out…we’ve got Tweets from Trump from years ago slamming the guy, we’ve got the AG’s Tweets about how he fights for women’s rights…and everyone is having a ball with it. More importantly, this is one of the guys who was supposed to get Trump. Seems to me that everyone who goes after Trump ends up losing.
Blogs For Victory 
Hopefully the churches aren’t being built in Saudi Arabia just to turn around and be attacked by Muslim fanatics. Christians have been persecuted for so long in the area, it would be nice for a reprieve from the brutality that has been shown them in that part of the world.
Amazona and I often reference The First Rule of Holes; (if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging) and The Second Rule of Holes; (if your adversary is in a hole, hand him a shovel); but you seldom see these rules mentioned in an article.
Good catch! And funny commentary.
Yeah, I thought you’d get a chuckle out of that.
Oh, dear….another OUTRAGE !!!! to be, well, outraged at.
When a professor was on a crowded elevator and someone asked which floors people wanted and he replied “lingerie” it was—you guessed it—-OUTRAGEOUS !!! You see, on the elevator was also a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies—and what she had studied was evidently that when white men joke about getting off on the lingerie floor it is …..well, it is something OUTRAGEOUS !!! She did what any endangered person might do when faced with, well, DANGER !!! and she FROZE! To her credit, she did not fall to the floor and fold into a fetal position whimpering in terror, but OMG, people! She FROZE! Because what he said was so OUTRAGEOUS! She is, of course, demanding a full-fledged cowering apology, partly due to the fact that the perpetrator of this crime is not only a man but is also white. For which he is probably also expected to apologize.
My personal response might be that she was upset because of the implication that all women wear lingerie which insulted her choice of white Y-fronts (as they are called in England) but that would be cruel. And sexist, because. Well, because.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/30325/professor-tells-harmless-lingerie-joke-elevator-ben-shapiro
Once upon a time, lepers had to wear bells to warn people when they were coming, so people could avoid them. I’m thinking we should adopt that for SJW warrior/wimps, so we can tell from a distance when they are approaching and make it easier to just avoid them.
An addendum to the WhinyPants litany—-I’m looking at wallpaper patterns online and one commentary on a pattern of trees and branches snarled at the irony of us cutting down millions of trees so we can put pictures of trees on our walls.
To which my response was “get a life”.
These people remind me of truffle pigs, but at least when the pigs go rooting around for something they come up with something of value
What struck me immediately about the case is that both people possess fairly useless degrees…hers being a bit more useless than his, but neither of them being degrees in anything that people can use. They are only of use to people in government-funded sinecures. Given this, they both have lots of time on their hands…
I don’t think a degree in political theory is useless, not if it actually studies and analyzes political theory and teachers others about it. However, i don’t really see that happening very much, as few if any Dems have the slightest understanding of the political system they support or its sordid and tragic history.
I did just read a good article by a man with a degree in political history. As I have often said, here and in other places, I think Facebook is a blight and a danger. I’ve seen it literally take over peoples’ lives, as activities in their lives don’t seem to be valid until they have been posted and they are incapable of going more than an hour or so without checking their Facebook accounts to validate the lives of others. And lately we have been hearing about the privacy violations of Facebook, which only add to the dangers of putting too much personal information online by Facebook addicts, information ranging from photos of babies and young children in various stages of innocent nakedness showing up on child porn sites to thieves using posted information about trips to know the best times to rob houses, to more sinister uses of tracking the lives of people and their associates.
This article touches on the latter and its malignant aspects.
The original Panopticon, designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, was an architectural mechanism of power that allowed a central authority to constantly monitor those under its control. And as Michel Foucault observed, the unceasing possibility of observation induces “a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.” Consequently, “the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action.” Those held within the Panopticon never know when they are under observation, but they always know that they may be so.
Thus, they are not only subject to the manipulations of the overseer, but their existence within the Panopticon is itself a form of conditioning. As Foucault notes, those whose behavior is determined by the possibility of observation become part of the exercise of the power of their observer. The dungeon’s whips and chains become immaterial, residing instead in the psyches of the inmates who wield the implements of oppression upon themselves, and thereby cooperate in the use of power against themselves.”
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/05/21428/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute
Those of us who read Orwell back in the old pre-internet, pre-Facebook, pre-security camera days were horrified at the aspect of Big Brother, at the signs saying BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Now is it accepted. It’s just a way of life.
