#We need a follow up poll: Jewish people: Have you ever been the first/only Jewish person someone has met?

[maswartz]

“

Bernie Sanders suffers from Great Man syndrome. It afflicts all white men, some worse than others and it can’t be cured. In Bernie world Hillary’s popularity was only “because she was a woman.” Bernie’s followers lap up this hogwash because they don’t know any better, because they too have been conditioned to believe what the Great Man says no matter what. But Hillary, of course, was speaking up for the Obama coalition, that was black mothers of shooting victims (she was criticized for this, of course), women and children all over the world and here in the US (and criticized for this). She offered practical solutions to difficult problems that were actually workable. She didn’t make false promises like a false prophet, like a god. Hillary had a great plan for dealing with college debt, and wanted to extend and improve the Affordable Care Act. Hillary actually knew she could do the job well but like so many of us women know, not only aren’t we trusted to do the job, no one believes we CAN do the job.

I’m sorry that Bernie said what he said about Hillary and women. It fed into the warped frenzy of misogyny that overtook his so-called revolution. He still thinks, and his followers think, that he would have beaten Trump. He couldn’t even win in the primary. There was no rigging, there was no collusion. She won four million more votes that he did. The people chose HER and not him. All Bernie did was help Trump win. He knows this, which is why he’s now on a desperate speaking tour to not become Ralph Nader in he public’s eyes. Blame Hillary, blame the democrats. Do anything BUT blame Bernie. And Bernie is exactly who deserves much of the blame for what he’s done, what he is still doing, to ensure the democrats lose and lose again in four years.

Would Bernie have beaten Trump? The answer is no one can say for sure but I would guess that absolutely no, he could not have. Here are the reasons why.

But first, you might be inclined to say, “we’re fighting a fascist, why aren’t we uniting against Trump?” he reason is that we can’t unite because we are deeply and sharply divided still. 2.5 million more votes than Trump is what Hillary Clinton will have had by the end of the election. He won but just barely. He won the electoral college by going after the Bernie voters and counting on third party voters to sabotage Hillary’s lead and it worked. Bernie Sanders must take responsibility for his part in this or there will be no moving forward. You can’t lie to people when the evidence is right in front of them.

Historically speaking, this election was always the Republican’s to lose. The pendulum swing of American election cycles is maddeningly predictable: Both parties find it hard to hold onto the White House for more than 2 terms in a row. Reagan did it. But he’s really the only one in recent history. JFK and FDR both died in office and that’s the only way we ever got a successor elected, since the 1800s. We had one shot to win for the Democrats and that was to make the case that the last eight years were working for Americans, that Obama’s policies and presidency had been a success, and that we wanted four more years to finish what he had started, to overcome the obstructionist roadblocks, and buttress the Obama legacy with a Supreme Court that would work to uphold his great strides. But Bernie Sanders ran a campaign as a newly minted Democrat against the Democrats! With that reckless miscalculation, he lost this election for himself and for Hillary before it even started. His entire campaign became a beta test commercial for Trump’s candidacy, as Trump noted which Hillary attacks had traction and adopted every single talking point (minus the free college and free healthcare) that Bernie had hammered her with. Bernie helped Trump immeasurably. Bernie knew could not have beaten Trump unless he’d been Obama’s chosen successor and be handed the baton to continue Obama’s policies. Since that wasn’t happening, Bernie’s only option was to tell voters that nothing about the past two terms was good enough for the American people. He made that case that the Democrats had fallen short. A ridiculous claim, but several thousand people in key states fell for it. Sure, after he lost the nomination Bernie tried to change horses mid-stream but it never really worked for him. By then, he had convinced a few million voters in his flock that Hillary was too corrupt to deserve their vote. 3 or 4 million of his most fervid supporters could never snap out of their brainwashing. If anything, some felt doubly betrayed, and many of them turned on Bernie, called him a “sellout” when got behind Hillary.

The Republicans had major opposition research ready to launch on Bernie Sanders that would have made his numbers drop quickly significantly in the polls. But Bernie was never attacked by Hillary’s team, nor by the GOP. Ask yourself why and the reason is obvious. The GOP wanted to run against Bernie. They knew they had far more volatile stuff to dump on him that the whimpering “emails, emails, emails” chant that had lost all its pizazz. Their strategy was to leave Bernie alone because the better Bernie looked, the worse Hillary looked. Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald laid out some of that oppo research and this is what he found:

Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for it — a long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.

Then there’s the fact that Sanders was on unemployment until his mid-30s, and that he stole electricity from a neighbor after failing to pay his bills, and that he co-sponsored a bill to ship Vermont’s nuclear waste to a poor Hispanic community in Texas, where it could be dumped. You can just see the words “environmental racist” on Republican billboards. And if you can’t, I already did. They were in the Republican opposition research book as a proposal on how to frame the nuclear waste issue.

Also on the list: Sanders violated campaign finance laws, criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that he voted for, and he voted against the Amber Alert system. His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs. Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die,’’ while President Daniel Ortega condemned “state terrorism” by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was “patriotic.”

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone reallyattacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

Unfortunately, Sanders supporters think he’s god-like and thus, they rely solely on those inflated poll numbers. Nate Silver would tell them that you can’t really trust polls until you’ve seen the candidate “punched” completely by the opposition party. Silver thinks now it was a mistake for Hillary not to attack him because now no one will ever believe he could have been attacked the way she has been for decades. To them, Hillary had it coming but the truth is Bernie has never been considered a threat enough TO ATTACK in the first place.

3. Bernie is Jewish (as am I in case you want to start blamesplaining). He’s a socialist. And he’s an atheist. Do I need to explain this one? Obama might have been black but he was Christian. A man of faith. And though he was accused of being a socialist he is not. Bernie actually is! Has always been a socialist, bragged about being one, has expressed an affinity for Fidel Castro on video, and hates the Democratic party for not being leftist enough. The Jewish part is a touchy subject, but we have to be realistic about the American “heartland.” Is flyover America ready for a Jew in the White House? Let’s ask Joe Lieberman. Or how about ask voters in 40 states who have never sent a Jewish senator to Washington D.C. Ever. 40 states. Never Elected. A Jewish Senator. In 230 years. Are Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, suddenly ready to see a Jew in the Oval Office? I do not believe they are. Not in the America that just elected Donald Trump. They aren’t even ready for a woman. The Bernie people don’t seem to know this other half of America exists. To Bernie and his supporters all those people who just voted for Trump are did so because Bernie wasn’t on the ballot. Seriously, that’s what they think.

4. Bernie Sanders promised to raise taxes on just about everyone, even a small amount on the middle class. If you think any politician can win a national election by saying they are going to raise taxes on the middle class, you have another think coming. Yes, Bernie’s ideas on trade, and certainly on the climate, are appealing to most but his platform was predicated on making the government pay for everything. When you put together his own history of never having a job for his first 30 years as an adult, never really earning a paycheck that wasn’t from the government, you can fill out the bubbles from there, right? You can visualize the Republican TV ads, yes? Please tell me you can.

5. He couldn’t win the primary. In the Land of Nod , the sad fable is that Bernie was cheated by the DNC. That’s what the Republicans wanted the Berners to believe, that’s the story they seeded, nurtured and harvested, and so it was! The most hardcore Berniacs threw one hissy fit after another, stoned Wasserman-Schultz, threatened to bust up the convention all because Hillary Clinton won more votes. He lost. Not by a little, by a lot. 55% — 43%. But for a huge number of his sullen supporters, if Bernie couldn’t have the prize, the no one could. That was their attitude. But the fact is Bernie’s supporters simply didn’t vote in large enough numbers. They didn’t even vote down ballot during the primaries. They didn’t vote for any of the progressive candidates Bernie had anointed, like Russ Finegold and Zephyr Teachout. For all their demonizing of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, they couldn’t even be bthered to vote for her Bernie-certified opponent Tim Canova. The “revolution” was failing at every level, all across the country. The giddy crowds showed up at rallies but apparently standing in line to vote wasn’t exciting enough. Maybe no one ever taught these people about government. They certainly don’t seem to know much about safeguards the three branches help ensure. Bernie Sanders lost so badly in the South he never could have won the general election with those kinds of numbers even with Hillary out of the way. His excuse? “Oh, they’re just too deeply conservative in the south.” And worse: “Oh, they’re not educated about the issues.” Great way to connect with black voters, there, Professor Sanders! Dismiss them as being too ill-informed to know what’s good for them. Charming. Perhaps if Bernie had one more year of campaigning to strengthen his weaknesses, he might have got a better toehold. But he didn’t. The theory is that good reasonable Democrats would shunned him the primaries would have come ‘round and voted for him in the general. But I’m betting many would have fled altogether and voted for Trump, for the three following reasons.

6. a) Isis. If you didn’t get that Isis was a big part of this election you were living in a bubble, a fantasy bubble where your biggest fear is fracking. But the news that most people watch like CNN or Fox News? It’s all Isis all the time. Fear of Isis is pumped into their living rooms around the clock and it’s become ingrained in our national reality. These voters aren’t staring at Facebook and reading biased boutique news sites that tell progressive liberals what they want to hear (gluten free water cures cancer!). They’re looking around at the world from their own homes and they’re scared. Whether Bernie and his minions thought Isis was a threat is irrelevant. The voters clearly did and they thought it in a big way. It’s an issue much more important to a truckdriver than free college. And there are millions of longhaul truckdrivers. Trump and Hillary Clinton both mopped the floor with Bernie Sanders on Isis and terrorism and foreign policy. Remember the Daily News interview? Bernie forgot to study for that exam. 6. b) Economy. Trump pretended to be Bernie’s best friend because it made Hillary look bad. He used Bernie like a bar rag, sopping up the stale foam of angry white dudes, hipster or otherwise, who could not believe their Feel-the-Bern icon of virtue had been beaten by a girl. 6. c) Immigration. See 6a) and 6b) Because the greatest trick Trump ever pulled was convincing a stunningly large swath of white Americans that all their terrorism fears and the economic woes would magically evaporate if we could only Build That Wall. So it was all about Isis, the economy, and immigration. It was in the beginning, it was in the end, and it is now. Trump would have crushed Sanders on those key points alone and it wouldn’t have even been hard.

