Though many conservatives and followers of Trump are currently rejoicing, this is a very sad time in our nation. For the embattled Kavanaugh appointment to the Supreme Court not only reflected poorly on our own government, it showed how low many Americans could stoop once tribal loyalties were challenged. The whole event has caused me to enter into an indefinite state of lividity.
The appointment showed that our government is a sham. The Republicans showed no intention of vetting Kavanaugh once he was nominated by Trump. From that point on, the Republicans, especially those in the Senate Judiciary Committee were determined to push Kavanaugh through the process faster than Obama had tried to fast-track the TPP when he was President. The Republican committee members hardly asked Kavanaugh a question despite his non-judicial combative demeanor and attitude shown toward those who did not believe that he was entitled to the position. And it is also despite the apparently credible testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and questions about Kavanaugh's past drinking. I am not sure if his gambling was ever an issue for the committee. Yes, some of those committee members may have shed crocodile tear or two for Ford. But most of their condolences were heaped upon Kavanaugh for having Ford's testimony even be included in the process.
But the committee's failure to properly vet Kavanaugh alone did not make the process a sham. It was the deliberately flawed FBI investigation that was called on to verify the testimonies given in the hearing. According to Keith Koegler, a longtime friend of Ford, 7 people, including himself, who knew about the alleged attack prior to Trump picking Kavanaugh and they were known to the Judiciary Committee and the FBI. And yet they were never contacted about being interviewed (click here for the source). In addition, neither Ford nor Kavanaugh were interviewed. Neither were those who knew about Kavanaugh's drinking, which is important because part his sworn testimony was about his drinking habits (click here for the source). Why were so many excluded from FBI questioning? It was because of the restrictions put on the FBI by the Senate Republicans and possibly the White House.
But what tops the totally flawed process is the fact that the follow-up FBI investigation is being kept from the public. Thus the old Republican men from the committee have guaranteed, at least for now, a total lack of accountability and transparency for their decisions. Let them growl and grumble as they will, they have kept the most important part of vetting Kavanaugh a secret.
Of course, we could also include the behavior of Trump who mocked, ridiculed, and misrepresented Ford during a rally in Mississippi (click here for the source). The same Trump who wants libel laws to be changed to possibly intimidate journalists who write stories that challenge his Administration's narrative felt free to mock Ford. And in doing so, he adds a new level of intimidation for those women who would be willing to report how they have been assaulted.
And then there is Trump's statement that today is a wonderful time for women while it is a very threatening time for men. No other statement could so easily show our President's tenuous relationship with reality, it is a relationship that he wants the nation to share.
Now normally, we could respond to such governmental malpractice by pledging to vote these people out. But not so fast my fellow people, the reaction to Ford from rank and file conservatives simply shows that many of them have become soulless while empowering the Republican party and while celebrating Capitalism's maximization of profits. Perhaps that is why so many conservatives were far more upset at the consensual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky than they were at the possible sexual abuse of Christine Ford. Why the disparity? The answer is tribalism. That is because the perpetrator in the Clinton/Lewinsky case was a member of rival tribe, he was fair game. Kavanaugh was not.
And thus came the barrage of challenges to, or should we say against, Ford, some of which are important to answer but many of which showed no awareness of, let alone sensitivity to, what happens to a girl or woman when she is traumatized by sexual and/or physical assault. Our humanity is not demonstrated by how we treat those who belong to us. Rather our humanity is measured by how we treat those who belong to other, especially rival, groups. That criteria shows how cold and soulless many conservatives have become in their quest to help their Republican Party gain more and more power.
Conservative remarks I ran across criticized Ford for being mousey and liberal and for putting herself in the wrong situation at the wrong time, and for forgetting key details that many of us would easily forget on a good day. Other remarks trivialized what was done to her as being merely insignificant and not worthy of notifying the police. Still other remarks called the assault a stupid act of a young kid.
One more observation should be made here. Some, not all or even most, of the blame for this national tragedy rests with my fellow religiously conservative Christians. Why? It is because our approach to the Christian faith has produced some unforeseen yet toxic consequences not just on themselves, but on much of society. From our promoting of authoritarian personality types to a toxic patriarchy to an insularity and self-imposed isolation from sources of reality that come from nonconservatives, we have influenced many conservatives to follow our lead. Because we have yet to learn how to properly share society with those who do not share our faith, we have pushed the vulnerabilities that come with our approach to the faith onto many outside the faith.
