Comments Which Conservatives Block From Their Blogs For June 14, 2017

June 10

To Joe Carter and his blogpost accusing Senators Sanders and Van Hollen of being ignorantly intolerant of orthodox Christian beliefs when they accused Russell Vought of being intolerant for expressing the belief that Jesus is the only way to God. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition website.

Yes, Sanders and Van Hollen exhibit an ignorance of basic Christian doctrine in their statements against Vought. So does the ACLU. But didn't Vought display intolerance and the same regarding Larycia Hawkins when he suggested that Hawkins, a Christian, did not have a 'prayerful and faithful relationship' with God? After all, Hawkins was explicitly clear in saying that whether one can say if Muslims worship the same God depends on the context of the statement. And yet, most Christians ignored the distinctions and contexts of which Hawkins spoke. After all, in one context, Hawking said something very orthodox regarding the faith and her other statements, because of the context of her statements, did not contradict the statements she made that was orthodox.

We might also look at acts of intolerance religiously conservative Christians have associated with Christianity by the stands they have taken. In particular, many of us religiously conservative Christians have shown intolerance for refugees, despite the fact that it is America's foreign policies that have caused the refugee crisis, and  the LGBT community. The intolerance for the latter was shown by opposing same-sex marriage in society. So now, why shouldn't Sanders and Van Hollen see intolerance in Vought's statements? Yes, we know that Vought was theologically correct in saying that Jesus is the only way to God--though his statement failed to observe that Hawkins agreed with him on that point because he failed to see the distinctions she was making. But having associated other Christian beliefs with intolerance means that belief in Jesus as the only way to God will be viewed with suspicion and greater vigilance than normal.

Yes, we religiously conservative Christians have been exhibiting intolerance toward others in some of the practices and beliefs we have been practicing and promoting. So should we be surprised by the views  Sanders and Van Hollen exhibited in their judgments on Vought?

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June 13

To Joe Carter and his blogpost supporting Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accords and how it is human creativity, rather than government agencies, that can help us produce a cleaner environment. This appeared in the Acton blog.

By itself, Trump's withdraw from the Paris Accords is ambiguous. But along with his dismantling of regulations, including environmental regulations, and his tax cuts, the purpose of his withdrawing from the Accords becomes more and more obvious. Add to that his mistake in using a MIT study on the environmental impact of the Paris Accords in his speech(see [sent invalid link]), his intentions are clearer and clearer. Businesses are not to be hampered or constrained by regulations meant to protect the environment in their search for increased profits.

But something should also be said about the title of the article above. For it presents a false dichotomy between employing human creativity and technocrats. Aren't the technocrats those from agencies like the EPA whose study of the environment produce regulations? And without the regulations, who says that the human creativity involved will be directed toward reducing a business's environmental impact especially where ever increasing profits for shareholders trump most, if not all, other concerns?

It's not that government agencies like the EPA  don't commit errors when producing regulations. But it is that the government can provide a buffer between the people and the business world where government can represent the concerns of the people to the business world. Ideally that is how it is suppose to work. But in today's society where everybody, both big business and the little individual, is on the take, we find that those with the most wealth get the most representation by the government and the rest of us have to live with that.

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To Donald Devine and his blogpost discussing the ideological splits in Conservatism partially caused by Trump’e election and Presidency. This appeared in the Imaginative Conservative blog.

Three points here. First, it seems that in an effort to categorize all of the ideologies that could be associated with conservatism, Devine overlooks a group of neverTrumpers. That group consists of those who, for personal and moral reasons, found themselves opposing Trump. For them, character mattered more than any pretense to a conservative ideology.

Likewise, some who voted Trump because they were voting against the person of Hillary are also overlooked. It isn't just the promise to help that swayed their votes, it was, again, the character of a candidate whom they could not trust.

The short of it is that some who found either candidate too personally objectionable were leery of associating their ideology with character flaws. And so they vote for the other candidate.

