The National Cathedral: Trump

“Have We No Decency?”: National Cathedral questions Americans’ silence over Trump’s racism

The leadership of the Washington National Cathedral has written a public letter about Trump. Here's part of it ...

The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage. On the other, those aligned with the President seek to downplay the racial overtones of his attacks, or remain silent.

As faith leaders who serve at Washington National Cathedral ¬– the sacred space where America gathers at moments of national significance – we feel compelled to ask: After two years of President Trump’s words and actions, when will Americans have enough?

[....]

When does silence become complicity? What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.

As leaders of faith who believe in the sacredness of every single human being, the time for silence is over. We must boldly stand witness against the bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us, especially when it comes from the highest offices of this nation. We must say that this will not be tolerated ....

It's worth a read. I'm not an Episcopalian, but I am proud of the leadership of the National Cathedral for taking a public stand.

Bernie at the debate

I'm looking forward to seeing all of tonight's Democratic debate, but here is just a part in which Bernie Sanders defends the idea of Medicare for all ...



I am for the idea of Medicare for all. Some are worried that taking away private health insurance from those who like it will be unpopular. I'm sure it will be. But we in the US have to get over our Puritan work-ethic heritage and stop thinking about health care as a kind of reward for having a good job (or being lucky enough to be wealthy). As Bernie says, health care should be a right for everyone. It is that in almost every other country in the world.

AG Barr: capital punishment

Conservative Catholic Attorney General William Barr has reinstated the federal death penalty, directing the federal government to resume executing prisoners. I guess he didn't get that memo from Pope Francis in which he declared the death penalty unacceptable in all cases. But then, William Barr's God is Trump now. It's stuff like this that exemplifies the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement.

The Mueller hearings

I haven't watched the full hearings yet, but here's a pretty good synopsis from Lawrence O'Donnell ...







Trump said afterwards that the hearings were all positive for him. I don't know if he was just lying for his dead-head horde, or if he is just so unhinged that he actually believes it. Things did not go well for him.

Mueller affirmed that the Russians meddled in our elections in order to help Trump and hurt Hillary. He affirmed that Trump and his minions fell all over themselves trying to cooperate with the Russians to that end. Mueller affirmed that Trump participated in numerous instances of obstructing justice, trying to cover up his coordination with Russia and trying to doom the investigation (including that Trump lied in his written replies to Mueller's questions). Mueller affirmed that he did *not* exonerate Trump and said that Trump could be arrested and tried for obstructing justice after he is out of office (unless he is re-elected - SOL).

Trump should be impeached. There is so much more to find out about what Trump has been up to, especially financially, and that information will be more easily obtained if there is an official impeachment impeachment investigation ongoing. Maybe that will annoy swing voters, maybe the Senate won't do their duty, but it doesn't matter. Trump's a crook and he should be held accountable. It's the right thing to do.

Ex-Republicans & the Squad

There's been much in the news lately about "The Squad" .... the four freshman Congresswomen of color who Trump has been attacking ... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Most of that news has been about Trump's accusations of anti-Semitism against Ilhan Omar (irony alert) for sometimes daring to criticize the government of Israel, and also about the Photoshopped images of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being raped on the pages of a secret Border Patrol Facebook group.

The Squad has also been in the news because of the hand-wringing of disaffected Republicans, former Republicans, and Independents. They fear that these women have been dragging the Democratic party to the Left, and that Trump will basically run against *them* in the upcoming election and will win.

Ex-Republicans, lend me your ears (or eyes) .....

First, I think these Congresswomen are great and so do most Democratic voters. The same goes for Bernie and Elizabeth Warren. Their ideas of Medicare for all and of health services for illegal migrants are not commie-pinko ideas. Virtually every other country in the world offers universal health care to their citizens, and also gives migrants health care when needed. That isn't uber-Left, that is rational and humane.

Second, I get it. You guys had your party eaten alive by Trump and now you have no political home. But you had better get used to the idea that the Democratic party is by definition Left (check out the party's official platform) and we will not let you talk us into becoming the Republican-lite party instead. My advice to you is to suck it up and take your own political party back from Trump, because you can't have mine.

