If religion compels your support

if religion compels your support

Think Progress reports: Trump and the Religious Right have made the Religious Left unavoidable.

These days, nobody’s laughing at the Religious Left.

 

Granted, the core catalyst for this shift was something few expected: the election of Donald Trump. His rise caught many by surprise, and sparked innumerable signal fires within activist spheres—a metaphorical call to arms against an enemy who threatens virtually every progressive cause at once.

 

One year later, that shift — combined with continued support for Trump among many evangelical leaders — has proven to be a game-changer for the lefty faithful. Although many have mistakenly lifted up a hypothetical Religious Left as a mirror image of the Religious Right (which attained power over the years through electoral victories), progressive people of faith found themselves at their most influential as agents of protest, not power accumulation. When secular activists sounded the horn to mobilize against Trump, a bellowing symphony of shofars, church choirs, and koras had already filled the air.

 

At long last, the Religious Left has awakened.

 

Read the article …

 

 


If religion compels your support
for a rotten regime that would thwart
the fulfillment of freedom
by piling excretum
on top, then it’s time to abort.

Mary Boren, 12/13/17

 

Even a Dog Knows Better

even a dog knows better

Roger Cohen of the New York Times makes the case for intelligent disobedience “when immense power is in erratic and belligerent hands.”

Jim Kutsch, the president of The Seeing Eye in Morristown, N.J., the nation’s oldest organization training guide dogs for the blind, told me recently: “In all other cases, the human gives a command and the dog is expected to obey that command.” He continued, “In the case of the Seeing Eye dog, the dog is obligated to decide whether the command makes sense. The dog needs to stand still, or turn left or right, and lead me away from danger.”

 

Over months of training, dogs are taught to problem solve rather than obey commands. They are shown the dire consequences of unswerving obedience. Of course, as Kutsch put it, “There has to be a serious reason for the dog to invoke intelligent disobedience.”

 

The world spent the first half of the 20th century learning the moral and legal centrality of disobedience for the preservation of civilization. At a time when President Trump talks about the United States being “locked and loaded,” betrays a fascination with nukes, shows contempt for the law, and equates American greatness with American military power above all (compare what’s happening to budgets at the State Department and the Pentagon), a reminder is in order.

 

Continue reading
In Trump World, the Need for Disobedience

 

 


 

If the voice of the master relays
an instruction that clearly betrays
perspicacious opinions
then, unlike Trump’s minions,
a seeing eye dog disobeys.

Mary Boren, 12/13/17

 

Meanness and What That Portends

mean trump

Our Donald J. Trump is an ass;
It’s clear he has simply no class.
His tweets laced with lying
Are just amplifying
His ego; he’s crude and he’s crass.

He denigrates allies and friends;
The right wing’s extremes he defends.
What’s left of our image
Gets lost in a scrimmage
Of meanness and what that portends.

Minorities upset his dream
Of white people reigning supreme;
Although he’ll deny it,
His actions imply it,
All wrapped up in false self-esteem.

He threatens of nuclear war
With bombast it’s hard to ignore.
It seems he’s a glutton
For pushing the button
That could land us all at death’s door.

America could fall behind
With good sense and kindness maligned.
We failed with our voting
To keep Trump from gloating;
He brings out the worst in mankind.

 

© 2017 Charlie Rankin

Image Source

You’re a mean one, Mr. Trump

Another Merry Christmas season in 45’s America. Sing along to the 2015 video by brentalfloss. Rhyming resisters, submit a verse of your own to be added below.

 

 


 

#1
You’re a mean one, Mister Trump.
Your heart’s a lump of coal.
Your brain is addlepated, you have maggots for a soul,
Mister Trump
Your promises are empty lies, division is your goal.

#2
You’re a vile one, Mister Trump
You’re a xenophobic heel
Your foul misogynistic ways and racist rants are real,
Mister Trump
I wonder are you capable of knowing how to feel.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/4/17

 

Trump and justice? Not on good terms.