And what is worse than that is that our insularity has led many of us to embrace the self-righteousness embraced by the Pharisee from the parable of the two men praying (click here for the parable). It's not that we have a monopoly on toxic and lethal self-righteousness, it is that because we claim to believe the Scriptures, we should know best not to follow down the chosen by that Pharisee. And yet, because we want to prove how much we deserve to rule over others, we follow a damnable path.
I knew that Kavanaugh was being less than honest when he kept trying to portray himself as an honorable boy scout who liked beer. How can someone honestly claim that he had always shown respect for women when he already admitted to drinking too much at times including those times when he was underage. Because I avoided following my father's struggles with alcoholism, I've always controlled my drinking. And yet, out of immaturity or selfishness or whatever else I have not always shown every woman I've met the respect she deserves. And I live with regret for those times. But here we should remember that most of the ways by which we show disrespect for women involve neither breaking the law nor violence. So how is it that a sometimes drunk Kavanaugh, who was once involved in an altercation in a bar, can say with a straight face that he has always shown respect for women? That makes almost as much sense as saying that being an alumi of a female classmate or playing Devil's Triangle had nothing to do with sex.
www.flamingfundamentalist.blogspot.com
(Only one person pictured is a Christian Fundamentalist. And so which one pictured is not like the others)
Showing posts with label Brett Kavanaugh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brett Kavanaugh. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
America's Investigate-Gate.
While the Democratic and the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee play out a Kramer vs. Kramer battle for the title of the King of Morality, and while Trump was working on a new NAFTA agreement, another battle ensued among the American people. Should the FBI investigate the claims made by both Dr. Ford and Justice Kavanaugh?
The side that claims to have a monopoly on morality said 'NO!' Justice Kavanaugh had suffered enough injustices from the "fake" allegations being made according to them. Thus, they saw, and still see, no need for the FBI to look into the matter.
Of course there was another reason why conservatives didn't want the FBI involved. It is because their leader, President Trump, has convinced them that, like the Fake News media, the FBI cannot be trusted in this matter. But then again, outside of Trump and his lackeys, who can be trusted?
Certainly, there were other reasons why conservative supporters of Kavanaugh didn't want the FBI to investigate. The reasons center on Ford's inadequate credentials. She's a liberal, she has a go fund me page, she can't remember everything and she didn't present any corroborating evidence--with the exception of passing a polygraph. But most of their objections have nothing to do with the facts and logic that were in her allegations.
In the reality, Republican opponents of Dr Ford object to any further investigation because for a long time, they have felt besieged and persecuted by their nonconservative counterparts. By blocking Trump's nominee, these Republicans feel like they have become the Rodney Dangerfield of political parties--oh how they so quickly forget how they treated President Obama.
They hear the persecution in the late night monologues. They hear the persecution in the federal court decisions that strike down Trump's executive orders. And then there is the fake new media whenever they report something negative on their orange knight in tarnished armor.
With all of the bad press, they feel alienated. And yet, they don't recognize that the worst of the treatment they receive now is simply a partial payback for how their media darlings, like Rush, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, have been talking about nonconservatives for decades.
In other words, before Trump came to power, he had a more than ready audience who would follow him even, according to Trump, if he was to shoot someone on the streets of NYC. Trump bragged about that loyalty and his followers never seemed to have bat an eye. The election of Trump was to be paybacks for all of the infringement that nonconservatives had forced on them while Obama was President.
On the other hand, we have the liberal elite. Their comedians make a living off of the foibles of President Trump and the alienation of conservatives in their audiences. We have other liberals and leftists who can only see the Anti-Christ when they look at conservatives. And we have a Democratic Party that rightly complains about Republican authoritarianism but employs its own authoritarianism in order to keep their own flock in line so that the "right" nominee is coronated the Party's nominee for President. Thus the election came down to the only person Trump could defeat vs the only person Hillary could defeat and it didn't end in a tie.
And the current divide we have in our nation is even more magnified in the blogs. For there are blog participants from all ideologies who want a real discussion vs those from all ideologies who say anything to either persuade people or piss them off. And that just doesn't exist in the debate regarding whether the FBI should investigate Ford and Kavanaugh, it is present in many other discussions.