Second, the conservative attack on entitlement programs are not very honest. They don't talk about the lack of economic opportunities that some on entitlements face. For example, they don't talk about how gov't assistance programs subsidize corporate payrolls because of the poverty wages being paid by those corporations for certain jobs. In addition, while conflating all entitlement programs together in order to say that we can't afford these, we forget that two entitlement programs are financially self-funded. And both are threatened by corporate interests. Social Security for example is totally self-funded and the only risk it faces is due to the fact that it is the largest holder of federal debt--it even holds more of our federal debt than the Chinese. Since some of this debt was used to pay for unfunded wars where the use of private contractors spiked as well as the use of goods and services from the Military Industrial complex, what we are seeing is the transfer of public funds into private coffers.

Medicare is also self-funded however it is, by law, prohibited from negotiating for lower pharmaceutical prices. Thus, the pharmaceutical industry also gains unnecessary profits at the expense of public funds.

In addition, by longing for the days that preceded the New Deal, one is pining for the conditions that led to the Stock Market collapse of 1929 and the subsequent depression. We should note that the economic collapse of 2008 saw either a prohibiting of regulations that would oversee new financial products or a lack of enforcement of existing regulations. In the end, the bailout given to the financial sector also saw a transfer of public funds to private coffers.

Finally, the assumption made by Conservatives who want to limit government is that government will be run by elites. And thus, to restrict the power of elites, government must be restricted because one cannot guarantee that the right elites will be in power after any given election. And there are liberals who also make the same assumption except that they don't believe in limited government. The condition that allows a democratic nation to be run by elites is that the populace must embrace a passive authoritarianism. This authoritarianism not only promotes loyalty and obedience to elites, it sustains divisions by groups who adhere to different elites.

Now if we, the people, could see our way clear of this passive authoritarianism, both conservatives and nonconservatives would benefit by gaining a measure of independence for the two corporate major political parties: the Republican and Democratic Parties. In addition, if we could free ourselves from this authoritarianism, instead of placing too much reliance on elites, we could see a more participatory political system. And such would ease the need to restrict the power of government lest the wrong group of elites take power.

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To Joseph Sunde and his blogpost claiming that free trade is fair trade. This appeared in the Acton blog.

Free Trade is fair trade for those who benefit the most. But what about those who don't?

Proponents of free trade forget that the United States, with all of its emphasis on freedom by the founding fathers, did not practice free trade at first. Rather, protectionism was employed to allow for American industries to start and become competitive. Without that protectionism, our nation would not have developed its industries either as fast or as far as it did.

Those who would force free trade on undeveloped nations are not promoting fair trade. They are not allowing nations to develop past their current capabilities. Rather, they are 'kicking away the ladder' that allowed their own nation to develop its industries. And by doing so, they are, at least in part,  promoting an economic caste system on undeveloped nations. Undeveloped nations need to use protectionist measures that would allow desired industries to get off the ground, succeed, and then become competitive with their counterparts from the more developed nations.

And it isn't just the undeveloped nations that could benefit from protectionism. Nations that want to revive dead industries because such industries gives balance to their economic portfolio should also be free to employ protectionism.

In the end, it is not the case that either free trade or protectionism are always right or wrong. It is the case that depending on the economic needs and goals of a given nation, both free trade and protectionism have their roles to play in helping a nation develop and sustain a healthy economy. To force free trade on a nation, especially an undeveloped nation, makes that free trade neither free nor fair. After all, is kicking away the ladder fair?