Esquire reports: Trump’s Disgusting Retweets Suggest a Larger Problem Is Brewing

President Trump does not know much about anything, and he doesn’t much care what he does or doesn’t know. He is the Low Information Voter President. That makes his free-range access to Twitter, a cesspool of unverified information and rampant hate, a serious problem—particularly when he can amplify some of the worst information available on the platform to his 44 million followers. We saw this during the campaign, when he would retweet accounts with the handle “White Genocide” and pass on disgusting misinformation about black-on-white crime. But today he seems to have retweeted his way down a new, incredibly dark path.

 

In three successive early-morning social posts, the President of the United States shared unverified videos from the deputy leader of a British far-right hate group called “Britain First.” The name probably caught Trump’s attention, as he’s been clinging desperately to his “America First” shtick as the tempests of the Russia probe and a thousand daily scandals swirl around him. But Britain First, according to The Independent, has been condemned as an extremist nationalist group. The account tied to the deputy, Jayda Fransen, is partly automated and frequently shares unverified videos that claim to show immigrants and Muslims attacking (white) people in Europe.

 

That’s what the leader of the free world shared today. To be clear, there is no evidence these videos are real or show what they purport to show.

By the way, “OCS,” according to The Independent, means “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Not for the first time, you can read “Christian” here as “White.” This whole episode has jarring similarities to Trump’s treatment of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After hundreds of Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, and those who think it’s a good idea to rub shoulders with them marched armed through an American city, and after one white supremacist killed an anti-racist protester with his car in what even Attorney General Jeff Sessions called an act of domestic terrorism, the president suggested there were “very fine people on both sides.” That is to say, the President of the United States believed good people march alongside Nazis.

 

And let’s not even bother with the argument that it’s “just Twitter.” We saw more evidence just this week that his tweets are seen by the world at large as official communications from the president. Our Dear Leader spends his days tweeting complaints about his coverage on CNN, attempting to undermine it and the free press in general as “Fake News,” and some outside our borders are taking notice. The Libyan media cited Trump’s tweet attacking CNN International to question whether a CNN report on modern-day slavery in that country was accurate.

 

Read the full article.

 


 

Trump and justice? Not on good terms.
He thinks of brown people as germs.
If you burn church and steeple
And you’re white, you’re good people.
Then he’s back to his clubs, greens and berms.

Lily Coals, 11/29/17

 

A persistent purveyor of hate


Southern Poverty Law Center offers Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide:

A presidential candidate wins election after denigrating Muslims, Latinos, women and people with disabilities. A young white man opens fire and kills nine African Americans who welcomed him into Bible study at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, telling his victims, “I have to do it.” A Muslim woman is seated on a bench in front of a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., when a woman begins screaming anti-Muslim epithets. A swastika and other anti-Semitic graffiti appear at an elementary school in Stapleton, Colorado. A lone gunman carrying an assault rifle and a handgun storms a well-known gay club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others.

 

​Bias is a human condition, and American history is rife with prejudice against groups and individuals because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or other characteristics. As a nation, we’ve made a lot of progress, but stereotyping and unequal treatment persist.

 

When bias motivates an unlawful act, it is considered a hate crime. Most hate crimes are inspired by race and religion, but hate today wears many faces. Bias incidents (eruptions of hate where no crime is committed) also tear communities apart and can escalate into actual crimes.

 

Since 2010, law enforcement agencies have reported an average of about 6,000 hate crime incidents per year to the FBI. But government studies show that the real number is far higher — an estimated 260,000 per year. Many hate crimes never get reported, in large part because the victims are reluctant to go to the police. In addition, many law enforcement agencies are not fully trained to recognize or investigate hate crimes, and many simply do not collect or report hate crime data to the FBI.

 

The good news is, all over the country people are fighting hate, standing up to promote tolerance and inclusion. More often than not, when hate flares up, good people rise up against it — often in greater numbers and with stronger voices.

 

This guide sets out 10 principles for fighting hate in your community.

Continue reading …

 


 

A persistent purveyor of hate
still stands at the helm of our fate
but he’s reckoned too soon
that his acts are immune
to the karma that’s lying in wait.