In the end, why should the nation's parent figures, the elected officials, want to stay together when their kids can't stand each other? And the reason why the kids are so angrily pointing fingers at each other is because they have forgotten what they look like in a non-magic mirror.
In the end, we are hurting, with 'hurting' not being my first choice of words, ourselves by blindly following our two-party system. This political and ideological tribalism is causing us to devour each other and ourselves. And then there is the authoritarianism from all sides. While trying to convince their followers that they, our two major political parties, are vanguards for all that is good and honorable, they are merely acting as proxies for those with wealth and power. And we don't have enough independence of thought to even see what they are doing let alone to leave both political parties.
Our democratic ship has struck too many icebergs of our own making and is sinking. So it isn't our ship that has failed us, we have failed it; we have failed democracy. But we have always failed it, it is that more of the chickens are coming home to roost. And our past and present treatment of the marginalized, such as people of color, the LGBT community, the poor, and others should have been our first and convincing clue that we are the ones who have failed ourselves. We are sinking and because of our disregard for outsiders, there is no one there to listen to our cries for help.
The side that claims to have a monopoly on morality said 'NO!' Justice Kavanaugh had suffered enough injustices from the "fake" allegations being made according to them. Thus, they saw, and still see, no need for the FBI to look into the matter.
Of course there was another reason why conservatives didn't want the FBI involved. It is because their leader, President Trump, has convinced them that, like the Fake News media, the FBI cannot be trusted in this matter. But then again, outside of Trump and his lackeys, who can be trusted?
Certainly, there were other reasons why conservative supporters of Kavanaugh didn't want the FBI to investigate. The reasons center on Ford's inadequate credentials. She's a liberal, she has a go fund me page, she can't remember everything and she didn't present any corroborating evidence--with the exception of passing a polygraph. But most of their objections have nothing to do with the facts and logic that were in her allegations.
In the reality, Republican opponents of Dr Ford object to any further investigation because for a long time, they have felt besieged and persecuted by their nonconservative counterparts. By blocking Trump's nominee, these Republicans feel like they have become the Rodney Dangerfield of political parties--oh how they so quickly forget how they treated President Obama.
They hear the persecution in the late night monologues. They hear the persecution in the federal court decisions that strike down Trump's executive orders. And then there is the fake new media whenever they report something negative on their orange knight in tarnished armor.
With all of the bad press, they feel alienated. And yet, they don't recognize that the worst of the treatment they receive now is simply a partial payback for how their media darlings, like Rush, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, have been talking about nonconservatives for decades.
In other words, before Trump came to power, he had a more than ready audience who would follow him even, according to Trump, if he was to shoot someone on the streets of NYC. Trump bragged about that loyalty and his followers never seemed to have bat an eye. The election of Trump was to be paybacks for all of the infringement that nonconservatives had forced on them while Obama was President.
On the other hand, we have the liberal elite. Their comedians make a living off of the foibles of President Trump and the alienation of conservatives in their audiences. We have other liberals and leftists who can only see the Anti-Christ when they look at conservatives. And we have a Democratic Party that rightly complains about Republican authoritarianism but employs its own authoritarianism in order to keep their own flock in line so that the "right" nominee is coronated the Party's nominee for President. Thus the election came down to the only person Trump could defeat vs the only person Hillary could defeat and it didn't end in a tie.
And the current divide we have in our nation is even more magnified in the blogs. For there are blog participants from all ideologies who want a real discussion vs those from all ideologies who say anything to either persuade people or piss them off. And that just doesn't exist in the debate regarding whether the FBI should investigate Ford and Kavanaugh, it is present in many other discussions.
In the end, why should the nation's parent figures, the elected officials, want to stay together when their kids can't stand each other? And the reason why the kids are so angrily pointing fingers at each other is because they have forgotten what they look like in a non-magic mirror.
In the end, we are hurting, with 'hurting' not being my first choice of words, ourselves by blindly following our two-party system. This political and ideological tribalism is causing us to devour each other and ourselves. And then there is the authoritarianism from all sides. While trying to convince their followers that they, our two major political parties, are vanguards for all that is good and honorable, they are merely acting as proxies for those with wealth and power. And we don't have enough independence of thought to even see what they are doing let alone to leave both political parties.