ONIM For June 12, 2017

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

•  The Conservative Christian DUP Party, New Kingmakers Of Westminster? -- Christian Today (UK)
• Facing Heat From Comey, Trump Tells Evangelicals: 'We're Under Siege...The Truth Will Prevail' -- Christian Today (UK)
• Scottish Episcopal Church Permits Gay Marriage In Historic Vote -- Christian Today (UK)
• Cambodians Usher In A Miraculous Moment For Christianity -- Christianity Today
• Hundreds Of New Churches Not Enough To Satisfy Southern Baptists -- Christianity Today
• Bernie Sanders Attacks Wheaton Grad's Stance On Salvation -- Christianity Today
• The Bible Or The Bullet: James Meredith And The March Against Fea -- Reformed African American Network
• Hate-Filled Perceptions Of African-Americans -- Reformed African American Network
• Scott Lively's Crimes Against Humanity Aren't Conservative Christian Outliers  -- Religion Dispatches
• Religious Children Are Meaner Than Their Secular Counterparts, Study Finds -- Guardian
• Filipino Muslim Saves 64 Christians From Execution By Islamist Militants -- Independent
• Pray For Christians In Qatar During Diplomatic Crisis -- Open Doors
• Missional Clarity In The PCA -- Gospel Reformation Network 

World News

• Stop Crying About The Size Of Government. Start Crying About Who Controls It -- Evonomics
• The Republicans Who Urged Trump To Pull Out Of Paris Deal Are Big Oil Darlings -- Guardian
• Antonio Gramsci And The Battle Against Fascism -- Truthdig
• Is Hillary Clinton About To Destroy The Democratic Party? -- Truthdig
• Marines 'Always Faithful' Motto Doesn't Apply To Fellow Females -- Truthdig
• The Language Of Gender Violence -- Middlebury Magazine
• How Dogma Degrades Democracy -- Counterpunch
• Qatar Crisis Explained: What Just Happened And Why It Messes Up Trump's Iran And ISIS Plans -- Haaretz
• NYC: 7 Jewish Activists Arrested Disrupting Israel Day Parade -- Democracy Now
• Court Rules Against Monsanto, Allows California To Put Cancer Warning On Roundup -- CBS Sacramento
• EU Will Ignore White House And Work Directly With US States On Paris Agreement -- IFL Science
• Nikki Haley Warns US May Pull Out Of UN Human Rights Council Over 'Anti-Israel Bias' -- Independent
• An Occupied Hotel In Greece Models How To Welcome Refugees -- Waging Nonviolence
• As The 'Alt-Right' Moves To Violence, Community Responses Matter -- Waging Nonviolence
• Alabama's Republican Governor Just Helped Thousands Of Felons Get Their Voting Rights Back -- Mother Jones
• FDA Approves New Drug For Treating Pill Deficiencies -- Onion
• King: I'm Boycotting The NFL Because Of Its Blatant Bigotry And Anti-Blackness -- New York Daily News
• LGBTQ Israelis Come Out Against Occupation And Homophobia -- +972 Magazine
• Another Climate Change Bomb: Interior Secretary Zinke Signs Alaskan Oil-Drilling Order -- Newsweek
• The Myth Of The Kindly General Lee -- Atlantic
• Man Berates Muslim Girls At Suburban Restaurant -- CBS Chicago
• Indiana Becomes Fourth State To Ban Great Sex -- Onion
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions Suggested He Could Resign Amid Rising Tension With President Trump -- ABC News
• Climate Change Denial, Democratic-Style -- Counterpunch
• California Just Signed A New Climate Change Agreement With China -- IFL Science
• How For-Profit Charter Schools Are Ripping Off California Taxpayers -- Sacramento Bee
• Austerity Has Strangled Britain. Only Labour Will Consign It To History -- Guardian
• Islamic State Claims New Reach Into Iran With Twin Attacks In Tehran -- Washington Post
• Archbishop Desmond Issues Statement For Oscar López Rivera Ahead Of Puerto Rican Day Parade -- Democracy Now
• Killer Drones And The Militarization Of U.S. Foreign Policy -- American Foreign Service Association
• Gillian Triggs Says Australia's Politicians Leading 'Assault' On Democratic Ideals -- Guardian
• Senate Republicans Reject Secretary DeVos' Proposed Education Cuts -- Roll Call
• 'Kill Them. Kill Them All.' GOP Congressman Calls For War Against Radical Islamists -- Washington Post
• Global Publics More Upbeat About The Economy -- Pew Research Center
• The Internet Of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are The Implications? -- Pew Research Center
• British Divided On Brexit Impact As New Elections Loom -- Pew Research Center
• Through An American Lens, Western Europe's Middle Classes Appear Smaller -- Pew Research Center
• Corbyn Defines Doubters As Labour Gains Seats -- Guardian
• While Everyone Was Obsessing Over Comey, Republicans Passed A Bill To Kill Dodd-Frank -- Vanity Fair
• Greece Forced To Kill Public Water Utilities Under EU-Imposed Privatization Plan -- Popular Resistance
• America's Health-Inequality Problem -- Atlantic
• Why We Are Driven To Search For The Truth -- Yes
• Anti-Occupation LGBTQ Activist Block Tel Aviv Pride Parade -- +972 Magazine
• Stop Pretending That The 'Anti-Sharia' Movement Has Anything To Do With Empowering Women -- Huffington Post
• Airstrike Monitoring Group Overwhelmed  By Claims Of U.S.-Caused Civilian Casualties -- Washington Post
• Desmond Tutu Nominates Jailed Palestinian For Nobel Peace Prize 2017 -- Africa News
• Worried About Election Hacking? There's A Fix For That -- Moyers & Company
• The 'March Against Sharia' Protests Are Really Marches Against Muslims -- Huffington Post