The author touches on another aspect of online life: emphasis mine
The impulses and instincts of human life in small tribal groups and villages are being channeled through modern technology. Online outrage is mostly about the psyche of the enraged; it is the human equivalent of a small dog attacking a squeaky chew toy as if it were a rat—a pantomime of the vermin-killing they were originally bred for. Just as each new day is another opportunity for dogs to maul their toys, so too those addicted to online rage always need a new fix. The rush of self-righteous wrath—and the rush of power felt when a target collapses under the mob’s assault—is the point. To be cruel in a good cause is delightful. Consequently there is an online industry of outrage mob directors, always looking for a new target.
Zero Hedge has a pretty comprehensive analysis of the current state of the Mueller
investigationwitch hunt.ICYMI: From this morning’s Morning Joe
Joe Scarborough …… “the Founders long envisioned the possibility of a tyrant being elected and becoming President of the United States……..He added that “the Founders “never let their imaginations be darkened by a Congress at the same time being so compliant when a chief executive with autocratic tendencies went in and did the sort of things that Donald Trump did.” Therefore, “these Republicans not only owe an apology to this nation, they owe an apology to their children.”
Mind you, Scarborough and his ditz fiancee were in full, frothing support of the last President who declared that he could govern with a “phone and pen”…….. but Trump is the autocrat.
Now it was “conservative” Steve Schmidt’s turn and he did his best to ramp up the hysteria:
“We’re talking about vanquishing enemies by the President of the United States. The enemies are his fellow Americans which he swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and Americans aren’t just connected to each other in this time. We’re connected to each other through the generations and we have an obligation to the generations of Americans not yet born to build a stronger country and the abdication of that responsibility, the Founders predicted, that one day, we would have a President Trump. What they could never have imagined is the weakness, the submissiveness of this class of quislings who hold the title United States senator who are complicit in the degradations of our institutions, complicit in the sundering of the nation. We have never seen such weakness, such submissiveness, and none of these people will ever have an oil portrait unless there’s extra wall space at the sewage treatment facility on the grounds of the White House.”
Comedy Central is not this funny
…we have an obligation to the generations of Americans not yet born .. Does this include an obligation to let them BE born?
Quislings and sundering and degredations, oh my!
I have a kind of secret mechanism for figuring out who my enemies are. There are the people who openly declare that they want to kill me, for starters. That would be most Muslims—–calm down, Mark, I know you work with some very friendly Muslims, but numerically speaking the percentage of Muslims disagreeing with the order that all infidels should be killed is a minority. Then there are the radical Leftists who declare that conservatives do not deserve to live. I find that not too far from the “wanting to kill” me category, though lacking in the admission of wanting to be the ones to pull the triggers. Or deny me a new heart, or whatever. Then there are the vague, abstract enemies, the bigots who just hate all Republicans, or all Catholics, or all straight people, or “all” anyones.
I think of all on the Left as enemies of freedom so I guess they could be considered my enemies as well, as I believe in personal liberty and the Constitution. But that is due to their choices, not mine.
But I have never even come close to thinking of Donald Trump as my enemy. I can’t think of anyone, at least anyone sane, who would, unless that person is a terrorist. I am sure there are a lot of people in his general cross hairs, such as purveyors of fake news, hysterical rabid TV personalities masquerading as news people, heads of state of nations in conflict with us, and of course Rosie O’Donnell. I see Trump and myself as being on the same side, not as enemies, as I watch with approval his efforts to steer the nation back to Constitutional governance. And by the way, I recognize that it is this effort, and its successes so far, that have the Left, including Steve and Joe and Mika, absolutely freaking out. Sarin would scare them less than a Constitutional United States.
I have to wonder just what Stevie thinks these quisling spineless gutless complicit cowardly weak submissive Senators should actually DO, Constitutionally that is. He pays lip service to the Constitution, but funniest thing, there is nothing IN the Constitution that says a president can be removed from office because people don’t like him. The only “sundering” of our nation is being attempted by the Left, which is now totally dedicated to proving that a house divided against itself cannot stand by creating as much divisiveness as possible.
And hysterical spittle-flying insane ranting such as Schmidt’s is nothing more or less than his effort to contribute to that cause.
I think I view Islam more as an honorable enemy – as opposed to the left within the West, who are dishonorable enemies. I can fight or befriend a Muslim; I can’t really do anything except fight the left.