Our democratic ship has struck too many icebergs of our own making and is sinking. So it isn't our ship that has failed us, we have failed it; we have failed democracy. But we have always failed it, it is that more of the chickens are coming home to roost. And our past and present treatment of the marginalized, such as people of color, the LGBT community, the poor, and others should have been our first and convincing clue that we are the ones who have failed ourselves. We are sinking and because of our disregard for outsiders, there is no one there to listen to our cries for help.
Monday, September 17, 2018
ONIM For September 17, 2018
10 Best Fact Checking Sites Found Here.
If you are not sure about the validity of a news story linked to below, you can use mediabiasfactcheck.com to check out the credibility of the source of most of the stories linked to here.
Christian News
World News
Israel-Palestine News
Pick(s) Of The Litter
Just For Fun
If you are not sure about the validity of a news story linked to below, you can use mediabiasfactcheck.com to check out the credibility of the source of most of the stories linked to here.
Christian News
- A Statement On Social Justice And The Gospel
- An Open Letter To John MacArthur About Social Justice -- Witness: A Black Christian Collective
- On "Social Justice And The Gospel" Part 1 -- Witness: A Black Christian Collective
- Gospel And Social Justice--Fundamentalist And Progressive Distortions -- Evangelion
- New Evangelical Statement Against "Social Justice" Distortions Of The Gospel Causing Controversy -- Susan Wright On The Right
- Even More Social Justice And The Gospel -- Unsettled Christianity
- John MacArthur's 'Statement On Social Justice' Is Aggravating Evangelicals -- Christianity Today
- A World Of Caution For "Culture Warriors" From The Apostle Paul -- New Wineskins
- We Will Not Yield -- First Things
- The Gold Virgin -- First Things
- 9/11/18: A 17-Year-Long Lesson That Anger And Fear Do Not Keep Us Safe -- Sarah Thebarge
- The Irony Of Evangelical Idolatry In The White House -- Faith On The Fringe
World News
- Republican Florida Governor Candidate DeSantis Resigns From Congress -- Reuters
- Sweden Is What Happens When Liberals Let The Far-Right Set The Agenda -- Huffington Post
- Trump Administration Wants To Make It Easier To Release Methane Into Air -- New York Times
- Parent Fights To Show Movie To Educate Community On Disabilities -- WFMZ News
- House Republicans Seek More Tax Cuts As Election Nears -- AP News
- Emails Link Former Homeland Security Official To White Nationalists -- Atlantic
- International Court Says It Is Undeterred After Bolton's Threatens U.S. Sanctions -- Reuters
- The Revolution Was Televised: Why Didn't The Radical TV Of The 1980s Last? -- Guardian
- Putin Says Russia Identified Suspects In Novichok Poisoning -- Huffington Post
- Wall Street Is The Definition Of A Ponzi Scheme (Literally) -- Truthdig
- Active Shooter Study: Semi-Automatic Rifles More Deadly -- Sun Herald
- Manafort Seeking Plea Deal With Special Counsel That Would Avoid Cooperation Ahead Of Second Trial: Sources -- ABC News
- Turkey Reinforces Military In Syria's Idlib After Ceasefire Call Fails -- Reuters
- European Parliament Votes To Punish Hungary For Undermining Democratic Values -- Telegraph
- Drug Executive: It's A 'Moral Requirement' To Charge Patients The Highest Price -- Los Angeles Times
- Psychologists Say No To Torture -- Truthdig
- Unfiltered: 'The Democratic Plantation Is Really Worse Than The Plantation I Grew Up On' -- Yahoo News
- Diane Feinstein Acknowledges Having A Secret Brett Kavanaugh Document -- Huffington Post
- Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Denies Having A Gambling Problem -- Huffington Post
- Acting ICE Director Attends Annual Media Event Of Anti-Immigrant Hate Group FAIR -- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Kavanaugh Contradicts White House Account Of Credit Card Debt, Raising More Questions -- Yahoo News
- 'We're Not Going Anywhere': Stills Will Continue Kneeling -- AP News
- 'I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma To Pay The Bills.' This Is What It's Like To Be A Teacher In America -- Time