James Comey News

• Full Text: James Comey Testimony Transcript On Trump And Russia -- Politico
• Statement For The Record Senate Select Committee On Intelligence -- U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee
• There Is No Indication Comey Violated The Law. Trump May Be About To -- Washington Post
• Comey's Testimony Shows Russia Controversy Is An Anti-Trump Witch Hunt -- CNN
• Here's What James Comey Will Say About Trump's Attempt To Interfere With FBI Probe -- Huffington Post
• The Great Climate Silence: We Are On The Edge Of The Abyss But We Ignore It -- Guardian

President Trump News

• With Trump, A Full-Scale Assault On Protections For U.S. Public Lands -- Yale Environment 360
• The Trump Administration Just Imposed A Massive Tax Increase. You May Have Missed It -- Washington Post
• Trump Misunderstood MIT Climate Research, University Officials Say -- Reuters
• Trump Launches Infrastructure Initiative With Fake Signing Ceremony -- MSNBC
• North Korea Slams Trump's Decision To Pull Out Of Paris Accord As The 'Height Of Egotism' -- Washington Post
• Trump's Infrastructure Shell Game -- AFSCME Now
• Intelligence Officials Rogers And Coats Said They Won't Discuss Specifics Of Private Conversations With Trump -- Washington Post
• Trump Administration Could Permit Oil Companies To 'Assault' Marine Life -- Huffington Post
• Trump Nominates Lawyer Who Defended BP After 2010 Oil Spill To Top DO Environmental Post -- Business Insider
• Trump Repeals Regulation Protecting Workers From Wage Theft -- Huffington Post
• U.S. Forces Appear To Be Using White Phosphorus In Populated Areas In Iraq And Syria -- Washington Post