We certainly have very different ideas of “honorable”. I find no honor in a political movement wearing a thin veneer of religion that advocates the killing of women who have been raped or in some way upset the men who see themselves as their masters, or in promoting and approving of the vicious and cowardly practice of using bombs to kill, often indiscriminately. It’s hard for me to apply the word “honorable” to a movement that is intent on world domination and pursuing either subjugation or killing of those who do not agree. I wouldn’t consider it “honorable” to come to this country, attend our schools (often on American money) claim friendship with Americans, date American women, enjoy American life, and then do the Monkey Dance of Joy as our Twin Towers fell. When American Muslims respond, overwhelmingly, in favor of suicide bombings and attacks on America and think 9/11 was justified, I don’t immediately think “well, that’s honorable”.
You might think you have befriended a Muslim, until it is time to choose between you and fulfilling the imperative of Islam. Many guards at Guantanamo “befriended” Muslims there, who said they were deeply impressed at learning that Americans, like them, love family and God and country, who professed true friendship—but who admitted that if released they would happily kill these new friends.
I find no honor at all in a belief system that wants to eliminate the nation of Israel and every Jew on the planet. When “moderate” Muslims agree with the wish for all Jews to return to Israel so they can all be killed in the same place, so Muslims won’t have to hunt them down around the world to exterminate them, I find that far less than an honorable belief.
I knew Muslims who went to school in Denver, dated friends of mine, went to parties with us and were quite friendly. As a matter of fact, two of them left pregnant girlfriends behind when they went back home to marry honorable young Muslim women. But while in this country, they treated American women like whores, using them and tossing them aside. Beneath the smiles and the charm, they had nothing but contempt for Americans—-who thought of them as friends. So honorable.
It is not possible to be a Muslim without studying the Koran and being part of Muslim culture, even in America. That tells me that Muslims accept the more violent and bigoted aspects of Islam, because they have read it, have studied it, have had it part of their lives. Yet most leftists in the West are leftists because they have bought into the lies told them by the masters at the top, not because they understand, accept and agree with the brutal realism of the movement. The ugliest parts of the left are the fringe, while most who vote Dem in this country are good people, not liars, not sneaks, not people who celebrate watching terrified people leap to their deaths from tall buildings, not people who find honor in butchering their daughters because they wear makeup, not people who want all Jews exterminated and think it’s OK to throw homosexuals off rooftops. Yes, they are annoying, and yes, they are ignorant, but I think only those who are the most visible are truly malignant, even fewer understand the system they support.
I notice that you pick out “the Left within the west”, which struck me as odd. You seem to find the Western left more evil than, say, Marx and Lenin and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot, some of whom were architects of leftist political philosophy. Our homegrown Leftist public figures might be vile and despicable in many ways, but as far as I know none of them have gone out and killed people, or even called for the killing of people, or even celebrated the killing of people. Not like so many millions of “honorable” Muslims.
They are different – different religion, different civilization. And Islam and the West have warred since the time of Mohammed, and will probably war, off and on, until the End. But I know what the Muslim is fighting for and can set against it what I wish to fight for and while we can’t ever have entire peace, we can have long truces…and mutual understanding. I think what I’m trying to get at is that a Muslim, as different as he is from me, is still completely human and understandable…far different from a Western Left which thinks in ways I can’t really understand, at all.
When you’re attempting to differentiate the least offensive aspects of the extremes of two different (but apparently compatible) ideologies, I’m thinking the first Rule of Holes applies. But, then again, given that I live in a bright red county in a bright red state, I don’t have much exposure to either, so it’s kind of difficult for me to relate. I wouldn’t deliberately seek out either to associate with.
I’m thinking more Richard the Lionheart vs Saladin; that is how I view a proper relationship between a Christian and a Mohammedan…keeping in mind that Richard had the stomach to fight Muslims as they fought him. At the end of their battles, Saladin saying that if he had to lose his lands, he’d rather lose them to Richard than to any man alive. Of course, a chivalrous Saladin must be contrasted with such beasts as Lala Mustafa Pasha, who had Marco Antonio Bragadin flayed alive after he had surrendered on terms of the honors of war.
But, still, human – even if I were defeated and enslaved by Muslims, I’d still be able to be human…I would not be forced to mouth lies in order to live. If the Left wins, I will be forced to endorse lies, or be tormented.
“…if I were defeated and enslaved by Muslims, I’d still be able to be human…I would not be forced to mouth lies in order to live….”
Really? You might want to rethink that statement, given the Islamic mandate to either convert or kill.