7. Bernie is in it for Bernie. He probably would have chosen Cornel West as his running mate, but it’s pretty clear he would not have chosen anyone he would want to share the stage with, because he didn’t like sharing the stage with anyone, not even his poor wife. (“Don’t stand next to me!”) So his veep would have been… who knows. Certainly not dynamo Elizabeth Warren. She would have swooped in like Bernie’s charismatic caregiver. Although in the dreamland of liberal utopia it would have been Sanders and Warren. But even that duo would have lost and lost badly to Trump. Outside the major cities where most of us dwell, the majority of Americans saw Trump and Sanders as different species of outsiders. That’s both funny sad, because Bernie only seemed like an outsider, because nobody in 49 states had ever heard of him before last year, despite his decades in public office. So given that choice, to those voters, Trump would have been basically Bernie except glitzy capitalism instead of scary socialism, Trump was Bernie except with a strong hand against terrorism instead of weak one. Trump was Bernie except with the sultry MILF by his side. None of this would have sat well with a man as vain as Bernie Sanders. Bernie would have been pressured by his all-or-nothing followers to pick a progressive veep so now you’ve got the Bernie progressive vote, you’ve got some of the loyalist Democrats, but you’ve lost ALL of the moderates who are too freaked out about taxes and Isis to take a chance on a radically left ticket.

8. Change in America is incremental and slow. It does not come quickly. After two terms of a Democratic president, the American people have never and will never move farther to the outer reaches in the same direction of the party in power. America is populated by mostly moderates who care more about paying taxes (or not) than just about anything else. Whatever Bernie is offering, this is an electorate that could barely accept Obamacare because they thought it was socialism — what kind of a crackpot does one have to be to think Americans would be ready to veer all the way to 100% government-run health care? They wouldn’t. They won’t. Not yet. I’m so sick of having this conversation with people and if Bernie Sanders runs in 2020 then and only then will they understand, just like the McGovern supporters learned and the Nader voters. You learn that ugly lesson once. For those of us who have lived through people learning that lesson, to watch it learned over again is not just frustrating, it’s tragic. All the left seems able to do is put republicans in power, until they get a clue about what America is and what America isn’t.

9. Liberals were living in a bubble of illusion, including and especially the Berniecrats. They were following what the media kept saying and the media focused entirely too much on Sanders — only when he hurt Hillary. They never focused on his policies. They didn’t want to talk policy. Policy is boring. Let’s watch the scrappy senator take down the powerful woman. Let’s watch Trump take Hillary down. That’s what they were invested in. And they lulled Americans into falsely believing the democrats had it in the bag. This is true now and it would have been true if Bernie won. The only difference is that now Bernie would have to find another scapegoat to explain what would have been a landslide loss for him. But the polls, they would cry, the polls! Because the polls were all they had and the polls were wrong when it came to Trump. They were wrong. Liberals need to break out of that bubble because the joke is on us. America is laughing at us and our hysteria and in order to save the environment, fight for civil and LGBT rights we have to get smarter about it and getting smarter about it does not include living in a deluded fantasy that “Bernie would have won.” No, he wouldn’t have.

10. You can’t lead the democratic party and focus only on the white working class as Bernie did. You can’t lead the democratic party by not acknowledging the success of its two term president, Barack Obama. You can’t lead the democratic party by perpetuating the false notion that Hillary Clinton was only where she was because she was a woman. The democratic party is not the party of the white working class. It stands for a bigger, broader group than that. Bernie writes it off as “identity politics” but it’s bigger than that because America, and the world, are changing. Hillary has more of a record of action than Bernie ever had in 30 years. To discount that is to tell a lie. If you tell enough lies sooner or later they catch up with you and Bernie’s would have caught up with him. He should never have divided the democrats the way he did. He should never have influenced so many young people not to choose pragmatism.

On top of our deep sense of sadness (and yes, everlasting anger) over the way this election was manipulated by the FBI, by WikiLeaks, by Putin, by news media both slanted and fake — it’s just exhausting two weeks later to have to listen to Bernie’s simplistic lectures about the Democrats “failure to connect” with the white working class, and scolded for not seeming to know what people in America care about. It has become depressing and tiresome to watch Bernie continue to blame Hillary even now. Had he ever tried to discourage the character assassination against her early on, we would have had a chance. But Bernie could not stand it that Hillary was beating him. He still can’t stand it and he still can’t believe it. It’s time for him to stop already. Just stop.

“

[schraubd]

A Modest Speech Before the Zionist Organization of America

Of course, I'd never be invited to give a speech to a ZOA. This, rather, is an advance copy of a speech to be delivered before that august organization of Israel-defenders by my possibly-imaginary-alter-ego, Judah ben Samaria.

Fellow Zionists.

I come before you more optimistic about the survival and success of our beloved Jewish state than I’ve felt at any time since … well, since at least 2008.

I need not remind you of the great victory President Donald Trump—a true friend of Israel—has given us at the end of his first year in office. But perhaps I can take a moment to emphasize its scope.

It is not just his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, though we have since time immemorial yearned for recognition of this historical truth.

And it is not just that he has abandoned the foolish insistence on blindly pursuing the “two-state delusion,” though it has long since been demonstrated that no peace will come from dividing the holy land.

No, there is a greater accomplishment here still. Through the President’s bold leadership, he has accomplished something that all the talking heads and State Department Arabists had assumed to be impossible: He has gotten the Palestinians to finally accept that they will never have their own state carved out from the territory of the historic Jewish homeland.

The Palestinian’s own chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has forthrightly acknowledged it:  “President Trump has delivered a message to the Palestinian people: the two-state solution is over.”

This is what we’ve fought for, is it not? From this point forward, the question is no longer how much land Israel will have to cede to create some mythic, concocted “Palestinian” state. If you are in Eretz Yisrael, you are in Israel. There are no more “settlers”, and there are no more “refugees”. The era of arbitrary divisions across the entirety of the Holy Land can now enter history’s dustbin, right alongside the arbitrary division of Israel’s capital.

This is an opportunity we cannot miss. By ignoring the naysayers and the doubters, President Trump has actually forged a consensus between the Palestinian leadership and the committed friends of Israel who populate this room. Having abandoned the delusion of an independent Palestinian state, and the obstinate refusal to accept Israel’s existence, “Palestinian” leaders are finally taking a different tack. Now, instead of fighting a genocidal war against Israel, they are willing to pursue a path of true peace: working with us to ensure that each and every person currently living under Israeli sovereignty is given all the rights and prerogatives of citizenship inside of a single, unified state. Erekat accepted that this was the only possible route forward following President Trump’s diplomatic powerplay: “Now is the time to transform the struggle for one-state with equal rights for everyone living in historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

There’s no need to wait. Now that it is clear that Jerusalem is and will remain an undivided city, the 350,000 Arabs living in “East” Jerusalem who have stubbornly refused the opportunity for Israeli citizenship should welcome the opportunity to integrate into Israel as equal voters, residents, and co-nationals.

But why stop there? There’s no need to wait for “negotiations”—negotiations with who? Getting bogged down in a chimerical “peace process” has only led Israel astray; and in any event, Israel is the sole legitimate governing body between the River and the Sea—it’s time it acted like it. Israel should immediately annex Judea and Samaria—and Gaza, while we're at it—in their entirety, and say once and for all: If you live in any part of our territory, you are an Israeli citizen—with all the rights and freedoms that entails. Whether you are among the 400,000 so-called “settlers” or the nearly three million so-called “Palestinians” will no longer matter. President Trump has paved the way for all to be equal citizens of one, undivided nation. By the next general election, I hope that all those living in Judea and Samaria—regardless of religion or ethnicity—come in hordes to the polls and cast a ballot in a single, unified election. Then we will finally know that our Zionist dream has come to full fruition.

Our enemies have long slandered committed Zionists by accusing us of desiring an “apartheid” state, where Jews and Arabs have unequal rights and the former oppress the latter. But it was the libel of “occupation” that allowed so-called liberals to justify keeping West Bank Arabs stateless—awaiting the conjuration of a non-existent “Palestinian” country. Once the Arabs and the world accepts that there is and will ever be only one state in the Holy Land, then all residents inside of it can enjoy complete and total equality as citizens within.

Now is the time for us here at ZOA to stand up for what a one-state solution truly means. After all, if there is no such thing as “Palestine”, then the only other possible label for so-called “Palestinians” living in Judea and Sameria is “Israeli.” Erekat’s pivot to “one-state with equal rights for everyone” shows that he gets it. Many of us have long observed that, in all practicality, there is only one state already. But it will not be a truly unified state until Israel gives full enfranchisement to the totality of the population of Judea and Sameria. That final coup de grace is all that stands between us and a true, globally acknowledged, “one-state solution.”

We often like to joke that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But—in the spirit of the new era of peace and unity that Donald Trump has ushered in—perhaps we can congratulate them for, finally, seeing the writing on the wall. The two-state delusion is dead; Donald Trump has killed it. And in doing so, he has given us an opportunity to seize as well. We must adopt a new slogan, one which can separate the allies of Israel from her enemies, and clearly articulates our vision for a unified state across the entire territory in Mandatory Palestine within which all who reside are equal.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”

This is the future Donald Trump holds out for us. And whenever we hear anyone sing chant, we here at ZOA will know we've found a friend.

via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2BXwfYV

[crimethinc]

Blocking the Nazi March in Gothenburg: Using Every Tool in the Toolbox against Fascism

On September 30, several hundred fascists participated in a march in Gothenburg called for by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR), a neo-Nazi organization that openly professes the doctrines of Adolf Hitler. Over the past year, members of the NMR have bombed several refugee homes and a left-wing bookstore in Gothenburg, while members of the Finnish branch of NMR murdered a passer-by at a demonstration in Helsinki. In Gothenburg, over 10,000 counter-demonstrators utilized a diversity of tactics to block the NMR march from reaching its starting point; although the police were the ones who physically stopped them, previous precedents show that the police will support and protect the neo-Nazis unless forced to do otherwise by grassroots anti-fascist momentum. It should give us pause that neo-Nazis in a country as small as Sweden could produce a rally on the scale of the one that fascists organized in Charlottesville last August. Here, we present an account from one of the many groups that participated in the counter-demonstration.

The following report was authored by Andreas of the group “Inte rasist men…” You can find an extensive photo gallery of the aspiring murderers and bullies who participated in the Nazi rally here. For a Swedish take on why it is a mistake to rely on police to keep fascists in check, read this.

Police barricades holding back anti-fascists.

