FairAndUNbalanced.com

 
From Melissa Saunders at Anything Political:

It was said that Trump may be seeking a peace agreement to help put an end to the Korean War. This was considered a bad move as it was believed the best thing to do was focus on nuclear weapons.

“This is the way it’s supposed to go,” said Victor D. Cha. “The question is: Does Trump understand that this is what has been done in the past — that what he’s doing is not big-bang historic?”

Cha was the one who negotiated with North Korea during the Bush Administration.

“Trump is in a box,” Mr. Cha said, “because if this doesn’t go well, and he wants to go back to sanctions, the South Koreans and Chinese won’t go along.”

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From Andy Borowitz:

According to the source, Trump pardoned a number of disgraced political figures and former reality-show cronies for the sole purpose of training Pence in the art of issuing pardons.

After signing pardon after pardon while Pence looked on intently, Trump commanded the Vice-President to sign a “practice pardon” to prove that he “wouldn’t mess anything up,” the source said.

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From nojo at Stinque:

“Feckless” is one of those words you may have heard, maybe even used, but haven’t much thought about. If one can be feckless, what is it to have feck?

The part you know reads as expected: useless, incompetent, good for nothing. The part you don’t know is what’s lacking: effect. As for how you get from effect to feck — and thus the absence of effect — well, ask the Scots. We hear they’re good cussers.

As is Samantha Bee.

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It seems strange that it would be Rudy Giuliani who would remind us of the last question put to Jesus before his execution. At least according to the Gospels.

Not that the entire Trump story is not replete with unintentional biblical references. Exact parallels exist between the least of these and refugees fleeing from oppression. Jesus could have been speaking of such refugees:

…as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Matthew 25:40

Christ could have been telling us how we ought to think about those of other faiths as he constructed a story of a Samaritan. Samaritans were regarded as religious antagonists, to be viewed with suspicion: Much as some Christians view Muslims, or atheists, or anyone who worships differently or not at all.

One of the last sermons by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King suggested one reason that the mythical non-believer, the Samaritan, could have put aside any concern for his own wellbeing to help the beaten, injured man at the side of the road, when believers passed him by.

…if I do not stop to help this man what will happen to him.

Even the most literal minded of my brothers and sisters in Christ, at least those who support the harsh attitudes of my President, have been able to ignore the number of the beast.

You need wisdom to understand the number of the beast! But if you are smart enough, you can figure this out. Its number is six hundred sixty-six, and it stands for a person.

Revelation 13:18

Okay, so the most sensible of scholars recognize that an exiled Christian, confined by Roman authorities to a cave on the Greek island of Patmos might write in code about the emperor. Especially if that emperor happened to be famous for torturing those of different religions. 666 was a numerical equivalent to the letters in the name and title of the Emperor Nero.

But I am surprised at how far my sisters and brothers have come. They can now openly embrace a President whose son-in-law holds title to that address: 666 Fifth Ave. I suppose I should be proud of those folks for finally shrugging off nearly 2,000 years of violent superstition. People had been tortured and killed for their accidental association with that number. All it took was a Presidential candidate who hated the same folks they did.

Rudy Giuliani reminded me of the last great question put to Jesus by Pontius Pilate.
Continue reading “Call to Worship a New Deity”

• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from National Review writer Jonah Goldberg on Fox News who believes Rudy Giuliani’s various defenses of President Trump are factually, logically almost grotesque at times. That’s a quote.
   
• @bjork55 at Bjork Report watches the television machine as a Fox News personality demolishes the latest Trump conspiracy excuse for Russia-Links.
   
• At MadMikesAmerica, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is asked by a youngster about school safety, and Michael John Scott discovers the Trump Press Representative is human.
   
• Batocchio at Vagabond Scholar is unimpressed by Trump’s occasional bombings of Syria, suggesting that glorious battles in righteous war are not so glorious.
   
• Jonathan Bernstein puts the death of thousands of Americans in Puerto Rico at the doorstep of a leader focused far more on congratulating himself than on doing something worth bragging about. That’s a good quote.
   
• nojo at Stinque is as disturbed as we all should be at the newest Trump immigration policy of those who would rip babies from mangers. That’s a sad quote.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post is apprehensive as my President’s lazy sort of ethereal incompetence undergoes transubstantiation into something dangerously incarnate: a reckless, impulsive foreign policy. Affecting, you know, our national security.
   