And if the Left wins, they win only political control, which can be wrested from them when enough people are fed up enough to rise against them. At least in this country, the Left has not backed its agenda with guns, or threatened to kill people who don’t knuckle under. Stalinist-style Leftism might be more dangerous to those who don’t submit, but even then, I find mouthing political beliefs I don’t truly share less offensive than mouthing religious beliefs that I do not have, just to stay alive. The Left is pretty happy with people just going along with their nonsense, while Islam demands actual submission and overt acceptance of its religious aspect as well as its political goals and judicial system, all of which are intertwined so they cannot be separated.
I also didn’t start out talking about which poses the greater threat, either to me or to the nation. I was talking about which is more “honorable” and my personal opinion is that there is no honor in Islam, though some Muslims may, on a personal basis, exhibit honor. And I agree that Leftist is not honorable, either, but I also think that no matter how defective the economic system of the Left is, and has proven to be, at its core was always a true desire to alleviate the suffering of the poor. The “solution” is fatally flawed, and efforts to implement it have only added to the misery while elevating some very bad people to great power, which has caused the deaths of many millions in one way or another, but at its heart its motives were good.
The very heart of Leftism, when you dig down to its core, is control over economics. Yes, in real life that demands control over people. But the core of the philosophy is not that every person must be brought to emotional and spiritual and physical belief in the system, or be killed. I see Leftism as the inevitable cascade of Unintended Consequences of trying to make an unworkable system work, complicated by the inherent character weaknesses of human beings. I see Islam as an official mandate to demand, at the point of a sword, full and absolute acceptance of a mixture of a religion, a political system and a judicial system, all of this not just resulting in loss of liberty but actually being based on abandonment of liberty.
And a priest would tell you he knows what Satan is fighting for and can set against it what he wishes to fight for, and still not consider him “honorable”. Someone can be completely candid about his goals, but if those goals are evil and his tactics reprehensible he is not being “honorable”.
Spook, I think that what we think of as radical Islam is really a much greater part of Islam in general, while what we recognize as radical American Leftists are a much smaller part of Western lefitsm than the whole.
Put it this way—-in a conflict between followers of Islam and followers of Stalin, I think most Muslims would remain in the conflict, knowing the teachings of Islam and its history, and most American leftists would turn away from Stalinism after knowing its teachings and history. In other words, Islam is bone-deep and an inherent component of Muslim identity, while to most Western leftists their political belief system is superficial and primarily social.
And even if one thinks that Western Leftism and Islam are comparable, then both would be dishonorable and neither would be trustrworthy.
And even if one thinks that Western Leftism and Islam are comparable
I’m not sure about “comparable,” but they are, at least for the time being, compatible, to the extent that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Both want to destroy western civilization for entirely different reasons. In that regard, I find both ideologies contemptible and well worth risking my life to help defeat. On a more upbeat note, I do have the feeling that, at least at the present time, we’re winning.
I guess I am more scornful and contemptuous of the one that might out-and-out kill me, vs the one that just wants to screw things up while irritating the daylights out of me with a toxic mash of stupidity and hatefulness.
I’m not saying I respect either one, but I certainly can’t call either one honorable, either, and on the dishonorable scale I put Islam way WAY higher than simple mindless American leftism—higher being the more dishonorable and despicable.
Yes, Mark, I know you work with some Muslims you like and think they they like you. And I’m sure they do like you. But would they defend you? Remember, we heard endless blah blah blah about “moderate Islam” and “moderate Muslims”—yet few if any ever stood up to decry the violence and hatred of their religion, the slaughter of innocents, the cowardice of bombers. Their silence made them complicit in the terrorism and atrocities and in the obsession with genocide regarding all Jews and all non-Muslims and even a lot of Muslims—–even if they are nice people to invite to a barbeque.
I guess I am more scornful and contemptuous of the one that might out-and-out kill me, vs the one that just wants to screw things up while irritating the daylights out of me with a toxic mash of stupidity and hatefulness.
And yet Leftists governments have murdered exponentially more people than Muslim terrorists. You are 75 times more likely to die while out for a walk than at the hands of a Muslim terrorist.
I’m not trying to defend one vs. the other. Both have an end goal that must never be allowed to be reached. As individuals we don’t have any say in the actions of terrorists, but we at least have our vote to keep those who would destroy our way of life from within from from attaining positions of power. And should our vote not be enough, we have the Second Amendment.