On September 30, the openly fascist Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) intended to march in Gothenburg. This date was not chosen by chance. They chose it as a result of the year-long debate about far-right publication Nya Tiders’ (New Times) right to attend the annual book fair taking place in Gothenburg at the same time—and also because it was Yom Kippur. NMR has well-documented ties to Nya Tider; like others on the far right, they claim that modern literature and media are to blame for the supposed downfall of Western Civilization. Add to this the media exposure from Nazis marching outside the book fair and the opportunity to disrupt one of the most sacred Jewish holidays and you can see why this date was attractive to the NMR.

On the day of the march, more than 10,000 antifascist counter-demonstrators filled the streets of Gothenburg to await the arrival of the Nazis. Among them, a small group of around 50 people, dressed up like members of the Rebel Alliance from Star Wars, clearly stood out. This group was coordinated by the non-profit anti-racist activist and research collective “Inte rasist, men…” (“Not racist, but…”), or IRM, of which I am a member. The plan for the day was to ridicule the Nazis by marching parallel to them and blasting the Imperial March on a huge portable loudspeaker while dressed up like Jedi, X-wing pilots, C3PO, Yoda, and Princess Leia. We sent a box of Darth Vader masks to one of the Nazi leaders before the event, sarcastically inviting them to join our “Star Wars LARP.” Fortunately, we could not execute this plan, as the Nazis were blocked, beaten by police, and had their leader arrested. They didn’t even make it to their planned starting point.

[[

Inte rasist men… on September 30.

IRM is a group of eight people and consists of researchers, writers, podcasters, techies, and even a cartoonist. Over our five-year existence, we have amassed a fairly big following, some of who volunteer with us, and we have become something of a household name in Sweden. Our work consists chiefly of researching and exposing the racism, sexism, and homophobia of politicians belonging to the racist Sweden Democrats (SD) party. We estimate that our work has helped remove at least 200 SD politicians from their positions. Of course, in a party like the SD, there’s always another racist waiting to step up.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve also ventured into street activism, which has led to us taking on a larger part of the Swedish extreme-right movement. For example, when NMR marched in the Swedish city of Falun on May 1, we borrowed the German “Right against Right” concept by donating money to an anti-fascist charity based on the distance the Nazis walked. On the day of the march, our activists lined up by side of the planned route, holding signs with messages like “Nazis against Nazis,” “A small step for a Nazi, a big step for humanity,” and “You march, we donate.” The Nazis were not amused. On another occasion, we succeeded in planting a sign with our logo right behind the party leader of the Sweden Democrats while he was being interviewed during the annual Swedish politicians week, so that every single picture of him in the media also contained our logo.

Neo-Nazis in Gothenburg on September 30.

From the start, our strategy has been aimed at humor and exposure. Our internal motto is “Make racism awkward again.” We have also made an effort to be inclusive, as we feel that a broad anti-racist movement which transcends the traditional right/left boundaries of Swedish party politics is needed to counter the momentum of racist and fascist groups in Sweden. The Sweden Democrats have been growing steadily for ten years. According to some polls, they are now the second biggest party in Sweden, a worrying development. This has resulted in a creeping and hard-to-notice normalization of racist and fascist rhetoric and ideas, which has pushed the bar for what is acceptable and enabled organizations like NMR and Nya Tider to grow. We want to push back, and we feel that the best way to accomplish that is to address the root cause by exposing the SD for what they really are.

Leading up to September 30, NMR had been negotiating with the police. Their initial request for the march route was denied: they wanted to march through the city center, past the book fair and a synagogue. They were given a shorter and less central route. The Gothenburg city office stepped in and shortened the route even more, so that they were only permitted to walk a few blocks some distance from the city center and the synagogue and book fair.

The terrain.

Two weeks before September 30, 50 people from the NMR appeared unannounced in the Gothenburg city center, marched down the parade street, and gave a few speeches in a city square. The police, who had been tipped off about the action a few days earlier but claimed to have “misplaced” the information, gave the Nazis a police escort. When the news spread, anti-fascists rushed downtown and you could soon hear chants of “Alerta, alerta antifascista!” in the streets. The Nazis were gone by then. To many, this march was a worrying display of their power.

Afterwards, police officials defended the right of Nazis to march without a permit, made it clear that they would not attempt to identify the organizers of the march despite having filed a criminal report, and denied that the Nazis were engaging in hate crimes such as “agitation against an ethnic group.” This is indicative of where the police stand in regard to fascist organizing in Sweden.

The neo-Nazi promotional march in mid-September.

On September 30, IRM met up with our participants, went over our strategy for the day, and then found a good spot to start our little parade. At the same time, the NMR assembled in the parking lot of a supermarket a few kilometers outside of town. They began to walk towards their designated starting point, accompanied by journalists and police.

Then the news came in that the Nazis had attempted to depart from their permitted route to aim for the city center. In response, the police pushed them into a corner near another supermarket and formed a ring around them. When people on the streets of Gothenburg heard about this, they headed for the spot where the Nazis were being delayed and managed to completely block the streets leading into the city from there. This gave the police no option but to hold the Nazis there for the time period that their demonstration permit allowed, then let them make the humiliating walk back to their assembly point. As one Swedish journalist put it, “What was going to be the biggest Nazi march since World War II ended up being a humiliating walk between two supermarkets.”

Swedish police attacking anti-fascist demonstrators on September 30.

A smoke bomb thrown by counter-demonstrators.

While we were a little disappointed that our Nazi-trolling plan could not be fulfilled, we took our group and walked around the city center, much to the amusement of our fellow counter-demonstrators, who spontaneously burst into applause when we arrived. All in all, it was a glorious day. Gothenburg showed that there is no room for Nazis on our streets.

We considered it especially important that a large number of the activists who joined us to protest the Nazis were first-timers. They were a diverse range of people from teenagers to a grey-haired old lady, none of whom had experience taking to the streets. It was encouraging that they chose to join us in this demonstration, against the most violent Nazi organization Sweden has ever seen. We also received countless messages on social media cheering us on and asking when our next activity will be so that others can join in. We feel that this is how anti-fascism should work: it should be a broad movement of all ages, sexes, and religions, coming together to fight, regardless of political affiliations or preferred methods.

We hope that this text can be an inspiration for others to start their own anti-racist or anti-fascist organizations, or to broaden the scopes and approaches of existing ones. The rise of racism and fascism is global, and we need to share ideas and work together to overcome it. No pasarán!

[fireofmyloins19]

Carmen - part two

(Part one)

(A/N - This series doesn’t really follow the order of how things happen in the show, eg. Grace is already back at the equivalent of start of S2. Just a warning in case anyone was to get confused)

Thomas Shelby - Carmen part two

“Tomorrow is Newmarket, all the London bosses will be at the races”

“So you just roll up and take the city?”

“No, we take the opportunity to show our hand. The Italian gangs and the Jewish gangs have been at war in London for six months. The Jews have been having the worst of it, they need allies”

“Yeah but we don’t” Tommy stared at Polly with a sigh, getting impatient with her constant questioning and insistence on disagreeing with the plans he had already made.

“We need a foothold at the southern end of the Grand Union. The Jews control Camden town. We get out tomorrow when it’s quiet and we leave our message. Now please Polly, open the fucking safe” He dragged out his last words to make his impatience known as he stood before her, the annoyance clear on his face whilst she stared at him from behind the desk before reluctantly getting up and fiddling with the safe’s combination.

“You know it was speech you made in there about this company believing in equal rights for women, but when it comes to it, you don’t listen to a word we say. Maybe you don’t trust us.” Polly spoke sternly, flicking her eyes towards his lifeless face every few seconds to try catch some sort of reaction whilst she opened the safe with more force than needed. Once it was open she turned to him, one hand on her hip and her lips pursed whilst she debated whether it was safe to say the words she intended.

“She is one woman Thomas. Maybe it’s time you find one you can trust. She’ll never be a part of this family Thomas. Not in my eyes”

“Polly please, not now” His face contorted as he became agitated at her words, holding a hand up to her as an indication to stop talking as he crouched in front of the safe, attempting to gather the few things he needed before leaving for his trip.

“I expected more from you. You meant to be the more intelligent one of the lot of us yet when it comes to that woman, it all goes out the window. And now you intent to marry her, after she nearly got you killed, got us all killed”

“Polly!”

His voice was raised now, slamming the paperwork from his hand onto the desk she sat at, giving her a stern look which she simply stared at, managing a single blink. She took a swift drag of her cigarette whilst leaning back in her chair, suggesting she wouldn’t say another word on the matter.

“I’ll be leaving in the morning, It’ll only be a short trip I’ll be back in a few days”

“What about John, Arthur? There’s business up here that needs to be tended to aswell Thomas, I hope you haven’t forgotten that”

“John and Arthur will be coming with me. I’m sure the business up here will be dealt with just fine. We’ve got you women to thank for that, ey?” he spoke with a mocking tone, it could have almost been taken as a joke if it hadn’t of been for the look on his face.

“And Grace?”  Tommy closed his eyes and took a deep breath before replying, not wanting this conversation to be brought back up again.

“She will be staying here”

“Well, I hope you won’t be expecting me to pop round with tea and biscuits because I

tell you what-”

“Poll”

“I know. Just as long as you know.”

She let her eyes roam up and down her reflection, a look of disappointment evident on her face as she studied herself in such an outfit. She barely recognised herself. Her hair now lay just below her chin, framing her impressively structured face comfortably, by the clubs orders. Her bundle of restless curls not having sat well with the desired flapper style when she arrived.

She turned her head side to side, fiddling with stray curls in an attempt to make herself warm to the style but it was useless. She felt uncomfortable and almost threatened by the mass of jewels covering not only the dress but her skin, dangling from her ears and chest whilst the other women walked by seemingly unphased by the attire and looking glamorous as ever. But if it was what Sabini wanted, it was what Sabini would get.

She let out a small sigh before dragging her eyes away, knowing if she looked any longer it would only cause her to rip the outfit off and escape out of the back, but she was determined for a chance at the job, even if it was just to prove to herself she could make it in an establishment such as The Eden. If her singing was anything to go by, she would be fine. Where as the outfits, they were something she would have to get use to.

“You’re up in 5 Carmen”

A woman she knew to be called Maggie with unnaturally long legs called out as she trotted past, wearing heels only Carmen could dream of being able to walk in. She  nodded to herself as Maggie had already left the room, swinging through the red curtains out into the hustle of the club.