Who is Ghislaine Maxwell

- Trump, Melanis, Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell

Who is British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and how does she tie together sex offender Jeffrey Epstein with Trump, the Clintons, the British roual family, and others? Politico has an in-depth article about her that is worth a read ... Meet the woman who ties Jeffrey Epstein to Trump and the Clintons

All these people with so much money and power, with almost limitless options in life. What have they chosen to pursue? Mostly f*cking around.

Handmaid's Tale: refugee

I'm still watching The Handmaid's Tale, and I recommend it to anyone interested. It's hard to watch because it's so grim, but it's very good. I was especially struck by a scene in the episode I watched tonight.

After a civil war here in the US in which the religious conservatives won, women are treated horribly .... not just them but also LGBT people and others as well ... but as one would expect, everyone who could tried to escape the country. In this episode, one of the main characters, Moira, after having been forced to be a prostitute, is able to escape to Canada.

I could not help but think of the migrants at our southern border, many of them women and their children, trying to escape a situation that they consider so awful that they are willing to go through extreme hardship in order to flee to a better place. When they come here, thanks to Trump, they are treated like shit.

But in The Handmaid's Tale, Moira the refugee to Canada, is treated so differently - like a human being ...



Shame on the Republicans. lawmakers and voters, who support Trump in his heartless immigration policies.

All Over The World

The horror of Trump is really getting to me, so for just a bit I'm going to imagine a better future, a time just after the 2020 election, when there will be no more Trump. There will be celebrating all over the world :)

Jeff Lynne, the Electric Light Orchestra, Hyde Park, 2014: All Over The World ...



Everybody all around the world
Gotta tell you what I just heard
There's gonna be a party all over the world
I got a message on the radio
But where it came from, I don't really know
And I heard these voices calling all over the world

All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody, everywhere, is gonna feel tonight

Everybody walking down the street
Everybody moving to the beat
They're gonna get hot down in the U.S.A
We're gonna take a trip across the sea
Everybody come along with me
We're gonna hit the night down in gay Paris

All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody, everywhere, is gonna feel tonight

London, Hamburg, Paris, Rome
Rio, Hong Kong, Tokyo
L.A., New York, Amsterdam
Monte Carlo, Shard End and

All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody, everywhere, is gonna feel tonight

Everybody all around the world
Gotta tell you what I just heard
Everybody walking down the street
I know a place where we all can meet
Everybody gonna have a good time
Everybody will shine 'til the daylight

All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody, everywhere, is gonna feel tonight

In the news

- Trump and Epstein partying, '92

Trump, thinking Robert Mueller would be testifying before Congress yesterday, scheduled one of his hillbilly-hate rallies for last night in which he led his dead-heads in a new chant ... "send her back" .... meant to incite the mob against the four female members of Congress by whom he's been obsessed. He is encouraging violence against these women.

Meanwhile, Trump's favorite pervert buddy, Jeffrey Epstein, will be living in jail while he awaits his day in court. Just imagine what compromising details he may offer (accused rapist) Trump if he becomes a collaborating witness in a plea deal. I think this is part of what Trump is trying to deflect our attention from with his race baiting.

Oh, and newly released court documents show that Trump and Hope Hicks were directly involved with Michael Cohen in paying Stormy Daniels hush money to keep her quiet about Trump having sex with her (while he was married) ... you know, those illegal campaign contributions for which only Cohen has been punished. So far.

Maybe Epstein and Trump will end up sharing a cell.

Why it's racist

What Trump said about the four female Congresswomen of color *is* racist, and we all know that, even those Republicans who pretend they don't, but here is a segment from tonight's PBS NewsHour that explains exactly why this is so ...

More on the racist remarks

I feel like I'm watching the slow motion train wreck of our country, caused deliberately by one loathsome individual - Trump - and helped along by a cadre of Republican lawmakers and Republican voters.

As it turned out, only 4 House Republicans (and Justin Amash/Independent) voted for the House resolution rebuking Trump's racist remarks. The majority of Republican lawmakers won't turn on Trump because they care more about being in power than about anything else. And his voters? Republican support for Trump rises after racially charged tweets: Reuters/Ipsos poll ... they loved his racist remarks.