- U.S. Plans To Pay Mexico To Deport Unauthorized Immigrants There -- New York Times
- After Delaying Obama-Era Protections, Betsy DeVos Loses Student Loan Lawsuit Brought By 19 States -- Time
- Congress Gives Sacred Apache Land To Foreign Mining Company -- White Wolf Pack
- Latinos Are More Likely To Believe In The American Dream, But Most Say It Is Hard To Achieve -- Pew Research Center
- New Study: High Minimum Wage In Seattle Caused No Employment Losses -- Economic Opportunity Institute
- Russian Pussy Riot Activist Hospitalized In Grave Condition; Poisoning Suspected -- Los Angeles Times
- Census: Rich Get Richer In Pennsylvania's Cities, Especially In Bethlehem -- Morning Call
- Education Levels Of U.S. Immigrants Are On The Rise -- Pew Research Center
- Prosecutor: Border Patrol Agent Charged With Murdering 4 -- US News And World Report
Israel-Palestine News
- European States Urge Israel Not To Demolish Bedouin Village -- Reuters
- US To Shut Palestinian Mission Over Lack Of Peace Talks -- Yahoo News
- Report: Israel Treating Al-Qaeda Fighters Wounded In Syrian Civil War -- Jerusalem Post
- Thousands Of Palestinians Protest On Gaza Coast, Navy Fires Toward Flotilla -- Haaretz
- Destroyed Gaza Airport Symbolizes Peace Hopes -- Arab News
- Trump Vents Over Leaks As Woodward Pushes Back On Criticism -- ABC News
- As Hurricane Florence Nears, Trump Calls Puerto Rico Response An 'Unsung Success' -- Huffington Post
- Trump Says He Won't Give Aid To Palestinians Unless They Agree To Peace Deal -- CBS News
- Don Lemon Has Just 1 Question For Trump After His Latest Wild Claim -- Huffington Post
- Mike Pence Is Worse Than Donald Trump, Says Omarosa -- Independent
- Trump Administration Took Nearly $10 Million From FEMA's Budget To Support ICE, Documents Show -- USA Today
- Trump Administration Adopts New Definition Of Anti-Semitism In Schools -- Politico
- Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory Denying Puerto Rico Hurricane Death Toll -- Yahoo News
- Graham Departs From His Best-Friend McCain, Goes All In On Trump -- AP News
- Trump's Conspiracy Theory On Puerto Rico Death Toll Makes Even Florida Republicans Squirm -- Yahoo News
Pick(s) Of The Litter
- Man Killed By Officer In Wrong Apartment Was Beloved Churchgoer, Working Professional -- ABC News
- China: Massive Crackdown In Muslim Region -- Human Rights Watch
- Confrontation Caught On Camera After Man Denied Bus Ride Because He's Black -- KTRK News
- US Threatens To Arrest ICC Judges Who Probe War Crimes -- AFP
- Syria War Crimes Investigators Amass Strongest Evidence 'Since Nuremberg' Against Bashar Al-Assad -- Telegraph
- How The U.S. Government Misleads The Public On Afghanistan -- New York Times
- Inside The FBI: First Responders And 9/11-Related Illnesses, Part 1 -- FBI
- Federal Deficit Soars 32 Percent To Nearly $1 Trillion Due To GOP Tax Law, CBO Reports -- Guardians Of Democracy
- North Carolina Hog Farmers Spray Manure Around Black Communities; Residents Fight Back -- Democracy Now
- To Save Ourselves It's Time To Rethink Our Economic System, Warn Scientists -- Science Alert
- The Underbelly Of The Sex-Trade Industry -- Truthdig
- Feds Holding 12,800 Children In Detention Centers, Report Says -- CBS News
- U.S. Has Seen Evidence Of Syria Preparing Chemical Weapons In Idlib: Envoy -- Reuters
- FEMA Cuts Off Housing Funds For 987 Puerto Rican Families Who Fled Hurricane Maria -- NBC News
- Florence's Dangerous 'Flooding Is Only Going To Get Worse,' Official Warns -- ABC News
Just For Fun
- Americans Want Alert System Enabling Mueller To Text Them When This Emergency Is Over -- Borowitz Report
- Mike Pence Struggling To Reckon With Vision Of Prophet Muhammad Revealing That VP Destined To Become Next President -- Onion
- World History Professor Opens Class With Trigger Warning For Socialist Students -- Babylon Bee
- Mission Trip Successfully Converts Entire Village Into Republicans -- Babylon Bee
- Man Who Intentionally Divided Nation For 8 Years Calls For Unity -- Babylon Bee
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