She could hear the upbeat jazz played by the band coming to its peak as she made her way to the side of the stage, dodging past the rush of giggling flappers pushing their way back stage to top up their makeup before they went back, dancing through the tables. Finally fighting her way out she peered into the audience. Drunken lonely men she could sing for, but this. This, she wasn’t sure. She watched the people swinging around, their energy seemingly too high off liquor and cocaine to have the patience to listen to anything she would sing.

“Fuck sake” she muttered under her breath, releasing this wasn’t going to the breeze she had expected but she couldn’t help smiling at the sight in front of her. The joy amongst the people was wild and free, something she hadn’t witnessed in a long time.

She made her way onto the stage, knowing everyone was to preoccupied in their dance or sexual activities to give her a second look.

“PEAKY SCUM”

She heard the screams first and then the smashing of glass, turning to see the chaos ensue before her eyes. Bodies knocking her about as they rushed past, some of the crowd running past her to simply get a hiding spot backstage. She found herself walking backwards slowly, her mind telling her to run but her body wouldn’t. Her feet digging into the ground and her eyes fixated on the carnage. Glasses and fists and blood. The flashes of red from inside the mens long jackets and the repeated outstretch of their arms as they slashed at Sabini’s mens faces flashed before her, their desperate movements blending into one. She had seen violence before, violence from drunken seedy men preying on desperate women, but nothing like this.

“Who the fucks next?”

It was the sound of this blood curdling cry that brought to her the realisation of the situation. That no one would spare her while she was stood in Sabinis club, on Sabinis stage, dressed in Sabinis desired aesthetic. She made a run for it, hitting another body within seconds and throwing her arms out to push them out of her way. Legs were intertwining and hands grabbing against skin as people focused on their own safety. She only made it halfway across the stage before the gun went off, causing her to crouch where she was and throw her hands above her head in protection, seeing the shadows of others continuing to run for a few seconds longer.

She focused her eyes on the floor just ahead of her feet, listening intently as to what was happening when the club went dead. The heavy jazz from the band came to a halt, hearing nothing but her own breathing.

“Get out”

“Yeah? You gonna use that?” she could hear footsteps slowly growing closer to the stage as a thick brummy voice spoke out, “didn’t think so”

She scrunched her eyes tight and tried to hold her breath, realising how heavy she was breathing. There was a moment of silence before she heard the footsteps again, this time making their way away from the stage, just as slowly as before. She lowered her hands from her head hesitantly and dared to look up. She had no idea why she did it herself. Part of her intrigued by the situation, wanting to know what was happening, and another part of her simply having a thrill for danger.

She raised to her body steadily from where she had been cowering at Mario’s side, her eyes setting on the rifle in his hands first before trailing along its barrel to where it was still aimed. She noted the panic on people’s faces, many still cowering at the sides of the club and a few running out of the open door. She could feel their eyes on her, knowing she was the only other person on stage and cursing her decision to move as she became the centre attraction. Her stupidity to move and more than likely the outfit also attracting their attention.

That’s when she caught sight of the men who had caused the mess. The men she had been expecting to fear as soon as she laid eyes on them, the ones that the deranged part of her mind with a sense of excitement for danger was dying to see. But none of these feeling came as she watched him double back when he caught sight of her too. The footsteps that had put her on edge before coming to a halt as he turned back to look at her.

Maybe he shouldn't have recognised her straight away. Maybe, there should have been a slight recollection of the familiar face that left him questioning where he had seen her before. Maybe that would have been the case, if that familiar face hadn't been on his mind every night since that brief moment they met. The girl he met for a moment but would remember for a lifetime. Envisioned in his sleep amongst the tunnels and mud, upholding his sanity when the memory of war crept in.

No one would have guessed he was happy to see her at first. The cold expression resting firmly on his face, eyes piercing into her pretty complexion whilst she stared back; in shock and off guard but somewhat fascinated for reasons even she didn't understand.

It wasn't long before the smirk found its way onto his lips and she in turn managed a slight smile, feeling ridiculous in the skimpy outfit while being stood on stage in the midst of the chaos, now visible to everyone.

“You know him?” Mario spoke from her side, flicking the gun in Tommy’s direction.

Carmen stuttered as she attempted to think of a reply, a sense of anger towards Tommy finding its way to her body as she realised knowing this man who had just stormed their club could jeopardise her chance of the job, but before she could speak Tommy answered for her.

“I wouldn’t suggest know but, our paths have crossed”

And it was that small fact that made his admiration for Carmen so unexplainable, as he simply knew nothing about her but a name. Her eyes glanced sideways at him when he spoke, her mouth staying slightly open and face tense as she considered his words before he caught the glimmer in her eye while she tried to hide a smile.

She looked towards Mario with a quick nod to show her agreement with Tommy. His brow furrowed slightly before he straightened up, lifting the gun back to Tommy who now stood with an amused look on his face, glancing between Mario and Carmen who was trying her hardest not to fidget under the strain of eyes.

“We came here, not to make enemies,” Tommy began again, turning towards the horrified spectators with the rest of his men in tow, “No. We came here to make new friends!”

A taller man stood to his right lifted a leg and swiftly kicked one of the already injured men in the gut as he sprawled across the floor, making the people cry out in horror. Carmen herself couldn’t help but wince slightly at the crunching sound it made.

“Those of you who are last, will soon be first. And those of you who are downtrodden, will rise up.”

They were hovering around the entrance of the club now having strolled through the tables, people stepping closer to the stage as they passed. Carmen squinted, holding a hand above her eyes in the hope to get a clearer view of the men as the mass of stage lights blinded her. She caught sight of Tommy turning back, the only one she was really interested in focusing on. He could see her clearly, nodding his head towards her before he spoke. Not a trace of a smile on his face yet he still made her stomach dance. His eyes having been something she could never shake from her memory.

He pulled his cap back on his head and grabbed a bottle of whisky that stood unaccompanied on the table beside him, giving her a smug smile.

“You know where to find us”

[horse1954]

The Donald

At this point, if you’re still a supporter of Donald Trump, here’s what you really are: You’re someone who’s cemented your place in history as an individual who we’re all going to look back upon with disgust and shame because you were ignorant enough to support the most corrupt, dishonest, vile, and incompetent “president” in United States history. This is a man who has: *Mocked a man with disabilities. *Attacked the parents of a fallen American hero. *Belittled POWs and the war record of Sen. John McCain. *Lied about how much money he raised for veterans. *Called a former Miss Universe “disgusting” and fat, telling his Twitter followers to find her non-existent sex tape. *Accused an American-born federal judge of being unfit to do his job because of his Mexican heritage. *Likely avoided paying taxes for nearly two decades. *Called most Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, even though that’s not remotely factual. *Lied about seeing “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. *Lied about getting a letter from the NFL complaining about the debate schedule. *Tried to exploit the death of an African American woman in Chicago to say that’s why black voters will support him. *Found the “bright side” to tragedies because his poll numbers tend to go up. *Settled with the Department of Justice after his company was found guilty of racially discriminating against minorities. *Was discovered on video admitting that he not only tried to cheat on his current wife, but he attempted to do so with another married woman. *Had his first wife publicly say that he did nothing when it came to raising their children until they were old enough to talk business. *Tweeted that women should have expected to be sexually assaulted when they mixed males and females together in the military. *Said he wants to target the families of terrorists. *Stated that he wants to ban an entire religion. *Praised a Russian president who obviously hates the U.S. and Americans. *Encouraged the Russian government to commit espionage against Americans. Insinuated that another Republican’s wife was ugly. *Tried to implicate another Republican’s father in JFK’s assassination. *Sought out the help of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes after he was fired following multiple allegations that he had sexually harassed women for years. *Made Breitbart’s Steve Bannon one of his top campaign people. *Had a former campaign manager abruptly resign after a report came out linking him to pro-Russian groups that were directly trying to undermine U.S. policy in eastern Europe. *Called Carly Fiorina ugly. *Has said climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese — then denied saying it. *Was a leading conspiracy theorist when it came to the racist-driven birther conspiracies against President Obama. *Dismissed nearly eight years of accusing the president of not being an American with a less than 30 second statement where he didn’t apologize for any of it. *Tried to blame Hillary Clinton for his racism. *Re-tweeted anti-African American propaganda created by a white supremacy group. *Played dumb about knowing who former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke was. Skipped a presidential debate because he was scared of a moderator. *Has, on several occasions, suggested he finds his daughter attractive. *Called a husband doing things like changing diapers and helping with the children, a man “trying to be the wife.” *Has said he wants more countries to have nuclear weapons. *Said he can’t release his tax returns because they’re currently being audited — even though the IRS said that’s a lie. *Feels he has the right to sexually assault women. *Lied, in the face of indisputable photographic evidence, about the size of his inauguration crowd. *Continues to push the unfounded conspiracy that “millions of people voted illegally” because his ego can’t handle the fact Clinton received 3 million more votes than he did. *Disgraced the CIA’s monument to fallen agents by talking about his electoral college victory. *After frequently criticizing President Obama for playing golf, has spent nearly half his weekends since being sworn into office playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. *On pace to cost taxpayers more on “extracurricular” expenses during his first 365 days in office than we spent on Obama during his 2,921 days as president. *Settled a $25 million lawsuit accusing him of purposely creating a fake university to scam people out of money. *Has already broken most of his biggest campaign promises. *Fired the head of the FBI for apparently not “swearing loyalty” and doing what he wanted in regards to the on-going investigations looking into his campaign’s ties to Russians. Then threatened the former head of the FBI just after firing him in an attempt to intimidate him from speaking out publicly. *Pushed an unfounded conspiracy against Barack Obama, accusing him of ordering unconstitutional wiretaps placed in Trump Tower — without providing a shred of evidence to back it up. *Seems to have been working with the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, to undermine congressional investigations into his possible Russian connections. *Had said, despite promising to do so, he doesn’t plan to ever release his tax returns. *Said he didn’t know being “president” would be so hard. *Apparently needed the president of China to explain to him why dealing with North Korea is complicated. *Signed two travel bans against Muslims that were overturned as unconstitutional. *Allowed state-run Russian media to bring electronic and photographic equipment into the Oval Office — while denying entry to any U.S. press — at the request of Vladimir Putin. *Said his surrogates shouldn’t be held accountable for the dishonest or contradictory things they say. *Admitted Australia, which has universal health care, has better health care than we do, then doubled-down on those comments, yet still supports a bill that’s almost the complete opposite of their system. *Months after the election, continues to bring it up the electoral college, even hanging a large printout of it on a wall in the White House. *Didn’t mention the Jewish people once during his speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. *Blamed Democrats for the initial failure of the House of Representatives being able to pass Trumpcare — even though Republicans have a 44-seat majority. *Is now bragging about the very same jobs reports he called “fake” and “phony” prior to taking office. *Continues to call the talk about the investigations into his connections to Russia “FAKE NEWS!” even though the FBI has publicly admitted these investigations are, in fact, real. *Has the lowest approval rating for a president this early into their presidency — in history. *Admitted he lied when he publicly threatened that he might have recorded his conversations with the former head of the FBI he had just fired — in a clear attempt to intimidate James Comey into not speaking out about what the two men had discussed. *Apparently doesn’t understand what “collusion” or “obstruction” actually mean. *Called the very same health care plan he publicly celebrated and said he supports “mean.” *Launched a disgusting attack against “low I.Q” MSNBC’s Mika Brzeninski, accusing her of “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when he saw her back in January, while calling her co-host Joe Scarborough, and former U.S. congressman, “psycho.” -Allen Clifton