Republican avatar

As I'm renting the tv series The Handmaid's Tale, I'm also watching Trump. It's eerie how closely this series from a book written more than 30 years ago is mirroring what's happening now in our society. Latest example? Trump's attack on four Congresswomen.

Doubtless you've read the tweets and heard him go on about it in person - he wants the four women of color, all Americans, three born here and one who immigrated when she was a child, to go back to where they came from .....



The Congresswomen Trump attacked respond ...



As Congresswoman Pressley said, Trump wants to distract us from his treatment of immigrants at the border, his recent rape charge (E. Jean Carroll), the arrest of his good buddy and fellow pervert Jeffrey Epstein, his effort to do away with legal options to apply for asylum, his pathetic showing in 2020 presidential polls, etc.

And he wants to feed the dead-heads in his base, which we might as well just call the Republican party, since 87% of Republicans approve of Trump. Let's not pretend that they put up with his negative words and behavior because his policies are so important to them. They enjoy his cruelty to immigrants, they like that he bullies and sexually assault women, they like his white nationalist rhetoric, they like that he's a financial crook, that he lies with impunity, that he gets away with it all. That's what they wish they could do as well. He is their avatar.

More on this from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker: A Racist in the White House

The creep ...

... in the White House - what's he been up to lately?

Well, he just fired his Labor Secretary (he lied and said Acosta resigned) because he wants the whole scandal of his friendship with sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to go away. Good luck with that.

- Oh, and he's sending out shock troops on deportation raids of migrant families ... families with kids ... because he thinks that makes him look powerful and manly. Good luck with that too.

- And then there's the PR junket on which he sent his minion Mike Pence to visit border facilities holding migrants. Pence, his liaison with all the nutball Christians who voted for him, is meant to put the Good Housekeeping stamp of approval on the awful conditions there. That's not working out either ...



My ex-husband's parents were kept as children in a Japanese internment camp on the West Coast. It feels like we're going back to a really dark time, all thanks to Trump and his deplorables.

Megan Rapinoe on Rachel Maddow

Trump and Jeffrey Epstein

- photo source: Business Insider ... Jeffrey Epstein: Trump once praised billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors for liking women 'on the younger side'

Epstein Arrest Is a Worry for Donald Trump

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

During the 2016 presidential campaign, an unidentified young woman filed a suit against Trump in which she alleged that he raped her when she was 13 at a party at Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse in Manhattan. Trump denied the claims and the woman later dropped the suit because, her lawyer said, she was intimidated by death threats. The Trump camp described her allegations as “untrue.”

Handle with Care

Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra), Live in Hyde Park 2014, does a tribute to the Traveling Wilburys (George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Lynne) with Handle with Care ...



xx

Happy 4th

From Captain America ...

The Handmaid's Tale

The tv series I've just started renting is The Handmaid's Tale ...

an American dystopian drama web television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood ....

In the near future, fertility rates collapse as a result of sexually transmitted diseases and environmental pollution. With this chaos, the totalitarian, theonomic government of Gilead establishes rule in the former United States in the aftermath of a civil war. Society is organized by power-hungry leaders along with a new, militarized, hierarchical regime of fanaticism and newly-created social classes, in which women are brutally subjugated, and by law are allowed to work only in very limited roles - and not allowed to own property, handle money, or read ...

I had read the book when it came out but had never gotten around to watching the tv series. It's actually pretty good, if grim, and now, in this Trump administration, it seems to have a new relevance.

Here's a trailer ...

The news

So much in the news. I especially liked this story about a young female arctic fox. I wish all the news was that interesting and cheerful, but it's pretty much the opposite, like the story of Japan killing whales again: Japan resumed commercial whaling after 31 years. New photos show what that looks like

But some of the worst recent news is, of course, about Trump and his nightmare administration ...

There's Trump's war on the USDA and their climate change research: Would Rather You Not Know Climate Change Affects the Food Supply.

And then there's the stupid, money-wasting, dictator-themed effort by Trump to convince us he has balls (good luck with that) by turning the Fourth of July into his own personal military vanity project ...



And then there's the recent information on the cruel conditions in which Trump is holding migrants at the border. Here's Rachel Maddow on the present situation ...

Barbie goes to the G20

Isn't she precious ...



I have no words ...



Official pic of the world's leaders. And her. ....