‘Cause the karma that’s lying in wait
will come calling before it’s too late;
we can fix what he broke
while refusing to stoke
all the fears that keep fueling the hate.

Susan Eckenrode, 12/1/17

 

A procession of shattered careers

As Trump celebrated the firing — and simultaneously attempted to pivot the conversation to “fake news” — critics pointed out on Twitter his hypocrisy and Trump’s own accusers awaited justice on at least 12 separate accusations against the president.

 

PEOPLE writer Natasha Stoynoff — who has accused Trump of attacking her in 2005 by pushing her up against a wall at Mar-a-Lago and shoving his tongue down her throat — tells PEOPLE in an email: “It doesn’t surprise me at all that Mr. Trump would criticize someone else’s inappropriate sexual behavior and not address his own.”

 

“From what I understand, people who are delusional and narcissistic lack self-awareness and have a need to lash out,” she added.

 

Another one of the accusers, Melinda McGillivray, 38, tells PEOPLE of Trump’s response to Lauer’s ousting: “Donald is a complete hypocrite; he has the audacity to talk smack about other people when he’s the culprit himself.”

 

Donald Trump’s Sexual Assault Accusers Demand Justice
in the #MeToo Era: ‘We Were Forgotten’

People Politics

 

 


A procession of shattered careers
follows predators judged by their peers,
but when credible cries
against BLOTUS arise,
his supporters just cover their ears.

Mary Boren, 11/30/17


 

Ms. Huckabee Sanders

Newsweek reports:

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a “serial congenital liar” who buries the American people “in an avalanche of horse shit” and must know in her soul that what she’s doing is wrong, a GOP strategist and media consultant said Monday night.

 

Rick Wilson piled on Sanders after the White House mouthpiece defended Trump’s use of the insult “Pocahontas” during a White House reception honoring the Navajo code talkers, a group of Native American World War II heroes. Sanders said the term was “not a racial slur,” even though Native Americans absolutely see it as one.

 

Sanders also flipped Trump’s comment into a further attack on Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the target of Trump’s insult. She repeated Trump’s dubious claim that Warren lied about Native American heritage “to advance her career.”

 


Hear the huckster, Ms. Huckabee Sanders
as she pompously proffers and panders
to cover the butt
of the resident nut
whose victims she viciously slanders.

© 2017 Susan Eckenrode

 

A Word to a President

I watch you when you’re waving
to your crowds of crazy fans,
I hear you when you’re speaking
‘bout all your future plans–
But did you ever wonder
why the Newsmen share the facts
of all that you’ve been sharing
and the class, they see, you lack!
And did you ever wonder
why you never hear yourself,
is it all because your ego
is … “In and of Itself”?

If I could share a word or two
about the ‘You’ I’ve seen —
I’d tell you just to shut your mouth
and watch what’s unforeseen!
Some would wonder why you changed
but they’d assume the best —
Other folks would rearrange
their thoughts —- you were possessed!
And all the folks you used to hate
would now feel welcomed back
And they would know that you meant “great”
was more than a wisecrack!

‘Twas Odgen Nash who gave advice
to husbands so they’d win
And now I’m wishin’– you’d think twice
before you’re a “has-been”!

 

© 2017 Joy A. Burki-Watson

Image Source

His arrogant gaze at the solar eclipse

“Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality,” Nasa wrote on a webpage discussing how to view the 2017 solar eclipse safely.

“The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as ‘eclipse glasses’ or hand-held solar viewers.”

 

But this didn’t stop the President, who has a reported tendency to act against the advice of his aides, from sneaking a peek after taking off his protective glasses. He squinted as he briefly looked up at the sun.

 

Donald Trump stares into solar eclipse without safety glasses,
while aides shout ‘don’t look!’

The Independent


His arrogant gaze at the solar eclipse with his unguarded eyes –
this was quizzical
His blindness perhaps is no longer just ethical – not only moral –
but physical!

© 2017 Dan Letwin