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/united-states-of-america/happening-today-joe-biden-putin-kim-measles-r-kelly/

Happening Today: Joe Biden, Putin-Kim, Measles, R. Kelly

What to Know

Former Vice President Joe Biden officially entered the Democratic race for president

Measles in the U.S. has climbed to its highest level in 25 years, closing in on 700 cases this year

A judge has entered a default judgment for a woman who sued R. Kelly, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a minor 20 years ago

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Former VP Joe Biden Announces 2020 Run for President

Former Vice President Joe Biden, a product of the working class who became a key adviser in the Obama administration following a long career in the Senate, officially entered the Democratic race for president, four years after his son’s death led him to decline the opportunity to take on then-candidate Donald Trump. A group of prominent Pennsylvania Democrats, including Sen. Bob Casey, former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, are scheduled to throw a fundraiser for Biden. The fundraiser will be hosted by seven Democratic members of Congress from Pennsylvania, and will take place at the home of David Cohen, former Rendell chief of staff and senior executive vice president of Comcast. Biden, who chased the presidency twice before, enters the 2020 primary as the frontrunner after leading most polls in the already-crowded field of Democratic candidates. But he has decades of political experience that could double as ammunition for his critics.

After Mueller, Trump Says He’ll Fight Dems on All Fronts

Just say no. As House Democrats ramp up their post-Mueller investigations into President Trump, his strategy for responding is simple: Resist on every legal front. The administration is straining to hold off congressional investigators, including their efforts to obtain the president’s tax returns, his business’ financial records and testimony from former senior aides. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump declared on Wednesday. And if House members go all the way and try to impeach him, he said he would “head to the Supreme Court” for help. Portraying himself as unjustly persecuted in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, Trump said his White House would refuse to cooperate with further congressional investigation.

Putin, Kim Discuss How to Break N. Korean Nuclear Standoff

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said they had good talks about their joint efforts to resolve a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, amid stalled negotiations with the United States. Speaking at the start of the discussions at a university on the Russky Island across a bridge from Vladivostok, Putin voiced confidence Kim’s visit will “help better understand what should be done to settle the situation on the Korean Peninsula, what we can do together, what Russia can do to support the positive processes going on now.” Kim’s first trip to Russia comes about two months after his second summit with President Donald Trump failed because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. Putin meanwhile wants to expand Russia’s clout in the region and get more leverage with Washington. Following their one-on-one meeting at the start of broader talks involving officials from both sides, Putin and Kim said they had a good discussion.

US Measles Cases Hit Highest Mark in 25 Years

Measles in the U.S. has climbed to its highest level in 25 years, closing in on 700 cases this year in a resurgence largely attributed to misinformation that is turning parents against vaccines. “This is alarming,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert. Not only is measles dangerous in itself, but its return could mean other vaccine-preventable diseases seemingly consigned to the past may be coming back as well, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 695 cases had been reported in 22 states this year as of Wednesday afternoon. That was up from 626 reported Monday and makes this the nation’s worst year for measles since 1994, with eight months still to go in 2019. There were 963 cases in 1994. Roughly three-quarters of this year’s illnesses in the U.S. have been in New York state, mainly in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County. Most of those cases have been in unvaccinated people. The number of cases is likely to go even higher. Measles is highly contagious and can spread through the air when someone coughs or sneezes.

No Screen Time for Babies; Only 1 Hour for Kids Under 5, UN Says

The World Health Organization has issued its first-ever guidance for how much screen time children under 5 should get: not very much, and none at all for those under 1. The U.N. health agency said kids under 5 should not spend more than one hour watching screens every day — and that less is better. The guidelines are somewhat similar to advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics. That group recommends children younger than 18 months should avoid screens other than video chats. It says parents of young children under two should choose “high-quality programming” with educational value and that can be watched with a parent to help kids understand what they’re seeing. Some groups said WHO’s screen time guidelines failed to consider the potential benefits of digital media. WHO’s screen time advice “overly focuses on quantity of screen time and fails to consider the content and context of use,” said Andrew Przybylski, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. “Not all screen time is created equal.”

Default Judgment Against No-Show R. Kelly in Civil Case

A Cook County judge has entered a default judgment for a woman who sued R. Kelly in February, accusing the singer of sexually abusing her when she was a minor 20 years ago. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the court will enter an amount Kelly should pay next month. It ruled Kelly in default after he never responded to summonses. Separately, Kelly is charged criminally with sexually abusing three girls and a woman. He denies the allegations. Lawsuit filings aren’t clear about links to the criminal case. It’s unclear if Kelly has a lawyer for the civil matter. His criminal attorney, Steve Greenberg, told The Associated Press Wednesday he isn’t involved in the civil case. He added: “I know nothing about it except for what I read in the papers.”

Britney Spears Shares Instagram Video to Reassure Fans She’s Well

Pop singer Britney Spears, who has recently sought mental health treatment, resurfaced on social media to reassure her fans she is doing well. “I wanted to say hi, because things that are being said have just gotten out of control!!! Wow!!! There’s rumors, death threats to my family and my team, and just so many things crazy things being said. I am trying to take a moment for myself, but everything that’s happening is just making it harder for me,” Spears wrote on the post. Spears continued, “Don’t believe everything you read and hear… My situation is unique. But I promise I’m doing what’s best at this moment best at this moment. You may not know this about me, but I am strong, and stand up for what I want! Your love and dedication is amazing, but what I need right now is a little bit of privacy to deal with all the hard things that life is throwing my way. If you could do that, I would be forever grateful. Love you ” Spears Instagram post came a day after the hashtag, #FreeBritney, took social media by storm. Fans concerned about the singer’s well-being sparked the hashtag on Twitter after she checked into a mental health facility to help cope with the stress of dealing with her father, Jamie Spears’ illness.

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[thisdaynews]

12 people and things that ruined British politics

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/12-people-and-things-that-ruined-british-politics/

12 people and things that ruined British politics

Tunku Varadarajan is executive editor at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO Europe.

On December 12, the United Kingdom will conclude the tawdriest election in memory — which is saying a lot, given how inglorious the last one was in 2017.

That election confirmed Theresa May as prime minister — arguably Britain’s second-worst leader since Lord North, the man who lost America in the 18th century. (The worst PM since North is agreed to be David Cameron, for his decision to have a Brexit referendum in 2016, the results of which have poisoned British politics ever since.)

Looking at Boris Johnson, the prime minister, and at Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition, one is hard-pressed to find in history a less edifying pair of party leaders in competition for No. 10 Downing Street.

How did we get here? What follows is a list of a dozen people, institutions or ideas that have turned British politics into an emetic farce.

1. Winston Churchill & Charles de Gaulle

Central Press/Getty Images

The toxic twins on whose bygone fumes Britain chokes today. Churchill’s cherished myth — of a people standing alone in the face of peril from the Continent — entrenched the view that Britain is at its best when on its own.

That imperious ingrate De Gaulle played his part by confirming to Britons that a European compact was a French project. Twice he vetoed Britain’s application to join the European Economic Community, in 1963 and 1967, delivering a resoundingnonto Harold Macmillan and his successor, Ted Heath.

“The French always betray you in the end,” Macmillan wrote in his diary after the first betrayal. Brexit is the much-delayed fruit of those inauspicious beginnings.

2. The National Health Service

Graeme Robertson/Getty Images

Created in 1948 by Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, minister of health in the postwar government of Clement Attlee, the NHS is as much a political shibboleth as it is an institution cherished for giving Britain a veneer of socioeconomic equality.

The NHS has not only distorted rational debate about health and social care, it has become the institution by which a delusional Britain sees itself as a cut above the United States, its free-market fellow traveler. Not surprisingly, politics in recent days has been dominated by fears that the NHS will unravel in any future trade deal with the U.S., as Donald Trump’s barbarians arrive to carve up this sacred cow.

3. Oxford University

William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images

Britain’s oldest — and most worldly — university is the womb of conservative anti-Europeanism.

The Oxford Campaign for an Independent Britain was hatched in 1990 in a High Street coffee shop — in opposition to the Maastricht Treaty, which turned the European Community into the European Union in 1992. Founder members included Tories (or ex-Tories) Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Reckless and Daniel Hannan, the primordial ideologues of Brexit long before the likes of Nigel Farage erupted on the scene.

Modern British politics might, in fact, be seen as an extended spat between Oxford adversaries. These include George Osborne (Cameron’s former No. 2 and would-be successor, now a newspaper editor, who encouraged the demented plan for a referendum); Rory Stewart (a prominent Remainer who ran against Boris, himself an Oxford man and former president of the Oxford Union Society); and Nicky Morgan (a Remainer and Cabinet minister). All of them were members of the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Conservative Association, whose diaper politics in the early 1990s foreshadowed national politics two decades later.

4. The U.K. Supreme Court

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Had the Brexit referendum not bagged first place, the abolition of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords and its replacement by a U.K. Supreme Court would be regarded as the worst political misjudgment by a modern British prime minister.

Created by Tony Blair and his former flatmate-cum-lord chancellor, Charles Falconer, in 2009, the court has an implicit mandate to wade into constitutional questions from which the House of Lords, by demure but wise convention, had always shied away.

Blair shredded centuries of legal and constitutional history with his curial “reform.” The consequences were evident in the court’s recent ruling, in which it found that Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament was unlawful because he didn’t provide adequate reasons for prorogation. This was a ruling without precedent on a matter that the old House of Lords would have regarded as beyond the scope of a court of law.