Pick(s) Of The Litter

• How Biased Coverage Of Terrorist Attacks Drive Us Apart -- Salon
• More Than 80 People Died In A Pakistan Terror Attack Last Night--Where Exactly Is The Hashtag And Solidarity? -- Independent
• US-Led Coalition Admits Killing At Least 484 Civilians In Airstrikes Against ISIS In Syria And Iraq -- Independent
• 50 Years After The Six-Day War: How To Make Peace In The Holy Land -- Truthdig
• The $110 Billion Arms Deal To Saudi Arabia Is Fake News -- Brookings Institution
• Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election -- Intercept
• Federal Government Contractor In Georgia Charged With Removing And Mailing Classified Materials To A News Outlet -- United States Department Of Justice
• Governor Abbott Calls Special Session With Charge To Discriminate Against LGBT Texans -- Human Rights Campaign
• Psychiatric Drugs Killing More Users Than Heroin, Cocaine, Say Health Experts -- Vancouver Sun
• Majority Of British Voters Agree With Corbyn's Claim UK Foreign Policy Increases Risk Of Terrorism -- Guardian
• Another Fracking Time Bomb Lurks Beneath U.S. -- Forbes
• Meet The Cambridge Scientist On Verge Of Curing Multiple Sclerosis -- Cambridge News
• U.S. House To Vote On Bill That Would Eliminate Proposed Predatory Loan Protections -- Southern Poverty Law Center
• Home Office May Not Publish Terrorist Funding Report Amid Claims It Focuses On Saudi Arabia -- Independent
• UTEP Researchers Study Racial Bias In Police Stops -- UTEP Campus Newsfeed
• America's Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic -- New York Times Magazine
• Thousands Trapped By ISIS In Mosul, Iraq -- Human Rights Watch
• Hawaii Becomes First U.S. State To Pass Laws To Fulfill 2015 Paris Climate Accord -- Democracy Now
• Sovereign Native Nations Ignored The White House And Joined The Paris Climate Change -- White Wolf Pack
• On The Anniversary Of The Six-Day War, Recommended Reading For Understanding The Occupation -- University Of California Press Blog
• President Carter, Am I A Christian? -- New York Times
• Trump Funneled Cancer Charity Money To His Businesses, Associates, Report -- Newsweek
• Jewish And Palestinian Peace Activists Are Building Their Own Standing Rock On The West Bank -- Los Angeles Times
• Capturing The Chaos Of The Syrian Civil War -- Truthdig

ONIM For June 5, 2017

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

• How Churches, Politicians And The World Responded To London Attacks -- Christian Today (UK)
• Restored Church For Ancient Christian Community Lifts Hopes Of New Unity In Cyprus -- Christian Today (UK)
• Gay Marriage In Church In Scotland Threatens More Division For World Anglicans -- Christian Today (UK)
• Egypt's Christians Respond To ISIS -- Christianity Today
• A Local Preacher And A Jailhouse Jesus Freak Brought Me To Faith In Prison -- Christianity Today
• Thoughts On Rep. Karl Oliver's Comments -- Reformed African American Network
• Did Pope Francis Diss The President? -- Religion News Service
• As Major Cities Crackdown On Panhandling, People Of Faith Wrestle With Their Consciences -- Religion News Service 
• Strong Religious Reaction To Trump Climate Accord Decision -- Religion News Service
• GOP Congressman On Climate Change: God Will 'Take Care Of It' If It's Real -- Religion News Service
• Getting Your Needs Met -- Mortification Of Spin
• Seattle Reboot: Life After Mars Hill -- Gospel Coalition
• The Church In Ukraine: Crisis, Celebration, And Hope -- Gospel Coalition
• A Pulpit Is Not A Platform -- Heidelblog 
• GOP Lawmaker: The Bible Says 'If A Man Will Not Work, He Shall Not Eat' -- Washington Post

World News

• A Week That Reveals How Rotten Today's Republican Party Is -- Washington Post
• Prominent Feminist History Rejects Israeli Academic Award -- Haaretz
• Don' Say 'Thank You For Your Service' This Monday -- NPR
• Tillerson Declines To Host Ramadan Event At State Department -- Reuters
• Don't Thank Me -- The Twelve
• Noam Chomsky In Conversation With Amy Goodman On Climate Change, Nukes, Syria, Wikileaks & More -- Democracy Now
• Fareed Zakaria: Liberals Think They're Tolerant, But They're Not -- CNN
• White House: Feds Will Step Up Marijuana Law Enforcement -- CNN
• It's Time For Academics To Take Back Control Of Research Journals -- Guardian
• Jared Kushner's Other Real Estate Empire -- New York Times
• Trevor Noah Has A Hard Time With Confederate Memorial Day -- New York Times 
• This Billionaire Governor Taxed The Rich And Increased The Minimum Wage--Now, His State's Economy Is One Of The Best In The Nation -- Huffington Post
• Wave Of Cancellations Hits Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival Due To BDS Pressure -- Haaretz
• Maya Angelou, Poet, Activist And Singular Storyteller Dies At 86 -- NPR
• The Men Investigating Ivanka Trump's Shoe Producer In China Are Missing Or Arrested -- Time
• The Democratic Party Still Thinks It Will Win By 'Not Being Trump' -- Guardian
• Amnesty International: Did $1 Billion Of Lost U.S. Weapons End Up In The Hands Of ISIS? -- Democracy Now
• "Horrific" Increase In World Displacement -- Popular Resistance
• The Judge Who Says He's Part Of The Gravest Injustice In America -- CNN
• Jared Kushner Still Has A Job Because Washington Only Fears Republicans -- Intercept 