• David Maloniez at Anything Political reports that Kim Jong-un was nervous about leaving North Korea on a preplanned date because of the possibility of a coup because “[i]t seemed that the Korean people didn’t want their leader to denuclearize.” That’s a quote.
   
• Andy Borowitz reports White House panic at the dangerous precedent, now that a nationally known figure can lose an important position as a result of a racist tweet.
   
• Dave Dubya summarizes the public life and utterances of now-pardoned Dinesh D’Souza. Not a nice guy.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger brings the ratings of American Presidents from best to worst. Best, as with all previous rankings, is Abraham Lincoln. You might be able to guess who is currently ranked as flat last. I’m kind of irritated that Andrew Johnson is not ranked even lower than he is.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, David Robertson is impatient with Democrats who, as a strategic matter, would focus on voter turnout rather than converting Trump voters. He sees that preference as based on a view that Trump voters are all racist. He educates us that they simply viewed Hillary was a crook. Mr. Robertson presents his primary credential, which is that he voted in 2016 for neither of the front-running candidates.
   
• The ERA finally passes in Illinois, and driftglass goes back 40 years to Mike Royko, who revealed why do-gooders don’t accomplish what they want.
   
• My long time friend T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense, is dismayed at the recent pro-life vote in Ireland. Since Jesus himself must be in mourning over the vote, my friend congratulates himself on weeping in good company.
   
• Max’s Dad is a vehement ex-Catholic, grateful to Ireland, who is surprised to find himself falling in love with Pope Francis. He especially likes the new movie about the Pope.
   
• PZ Myers reacts to an instance of aggressive physical abuse in the workplace toward a woman in Scotland because she had dared speak out about aggressive physical abuse in the workplace. Also included is the remarkably light response from supervisors.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives reacts to a recent decision to award low wage workers what they were entitled to under law. He believes the workers themselves were breaking the law by accepting jobs at hourly rates prohibited by minimum wage laws.
   
• At A Wayfarer’s Notes, Vincent’s father, who died for his country in combat, turns out to still be alive in his late 90s.
   

 
From Infidel753:

To many Americans in the future, Christianity will look the way Islam looks to most Americans today — a group with unfamiliar and bewildering beliefs and practices, largely represented in the popular mind by its extremist minority which holds intolerant, threatening, and frightening views. It’s hard to imagine them finding this appealing. Even today, the number of atheists who join a religion is tiny compared with the veritable stampede in the opposite direction. Whatever ground religion loses is, by the time the second generation arrives, lost to it forever.

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From Frances Langum:

But this story is NOT about douchebag Dinesh.

It’s about Michael Cohen. And sending him a message to “stay strong” and not flip. (I don’t know how that works if Cohen is facing state charges in New York but maybe Trump forgot about that.) And on Stephanie Ruhle’s program, legal analyst Seth Waxman didn’t sugarcoat it:

SETH WAXMAN: Could this be any more transparent? His fixer for ten years is alleged to be involved in passing campaign contributions from others through to his campaign in the context of Stormy Daniels or passing Russian funds through, and then kind of out of nowhere, Mr. Trump pardons D’souza who is accused of doing just that. I can’t see this as anything other than trying to send information–Donald Trump to say “I will take care of you in the future, just stand by me.”

Add “abuse of power” to the impeachable offenses, folks.

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From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

If Donald Trump was a Marvel character, his name might be something like “DeceptiCon.” That is, the never-before-seen frequency and magnitude of Trump’s lies combine to create a Cloak of Confusion, a black hole-like force from which the truth seemingly cannot escape. Defying the laws of physics and logic, he was after all a Schrödinger’s Candidate, often for and against the same thing at the same time. And now as the Heisenberg Uncertainty President, it is virtually impossible to ever simultaneously know what Trump would believe, say, and do on any issue. Most insidious of all, DeceptiCon has produced learned helplessness in almost all who observe him, especially among members of the media. Slowly but surely, the search for objective truth is abandoned as Trump’s unceasing torrent of frauds, falsehoods, and fictions is gradually accepted as routine, normal, and even entertaining.

This process was essentially complete well before Election Day in November 2016. On August 18, 2016, Trump relaunched his campaign under the guidance of Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. In what was billed as a major address in Charlotte, North Carolina, Republican nominee Trump pledged:

“One thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth.”

Of course, his meta vow wasn’t true. Not even close.

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