The court’s chief justice, Baroness Hale, is an unapologetic progressive in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg mold, and it will not be long before the U.K. court is beset by the same problems of partisanship that ail the Supreme Court in the U.S.

5. John Bercow

Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Among the institutional actors that abdicated their responsibility to remain neutral is John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons. Bercow bears a good deal of the responsibility for a poisoned atmosphere in the House of Commons by abandoning his role as referee and, instead, choosing to become a partisan goal-scorer for the Remain side in the Brexit debate.

As speaker, he (with the help of some others in the House) twisted parliamentary conventions to block “no deal” as a position the prime minister could take, thus robbing the government of leverage in its negotiations with the EU. Immodest to a fault, his actions have enraged many voters and corroded popular trust in parliament.

6. ‘The Stalinists’

Will Oliver/EPA

A dark trio of Stalinists steers a course for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In 1976, Andrew Murray, a privately educated young Englishman, joined the British Communist Party. He associated himself with Straight Left, a monthly run by Seamus Milne, above, another posh young Englishman. Fellow Communists knew them as “super tankies” — not just pro-Soviet but Stalinist. Four decades later, they are two of the three people thought to be the inner sanctum around Corbyn, the other being the dauntingly leftist trade union leader Len McCluskey.

Together, they’ve brought Stalinist sectarianism to the running of the Labour Party, once a social-democratic Big Tent but now a body where power is hoarded in closed meetings and loyalty to the leader is all.

7. Anti-Semitism

Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

Transparent anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has contributed to the ugliness of British politics since Corbyn became leader in 2015, when hard-left extremists joined the party in droves. “The vast majority of British Jews,” wrote the Jewish Chronicle in a recent front-page editorial, “consider Jeremy Corbyn to be an anti-Semite.” (The newspaper conducted a poll which found this majority to be 87 percent of all British Jews.)

Corbyn has not only refused to address the problem adequately, he has contributed to it by failing to dispel the belief that he is anti-Semitic himself. The Labour Party is also under investigation for anti-Semitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Only one other party has been investigated by the EHRC for racism: the nakedly nativist British National Party.

8. Priti Patel

Pool photo by Hannah McKay/Getty Images

One of the more incongruous — her critics would say distasteful — sights in British politics this year has been that of Patel, Britain’s first home secretary of Indian origin, telling the Conservative Party conference that she will “end the free movement of people once and for all.”

Patel’s parents are Gujarati immigrants from Uganda who left a few years before Idi Amin stripped all Ugandan Asians of citizenship and expelled them from the country in 1972. Almost all of these refugees were taken in by Britain. Under the strict immigration rules Patel favors, her kith and kin would not have been able to resettle in the U.K. That irony notwithstanding, this Gujarati version of Norman Tebbit says that she, a “daughter of immigrants, needs no lectures from the north London metropolitan, liberal elite.”

9. Bien-Pensant Bubbles

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the British media and educational elites reside in a bubble — or, better put, in a fortress that excludes the entry of inconvenient opinions.

The BBC has displayed a notably monolithic Remain bias, as has Channel 4. And if the print media offers a more varied ideological menu, it is counterbalanced by an enormous anti-Brexit prejudice in the academy — compounded by the modern tendency to favor senior editors with plum jobs as heads of colleges and universities (Will Hutton as principal of Hertford College, Oxford, is one example; Alan Rusbridger at Oxford’s Lady Margaret Hall another).

The bias in universities ranges from individual cases — such as that of A.C. Grayling, a philosopher driven mad by Brexit, who embodies the refusal of extremist Remainers to compromise with the will of the electorate — to entire faculties of EU law at universities. This last group of scholars is a bastion of inflexible Remainer resistance, making Brexit much harder than it otherwise would have been.

10. The Democratic Unionist Party

Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

This cohort need not detain us, for there is no subtlety or nuance to be explained. Adamant in their adherence to the Orange credo of No Surrender to the Irish backstop, these Ulster loyalists have exploited to the limit the “mathematics of the Commons” — to use the phrase of columnist Daniel Finkelstein.

“We have all been trying to find something in Brexit that can unite us,” Finkelstein wrote recently in the London Times. “I’m excited to say that I think I’ve found a contender: we can all agree that we have had enough of the Democratic Unionist Party.”

11. Ed Miliband

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

This is the man — only the second-best politician in his own family — who in 2015 led the Labour Party to its worst general election defeat since 1987. He had shifted the party well to the left, making it sweetly unnecessary for Corbyn, his successor, to have to make a case against centrism and compromise.

More helpful to Corbyn than Labour’s prevailing ideological current were its rules to elect the party leader, which Miliband had changed in 2014 to one-member-one-vote. Members of the public could vote for Corbyn on payment of a mere £3.

This led to a wave of what Trotskyists called “entryism” on the left — with new hardline Corbyn voters flooding the zone — and the rest is history. Labour became unelectable.

12. Michel Barnier & Sabine Weyand

John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

This is the EU’s Brexit negotiating team, a Frenchman and a German woman whom the Brits just could not budge. They’re on this list not because they are malign, but because theirs was a job superbly done. And if the result of their labors was great pain in Britain, it might be said that much of that pain resulted from the Brits shooting not merely their own foot, but also at each other.

UK NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visitPOLITICOPoll of Polls.

Read More

[wetrumpfeed]

Afternoon MAGAthread: YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP!

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!!!!

I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC Easter weekend so far! This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back at it again with all things spicy and dank from the past week! If you happened to miss any past recaps you can catch those here!

Sunday, April 14th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points, and GDP would have been well over 4% instead of 3%...with almost no inflation. Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!

Great Masters going on right now. @TigerWoods is leading with 2 holes left to play. Very exciting, tune in!

Watching final hole of @TheMasters. @TigerWoods is looking GREAT!

Congratulations to @TigerWoods., a truly Great Champion!

Love people who are great under pressure. What a fantastic life comeback for a really great guy!

Such a “puff piece” on Nancy Pelosi by @60minutes, yet her leadership has passed no meaningful Legislation. All they do is Investigate, as it turns out, crimes that they instigated & committed. The Mueller No Collusion decision wasn’t even discussed-and she was a disaster at W.H.

.@SteveHiltonx “This is President Trump trying to deliver on his promises while the bureaucratic machine fights his agenda. He needs populist allies. These changes are not chaos, but rather progress. All this is President Trump at his absolute best.” Thank you Steve!

Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei hires former Obama Cyber Security Official as a lobbyist. This is not good, or acceptable! @FoxNews @SteveHiltonx

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Cher gets redpilled.

Nancy Pelosi is trying to get this video removed from Trump's Twitter account. It would be a shame if it got shared even more.

13 days after Bengazhi

CBS Drama 'The Good Fight' Tweet with ’Assassinate Trump' Sparks Calls for Secret Service Investigation

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

WINNERS ONLY

😂 😂 😂 😂

America Without The Electoral College

Liberals after hearing they may have to face the consequences of the immigration policies they support

State of Reddit since 2016

Monday, April 15th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Proclamation on Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2019

President Trump Participates in a Roundtable Discussion on the Economy and Tax Reform

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name. No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?

Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!

Congress should come back to D.C. now and FIX THE IMMIGRATION LAWS!

Before Nancy, who has lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!

THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN (We will never forget)!

The Radical Left Democrats will never be satisfied with anything we give them. They will always Resist and Obstruct!

I finally agree with @Cher!

Mark Morgan, President Obama’s Border Patrol Chief, gave the following message to me: “President Trump, stay the course.” I agree, and believe it or not, we are making great progress with a system that has been broken for many years!

Those Illegal Immigrants who can no longer be legally held (Congress must fix the laws and loopholes) will be, subject to Homeland Security, given to Sanctuary Cities and States!

The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax. That is, never forget, the crime..... ... ....Since there was no Collusion, why was there an Investigation in the first place! Answer - Dirty Cops, Dems and Crooked Hillary!

Heading to the Great State of Minnesota!

Spoke to @TigerWoods to congratulate him on the great victory he had in yesterday’s @TheMasters, & to inform him that because of his incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!

So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!

The forgotten voters of the 2016 Election are now doing great. The Steel Industry is rebuilding and expanding at a pace that it hasn’t seen in decades. Our Country has one of the best Economies in many years, perhaps ever. Unemployment numbers best in 51 years. Wow!

God bless the people of France!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

What a fucking cunt. Shitting on divorced dads.

Ave Maria

EXPOSED: Clinton Foundation Donor 'Helped Fund' Ukraine Report

Brad Parscale on Twitter: "Tax cuts are real, many in the media just doesn’t want you to know. The truth doesn’t fit their destructive narrative. This is just another collapsing lie in their web of lies."

Jewish Leaders Invited To White House As Democrats Face Accusations Of Anti-Semitism

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

REALITY

Happy Tax Day

DAMMIT JOE! Can't we just have one thing?!

MAGA!

Tucker is calling out Valerie Jarett's new book as a fraud for being #14 on the NYT bestseller list. He cites that Amazon has sold no copies of it LOL. Everything Democrats do is a scam.

Tuesday, April 16th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Proclamation on Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2019

Presidential Veto Message to the Senate to Accompany S.J. Res. 7

The 2019 White House Spring Garden Tours

President Trump Signs Executive Order on Energy

Ivanka Trump Visits Ethiopia

First Lady Melania Trump Visits Fort Bragg

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

A must read, Andy McCarthy’s column today, “Dirty dealings of dirt devils who concocted Trump-Russia probe.” The greatest Scam in political history. If the Mainstream Media were honest, which they are not, this story would be bigger and more important than Watergate. Someday!

No Collusion - No Obstruction!

So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?

I will be in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Saturday, April 27th at the Resch Center — 7:00pm (CDT). Big crowd expected! #MAGA

No Collusion - No Obstruction!

Just signed a critical bill to formalize drought contingency plans for the Colorado River. Thanks to @SenMcSallyAZ for getting it done. Big deal for Arizona!

Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders. Big complaints about not being let in-stuffed with Bernie supporters. What’s with @FoxNews?

Bernie Sanders and wife should pay the Pre-Trump Taxes on their almost $600,000 in income. He is always complaining about these big TAX CUTS, except when it benefits him. They made a fortune off of Trump, but so did everyone else - and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing!

I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)! I look forward to facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!