Protest News

• The Artist As Prophet -- Truthdig
• The Intercept: Private Security Firm Used Counterterrorism Tactics Against DAPL Water Protectors -- Democracy Now
• Fearless Palestinian Village Of Nabi Saleh Defines Popular Protest -- Mondoweiss

Trump News

• We Already Know Trump Betrayed America -- Mother Jones
• Trump Administration Plans To Minimize Civil Rights Efforts In Agencies -- Washington Post
• Trump's Budget Proposal Includes Mandatory Paid Family Leave -- WFMZ News
• Source: Comey To Testify Publicly About Trump Confrontations -- CNN
• Trump Opens Carolina Coast To Seismic Blasting -- WUNC News
• Trump Dismays, Angers Allies By Abandoning Global Climate Pact -- Reuters
• Trump Just Said Some Truly Crazy Things During His Paris Exit Announcement -- IFL Science
• Trump's Budget: An Assault On The Most Vulnerable -- Liberation 
• Calling Earth A "Loser," Trump Vows To Make Better Deal With New Planet -- Borowitz Report
• Trump's "America First" Infrastructure Plan: Let Saudi Arabia And Blackstone Take Care Of It -- Intercept
• Trump Is Waving His Own Ethics Rules To Allow Lobbyists To Make Policy -- Mother Jones
• Donald Trump Berates London Mayor Over Response To Terror Attacks -- Guardian 

Pick(s) Of The Litter

• 25 Years Of Right-Wing Terrorism In The United States -- Anti-Defamation League
• As C.E.O. Packages Grow, Top Executives Have The President's Ear -- New York Times
• Non-Native Man Runs Over Two Tribal Members; One Died As A Result Of The Incident -- Native News Online
• Sister Of Manchester Bombers: He Wanted Revenge For Killing Of Muslim Children -- Democracy Now
• How Israel Jails Palestinians For Fitting The 'Terrorist Profile' -- Haaretz
• Israeli Doctor Treating Syrians Says Snipers Deliberately Shoot Snipers In The Spine -- Telegraph
• Memorial Day Ignores The Horrors Of Endless US Aggression -- Steve Lendman Blog
• White Nationalist Movement Growing Much Faster Than ISIS On Twitter, Study Finds -- Independent
• Memorial Day, Mayor Mitch Landrieu And The American Future -- Religion News Service
• Mayor Mitch Landrieu Speaks On Confederate Monuments -- YouTube
• Africa 'Subsidizes' The Rest Of The World By £32 Billion A Year, Campaigners Say -- Independent
• Israel Is Not A Democracy -- Haaretz
• The Republican Party's Sickness Of The Soul -- Common Dreams
• Grandmother Who Lost Her Home Because Her Son Sold Marijuana Wins Pennsylvania Supreme Court Case -- Forbes
• Massive Kabul Bombing Follows Reports Of U.S. Plan To Escalate Afghanistan Involvement In Year 16 -- Slate
• James Hansen, Father Of Climate Change Awareness, Calls Paris Talks "A Fraud" -- Guardian
• Noam Chomsky: Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy -- Nation
• London Attack: 12 Arrested In Barking After Van And Knife Attack -- BBC