Spook, I was using Mark’s words, “western Left”. I agree, the Leftist regimes in the East have been murderous. I specifically named several. Stalin alone set a pretty high benchmark of murder, though his followers have tried to catch up. But the “western left” has, at least so far, not implemented pogroms against opponents.
I also refer not just to terrorists, but to official philosophies of each—Islam and Leftism.
If fully implemented, Leftist governments might well kill a lot of people, but that is not a part of the manifesto. For example, Stalin didn’t kill his millions because they refused to bow to Leftist political governance, he did it primarily because he needed the resources of the Ukraine to pursue his other agendas. The people were just in the way. The USSR did kill a lot of people who offered resistance to their politics, but the Communist Manifesto did not direct them to do so. These decisions were based for the most part on who was in charge, not on following an official directive. And for the most part, when people didn’t seem to pose a threat to Leftist governance, they were allowed to live.
Islam, on the other hand, has official directives to either kill or convert everyone in the world.
I contend that it is the toxic mix of politics and religion that makes Islam more dangerous. It is a lot more compelling to link world domination with religious salvation than just with political views on how to govern nations.
Here’s one of our own dishonorable Muslims:
Democratic National Committee (DNC) deputy chair Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota sported a T-shirt calling for the elimination of national borders while walking in a May Day parade on Saturday.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Monday published a video of Ellison greeting parade marchers in Minneapolis while wearing the shirt, which read, “yo no creo en fronteras.” That translates to “I don’t believe in borders.”
That happens to be the Democrat Party’s position too.
And another radical leftist bites the dust with the resignation of NY AG Schneiderman. Strange though the report on MSNBC doesn’t indicate what party he belongs too.
Cluster, I just ran across the following statement by Joe Scarborough, and thought you’d get a kick out it as it seems to be quite opposite of what Joe and The Bimbo engage in every day on his show. In a discussion on MSNBC about a site where people discuss politics with some degree of respect and sanity, this was said: emphasis mine
At this point, Joe Scarborough jumped in and hit the nail directly on the head:
Eddie, you have just made Bari Weiss’s point, that you disagree with the way Bari Weiss views the world, so you’re going to help her view the world more the way you view the world. The entire purpose of the exercise is to have honest conversations with people, and to not question their morality, or their wisdom just because they don’t view the world exactly the same way that you do.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/30380/watch-msnbc-guest-just-showed-why-intellectual-ben-shapiro
But your quotes from their show indicate that what they do, actually, day in and day out, IS question the morality or wisdom of people who don’t view the world exactly the same way they do. Not just question, but attack, ridicule and demean. He seems to be trying to wear hats for both positions. doesn’t he?
I saw that segment with Eddie Glaude yesterday and what Eddie said to Bari Weiss absolutely defines the left, and what prompted that response from Joe. Bari is a sharp young lady and wrote a book about Jordan Peterson and the desire amongst many to abandon identity politics, saying that many people think of these issues differently to which Eddie abruptly said –
“No, let me tell you how to think of those issues”
It could not have been scripted any better and Bari was surprised, and Joe jumped in with a rare moment of clarity
But alas, this morning they are back to questioning the moral character of Mike Pence for defending Trump. So all is well.
So what Joe inadvertently told us that he is not as stupid and biased as his show’s character. He really does understand things, but they don’t make him a popular MSNBC host. so he plays by the script.
In other words, he is a media whore.
Feel free to delete the word “media” if you like.
The RUSSIANS are fighting back:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawyers for Russian company Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, formally entered a “not guilty” plea in federal court Monday in a case special counsel Robert Mueller probably never thought would happen……..Mueller may now have to try the case, and Concord’s lawyers have put the special counsel on notice. The Russian company’s lawyers intend to invoke “discovery” to obtain U.S. intelligence about what they knew of Russian activities.
This is hilarious. According to Joe Scarborough, “Robert. Mueller III is the smartest man in Washington.”
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/09/russian-collusion-trial-robert-mueller-first-casualty/
Everyone just has to sit back and think about this one:
There is a picture of Trump this morning with the 3 enthusiastic North Koreans who were just released. There is a date and time set for Trump to meet with Kin Jung Un and the prospects for a denuclearized North Korea is a real possibility, and this was accomplished without firing a shot.
Had this been Barack Obama, the press would be glorifying the magnificence of his deft ability to “cooperate with the world”. Obama would be beatified and we all know it. Yet today, not even a mention on Morning Joe.