On Trumps ICC Win, Dems and Republicans See Eye to Eye | RealClearPolitics

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Swalwell: I Will Jail Those Who Defy My Gun Grabbing Agenda

Tucker Carlson: 'In 20 years, every fifth grader will believe 9/11 was committed by white supremacists'

Behind the Obama administration’s shady plan to spy on the Trump campaign

Holy shit! They're pulling the MUh RuSSiA card on Barr now. They are SCARED of this guy! hahahahaha

Democrats can never find the certificates: Somalia-Born Candidate for Congress Accused of Immigration/Marriage Fraud

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Let's all give a loud Huzzah for Jean-Marc Fournier who ran into burning Notre-Dame Cathedral to save the Crown of Thorns

4D chess move!

A little switcharoo there...

Bernie Sanders at the Fox News town hall

I used to be a Democrat

Wednesday, April 17th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Participates in an Opportunity Zone Conference

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Wow! FBI made 11 payments to Fake Dossier’s discredited author, Trump hater Christopher Steele. @OANN @JudicialWatch The Witch Hunt has been a total fraud on your President and the American people! It was brought to you by Dirty Cops, Crooked Hillary and the DNC.

Democrats in Congress must return from their Vacations and change the Immigration Laws, or the Border, despite the great job being done by Border Patrol, will only get worse. Big sections of Wall now being built!

Just had a wonderful conversation with @Pontifex Francis offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. I offered the help of our great experts on renovation and construction as I did.... ... ....in my conversation yesterday with President @EmmanuelMacron of France. I also wished both Pope Francis and President Macron a very Happy Easter!

Nolte: Poll Shows Media Failed to Gaslight Public About Trump Campaign Spying http://bit.ly/2VRXs8K via @BreitbartNews

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Tech Censorship: Instagram Bans Pro-Trump Cartoonist Ben Garrison

Justice Dept. to end ‘catch and release’ detention for migrants

HOLY...FUCKING...SHIT ! WAPO Editorial column admits Fox News was right all along, compares the anti Trump fake news bias in media is worthy of investigation. Compares bias to Watergate.

Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference to discuss Mueller report at 9:30 AM ET Thursday. Rosenstein will be there also.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Caught red handed: Melania meets with Bill Barr just before release of Mueller report, they both say they discussed grandchildren...oh wait

White Leftists IRL

#HillarysBitch

Muhammad the gay icon🏳️‍🌈😘

Winning!

Face it Sleepy Sessions supporters! Your boy was an impotent loser. Finally, Barr is doing what should've been done 2 years ago. Change my mind.

Thursday, April 18th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats.

PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!

Attorney General William Barr’s Press Conference today at 9:30 AM ET. Watch on @FoxNews @OANN

No Collusion - No Obstruction!

As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!

EPIC meme

Today, I was thrilled to host the @WWP Soldier Ride once again at the @WhiteHouse. We were all deeply honored to be in the presence of TRUE AMERICAN HEROES....

“Donald Trump was being framed, he fought back. That is not Obstruction.” @JesseBWatters I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn’t!

Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.

When there is not an underlying crime with regard to Collusion (in fact, the whole thing was a made up fraud), it is difficult to say that someone is obstructing something. There was no underlying crime.” @marthamaccallum @FoxNews

“If dozens of Federal prosecutors spent two years trying to charge you with a crime, and found they couldn’t, it would mean there wasn’t any evidence you did it - and that’s what happened here - that’s what we just learned from the Mueller Report.” @TuckerCarlson

“The Mueller Report is perhaps the single most humiliating thing that has ever happened to the White House Press in the history of this Country. They know they lied...Many reporters lied about Russia Collusion and so much more. Clapper & Brennan, all lies” @TuckerCarlson

Kimberley Strassel should get the Pulitzer. She is a treasure (and I don’t know her) who correctly called the Russia Hoax right from the start! Others who were soooo wrong will get the Prize. Fake News!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

ATTY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR BRIEFS THE NATION PRIOR TO RELEASING THE MUELLER REPORT - LIVE

Trump 2020 Campaign statement from @parscale on the #MuellerReport - "The Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served."

MAGAthread: The Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election.

Preliminary Mueller Report Analysis: Pedes Who Predicted A Cover Up Were Right

President Trump Responds to Barr Presser: I'm Having a Good Day, No Collusion, No Obstruction

VP Mike Pence: No Collusion — No Obstruction. My statement below:

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Say it with me folks: No Collusion

IMAGINE BEING MAD THAT YOUR PRESIDENT DIDNT COMMIT A CRIME. 🤣😂🤣😂😆

Pepe is up and at the salt mine ready for a record harvest today. There is said to be so much salt that Pepe won’t be able to mine it all on his own. Will you help Pepe?

President Trump: Time to Turn the Tables

An Homage to #RussiaGate

Friday, April 19th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Proclamation on National Park Week, 2019

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called “notes,” when the notes never existed until needed. Because I never.... ... ...agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the “Report” about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad). This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened, a... ... ....big, fat, waste of time, energy and money - $30,000,000 to be exact. It is now finally time to turn the tables and bring justice to some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even Spying or Treason. This should never happen again!

The Washington Post and New York Times are, in my opinion, two of the most dishonest media outlets around. Truly, the Enemy of the People!

Time for Democrats to accept reality

(Retweeting Matt Gaetz) “You have guys that come through here that do this for a living…they bring groups across, they bring drugs across.”Sheriff Mark Lamb from @PinalCSO showed us today how illegal immigrants and smugglers travel through the Arizona desert. @RepAndyBiggsAZ @sherifflamb1

(Retweeting Mark Levin) More on the phony collusion scam

(Retweeting Sean Hannity) Mueller’s Final Report ‘Completely Vindicates’ President Trump 👇

“TRUMP HAS BEEN TOTALLY VINDICATED”

Wishing a Happy Passover to all those celebrating in America, Israel, and around the world!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

VERY CLEAN PRESIDENT - DEM. HOAX DESTROYED

SARA CARTER ON HANNITY: “There will be indictments. There will be an avalanche. According the sources I was speaking with just today people are already turning on each other. We are going to see senior officials at DOJ & FBI throw each other under the bus to save themselves.

Ben Carson To Kick Illegal Immigrants Out Of HUD Housing, Will Give Aid To Poor Americans Instead

Team Trump: Why didn’t President Obama act when he first heard of Russian interference?

Thank you!

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Grandpa Trump

I just love GEOTUS and his way of explaining things.

They’re gonna spend a year and a half trying to out-socialism each other while simultaneously trying to impeach the most successful POTUS in modern history. Buy stock in popcorn companies. 🍿

LMAO - Lyin' Brian Williams of MSNBC asks Jay Sekulow where Mueller Report says "No collusion" - Sekulow reads the second page

Have a Blessed Good Friday Pedes

Saturday, April 20th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!

The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to stir up and anger the pols and as many people as possible seldom mentioning the fact that the Mueller Report had as its principle conclusion the fact that there was NO COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA. The Russia Hoax is dead!

United States weekly jobless claims just hit a 50 year low. The economy is doing GREAT!

The end result of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history is No Collusion with Russia (and No Obstruction). Pretty Amazing!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Trump 2020 campaign donations soar after Mueller report with $1 MILLION pouring in just a day after its release | Daily Mail Online

Top 10 things the media got wrong about ‘collusion’ and ‘obstruction’

Rush Limbaugh says Mueller should be: 'Trump attempted to obstruct our coup'

Kim Foxx issues a statement saying she wont be saying anything - as another member of her team steps down. This arrogant bitch is going down!

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Happy Easter Mr. President, May God Bless You and This Country!

Walls Work!

Omar Blaming Trump For Her Mouth

TOTALLY VINDICATED!

Some tunes to help you jam through all this winning:

FACE

spitshine

helga

suede

Why iii Love The Moon

MAGA ON PATRIOTS!

submitted by /u/Ivaginaryfriend [link] [comments]

[robgrayofficial]