There are POS’s and then there’s George Will:
It is said that one cannot blame people who applaud Arpaio and support his rehabilitators (Trump, Pence, et al.), because, well, globalization or health-care costs or something. Actually, one must either blame them or condescend to them as lacking moral agency. Republicans silent about Pence have no such excuse.
There will be negligible legislating by the next Congress, so ballots cast this November will be most important as validations or repudiations of the harmonizing voices of Trump, Pence, Arpaio and the like. Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.
Who are the F***king people.
Poor George. He seems to represent a new category of dementia. Now, in addition to Early Onset Dementia we have Trump Onset Dementia, and while the first is tragic the second is just plain ugly.
For most of the last few decades I actually admired George Will as a voice of reason. I’m beginning to wonder if it was all an act or if he really is suffering from some sort of dementia. One does have to wonder how someone who has publicly identified as a Conservative his entire adult life has such vitriolic hatred for a President who is implementing conservative policies and appointing conservative judges at a rate not seen in my lifetime. To use an old expression, it doesn’t compute.
I agree. It is sad to see someone I used to respect and admire degenerate into this kind of nasty, snarling, irrational idiot. Pence is “horrifying”? Gee, it sounds like George himself needs a safe space and a coloring book.
I have feeling this is going to be repeated all over the country for the next few months:
Recently in Colorado two Dem contenders for the open Governor’s seat have run TV ads. Neither has had much to say about the political policies or philosophy of the potential candidates. One is running against the NRA and one is running against Trump.
As in not even pretending to do anything else. As in saying Coloradans need to be protected from Trump.
I’m kind of happy to see Dems putting all their eggs in the Hate basket, counting on support just for their hatred of the NRA, or of Trump, or—most likely as time goes on—both of them. If they stick to these positions, and Trump keeps winning his battles, it will be fun to watch and see how the strategy works.
The guy whose ads have been running the longest started with an ad saying he “took on the NRA twice—and won”. In his second ad, he explains that he fought for the law limiting magazine size and some other silly symbolic thing I can’t remember now. What I found most interesting, in a “I have a feeling this is the kind of crap we are going to hear a lot more of” way, was his claim that the people who argued against him were “sent” by the NRA.
Between him and the woman (whose name is Kennedy, BTW) I can see the Colorado race for governor being very ugly and packed with lies and accusations. It makes me wonder if they know something I don’t know, as usually the Dems don’t have to do much to win in Colorado, given the impotence of the Colorado GOP. Hickenlooper won by never saying a word about policies and just running as Howdy Doody, wearing a straw hat several sizes too small and pretending to ride a grocery store pony, or jumping out of an airplane strapped to some guy’s chest. He didn’t win the election so much as standing by looking goofy while the GOP ran the most inept campaigns imaginable for both governor and Senate. They did such minimal advertising a lot of people didn’t even know who the GOP candidates were—the black guy and the banker were about as close as a lot of people ever got to identifying them.
Watch your local people and notice how many of them, even for state positions like governor, are really running against Trump.
I have a pretty funny image in my mind of the bafflement, confusion and distress in the board room of Dick’s Sporting Goods these days. They evidently thought they could straddle the gun/anti gun debate by pandering to the anti gun crowd and still selling their handguns, shotguns, etc. to people who believe in the 2nd Amendment.
I doubt that any of them even considered the possibility that companies like Springfield and Mossberg would simply cut them off and refuse to sell them any of those guns Dick’s had decided they could sell while appeasing the anti-gun freaks. How’s that working out for you, Dick’s? Hopefully soon other manufacturers will follow suit, and Dick’s can use all that space in the old gun section for—–well, for something. It looks like they won’t be selling much ammo, either. And now they’ve changed their lobbying activities and hired a gun control lobbyist. As a lot of people who fish and camp also shoot, they won’t be heading to Dick’s to buy lures and sleeping bags. Maybe Dick’s can pick up the slack selling snow boards and skis to urban types who only go outside to go to resorts to slide down snowy hillsides.
In the meantime the Alyssa Milano threat to the NRA, that her massive rally of like-minded (make that “like-feeling” as I don’t think there is a lot of “mind” involved) hysterics were going to show up at their convention and make them wish they had never gone. She had maybe a dozen or so acolytes and a few dozen curious who wandered over to see what the screeching was about, and the NRA people all had a great time and, curiously, never felt threatened at all.
One article about Dick’s attributed the Rule of Holes to Will Rogers, so, Spook, we are in good company.