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!!!!I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC Easter weekend so far! This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back at it again with all things spicy and dank from the past week! If you happened to miss any past recaps you can catch those here!Sunday, April 14th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points, and GDP would have been well over 4% instead of 3%...with almost no inflation. Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!Great Masters going on right now. @TigerWoods is leading with 2 holes left to play. Very exciting, tune in!Watching final hole of @TheMasters. @TigerWoods is looking GREAT!Congratulations to @TigerWoods., a truly Great Champion!Love people who are great under pressure. What a fantastic life comeback for a really great guy!Such a “puff piece” on Nancy Pelosi by @60minutes, yet her leadership has passed no meaningful Legislation. All they do is Investigate, as it turns out, crimes that they instigated & committed. The Mueller No Collusion decision wasn’t even discussed-and she was a disaster at W.H..@SteveHiltonx “This is President Trump trying to deliver on his promises while the bureaucratic machine fights his agenda. He needs populist allies. These changes are not chaos, but rather progress. All this is President Trump at his absolute best.” Thank you Steve!Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei hires former Obama Cyber Security Official as a lobbyist. This is not good, or acceptable! @FoxNews @SteveHiltonxSIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Cher gets redpilled.Nancy Pelosi is trying to get this video removed from Trump's Twitter account. It would be a shame if it got shared even more.13 days after BengazhiCBS Drama 'The Good Fight' Tweet with ’Assassinate Trump' Sparks Calls for Secret Service Investigation🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:WINNERS ONLY😂 😂 😂 😂America Without The Electoral CollegeLiberals after hearing they may have to face the consequences of the immigration policies they supportState of Reddit since 2016Monday, April 15th:TODAY'S ACTION:Proclamation on Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2019President Trump Participates in a Roundtable Discussion on the Economy and Tax Reform🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name. No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!Congress should come back to D.C. now and FIX THE IMMIGRATION LAWS!Before Nancy, who has lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN (We will never forget)!The Radical Left Democrats will never be satisfied with anything we give them. They will always Resist and Obstruct!I finally agree with @Cher!Mark Morgan, President Obama’s Border Patrol Chief, gave the following message to me: “President Trump, stay the course.” I agree, and believe it or not, we are making great progress with a system that has been broken for many years!Those Illegal Immigrants who can no longer be legally held (Congress must fix the laws and loopholes) will be, subject to Homeland Security, given to Sanctuary Cities and States!The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax. That is, never forget, the crime..... ... ....Since there was no Collusion, why was there an Investigation in the first place! Answer - Dirty Cops, Dems and Crooked Hillary!Heading to the Great State of Minnesota!Spoke to @TigerWoods to congratulate him on the great victory he had in yesterday’s @TheMasters, & to inform him that because of his incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!The forgotten voters of the 2016 Election are now doing great. The Steel Industry is rebuilding and expanding at a pace that it hasn’t seen in decades. Our Country has one of the best Economies in many years, perhaps ever. Unemployment numbers best in 51 years. Wow!God bless the people of France!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:What a fucking cunt. Shitting on divorced dads.Ave MariaEXPOSED: Clinton Foundation Donor 'Helped Fund' Ukraine ReportBrad Parscale on Twitter: "Tax cuts are real, many in the media just doesn’t want you to know. The truth doesn’t fit their destructive narrative. This is just another collapsing lie in their web of lies."Jewish Leaders Invited To White House As Democrats Face Accusations Of Anti-Semitism🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:REALITYHappy Tax DayDAMMIT JOE! Can't we just have one thing?!MAGA!Tucker is calling out Valerie Jarett's new book as a fraud for being #14 on the NYT bestseller list. He cites that Amazon has sold no copies of it LOL. Everything Democrats do is a scam.Tuesday, April 16th:TODAY'S ACTION:Proclamation on Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2019Presidential Veto Message to the Senate to Accompany S.J. Res. 7The 2019 White House Spring Garden ToursPresident Trump Signs Executive Order on EnergyIvanka Trump Visits EthiopiaFirst Lady Melania Trump Visits Fort Bragg🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:A must read, Andy McCarthy’s column today, “Dirty dealings of dirt devils who concocted Trump-Russia probe.” The greatest Scam in political history. If the Mainstream Media were honest, which they are not, this story would be bigger and more important than Watergate. Someday!No Collusion - No Obstruction!So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?I will be in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Saturday, April 27th at the Resch Center — 7:00pm (CDT). Big crowd expected! #MAGANo Collusion - No Obstruction!Just signed a critical bill to formalize drought contingency plans for the Colorado River. Thanks to @SenMcSallyAZ for getting it done. Big deal for Arizona!Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders. Big complaints about not being let in-stuffed with Bernie supporters. What’s with @FoxNews?Bernie Sanders and wife should pay the Pre-Trump Taxes on their almost $600,000 in income. He is always complaining about these big TAX CUTS, except when it benefits him. They made a fortune off of Trump, but so did everyone else - and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing!I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)! I look forward to facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!On Trumps ICC Win, Dems and Republicans See Eye to Eye | RealClearPoliticsSIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Swalwell: I Will Jail Those Who Defy My Gun Grabbing AgendaTucker Carlson: 'In 20 years, every fifth grader will believe 9/11 was committed by white supremacists'Behind the Obama administration’s shady plan to spy on the Trump campaignHoly shit! They're pulling the MUh RuSSiA card on Barr now. They are SCARED of this guy! hahahahahaDemocrats can never find the certificates: Somalia-Born Candidate for Congress Accused of Immigration/Marriage Fraud🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Let's all give a loud Huzzah for Jean-Marc Fournier who ran into burning Notre-Dame Cathedral to save the Crown of Thorns4D chess move!A little switcharoo there...Bernie Sanders at the Fox News town hallI used to be a DemocratWednesday, April 17th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Participates in an Opportunity Zone Conference🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Wow! FBI made 11 payments to Fake Dossier’s discredited author, Trump hater Christopher Steele. @OANN @JudicialWatch The Witch Hunt has been a total fraud on your President and the American people! It was brought to you by Dirty Cops, Crooked Hillary and the DNC.Democrats in Congress must return from their Vacations and change the Immigration Laws, or the Border, despite the great job being done by Border Patrol, will only get worse. Big sections of Wall now being built!Just had a wonderful conversation with @Pontifex Francis offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. I offered the help of our great experts on renovation and construction as I did.... ... ....in my conversation yesterday with President @EmmanuelMacron of France. I also wished both Pope Francis and President Macron a very Happy Easter!Nolte: Poll Shows Media Failed to Gaslight Public About Trump Campaign Spying http://bit.ly/2VRXs8K via @BreitbartNewsSIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Tech Censorship: Instagram Bans Pro-Trump Cartoonist Ben GarrisonJustice Dept. to end ‘catch and release’ detention for migrantsHOLY...FUCKING...SHIT ! WAPO Editorial column admits Fox News was right all along, compares the anti Trump fake news bias in media is worthy of investigation. Compares bias to Watergate.Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference to discuss Mueller report at 9:30 AM ET Thursday. Rosenstein will be there also.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Caught red handed: Melania meets with Bill Barr just before release of Mueller report, they both say they discussed grandchildren...oh waitWhite Leftists IRL#HillarysBitchMuhammad the gay icon🏳️‍🌈😘Winning!Face it Sleepy Sessions supporters! Your boy was an impotent loser. Finally, Barr is doing what should've been done 2 years ago. Change my mind.Thursday, April 18th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Delivers Remarks at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats.PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!Attorney General William Barr’s Press Conference today at 9:30 AM ET. Watch on @FoxNews @OANNNo Collusion - No Obstruction!As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!EPIC memeToday, I was thrilled to host the @WWP Soldier Ride once again at the @WhiteHouse. We were all deeply honored to be in the presence of TRUE AMERICAN HEROES....“Donald Trump was being framed, he fought back. That is not Obstruction.” @JesseBWatters I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted. I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn’t!Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.When there is not an underlying crime with regard to Collusion (in fact, the whole thing was a made up fraud), it is difficult to say that someone is obstructing something. There was no underlying crime.” @marthamaccallum @FoxNews“If dozens of Federal prosecutors spent two years trying to charge you with a crime, and found they couldn’t, it would mean there wasn’t any evidence you did it - and that’s what happened here - that’s what we just learned from the Mueller Report.” @TuckerCarlson“The Mueller Report is perhaps the single most humiliating thing that has ever happened to the White House Press in the history of this Country. They know they lied...Many reporters lied about Russia Collusion and so much more. Clapper & Brennan, all lies” @TuckerCarlsonKimberley Strassel should get the Pulitzer. She is a treasure (and I don’t know her) who correctly called the Russia Hoax right from the start! Others who were soooo wrong will get the Prize. Fake News!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:ATTY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR BRIEFS THE NATION PRIOR TO RELEASING THE MUELLER REPORT - LIVETrump 2020 Campaign statement from @parscale on the #MuellerReport - "The Obama-era DOJ and FBI must answer for their misdeeds and the scam that they perpetrated against the American people. Justice will be served."MAGAthread: The Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election.Preliminary Mueller Report Analysis: Pedes Who Predicted A Cover Up Were RightPresident Trump Responds to Barr Presser: I'm Having a Good Day, No Collusion, No ObstructionVP Mike Pence: No Collusion — No Obstruction. My statement below:🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Say it with me folks: No CollusionIMAGINE BEING MAD THAT YOUR PRESIDENT DIDNT COMMIT A CRIME. 🤣😂🤣😂😆Pepe is up and at the salt mine ready for a record harvest today. There is said to be so much salt that Pepe won’t be able to mine it all on his own. Will you help Pepe?President Trump: Time to Turn the TablesAn Homage to #RussiaGateFriday, April 19th:TODAY'S ACTION:Proclamation on National Park Week, 2019🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called “notes,” when the notes never existed until needed. Because I never.... ... ...agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the “Report” about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad). This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened, a... ... ....big, fat, waste of time, energy and money - $30,000,000 to be exact. It is now finally time to turn the tables and bring justice to some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even Spying or Treason. This should never happen again!The Washington Post and New York Times are, in my opinion, two of the most dishonest media outlets around. Truly, the Enemy of the People!Time for Democrats to accept reality(Retweeting Matt Gaetz) “You have guys that come through here that do this for a living…they bring groups across, they bring drugs across.”Sheriff Mark Lamb from @PinalCSO showed us today how illegal immigrants and smugglers travel through the Arizona desert. @RepAndyBiggsAZ @sherifflamb1(Retweeting Mark Levin) More on the phony collusion scam(Retweeting Sean Hannity) Mueller’s Final Report ‘Completely Vindicates’ President Trump 👇“TRUMP HAS BEEN TOTALLY VINDICATED”Wishing a Happy Passover to all those celebrating in America, Israel, and around the world!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:VERY CLEAN PRESIDENT - DEM. HOAX DESTROYEDSARA CARTER ON HANNITY: “There will be indictments. There will be an avalanche. According the sources I was speaking with just today people are already turning on each other. We are going to see senior officials at DOJ & FBI throw each other under the bus to save themselves.Ben Carson To Kick Illegal Immigrants Out Of HUD Housing, Will Give Aid To Poor Americans InsteadTeam Trump: Why didn’t President Obama act when he first heard of Russian interference?Thank you!🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Grandpa TrumpI just love GEOTUS and his way of explaining things.They’re gonna spend a year and a half trying to out-socialism each other while simultaneously trying to impeach the most successful POTUS in modern history. Buy stock in popcorn companies. 🍿LMAO - Lyin' Brian Williams of MSNBC asks Jay Sekulow where Mueller Report says "No collusion" - Sekulow reads the second pageHave a Blessed Good Friday PedesSaturday, April 20th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to stir up and anger the pols and as many people as possible seldom mentioning the fact that the Mueller Report had as its principle conclusion the fact that there was NO COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA. The Russia Hoax is dead!United States weekly jobless claims just hit a 50 year low. The economy is doing GREAT!The end result of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history is No Collusion with Russia (and No Obstruction). Pretty Amazing!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Trump 2020 campaign donations soar after Mueller report with $1 MILLION pouring in just a day after its release | Daily Mail OnlineTop 10 things the media got wrong about ‘collusion’ and ‘obstruction’Rush Limbaugh says Mueller should be: 'Trump attempted to obstruct our coup'Kim Foxx issues a statement saying she wont be saying anything - as another member of her team steps down. This arrogant bitch is going down!🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Happy Easter Mr. President, May God Bless You and This Country!Walls Work!Omar Blaming Trump For Her MouthTOTALLY VINDICATED!Some tunes to help you jam through all this winning:FACEspitshinehelgasuedeWhy iii Love The MoonMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

[democratsunited-blog]

As U.S. midterms near, Israel seen needing less love for Trump and better ties with Democrats - U.S. News

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=9613

As U.S. midterms near, Israel seen needing less love for Trump and better ties with Democrats - U.S. News

WASHINGTON — Last week Haaretz reported on an internal Foreign Ministry document that outlines Israel’s top diplomatic objectives for the upcoming year. One goal is “strengthening ties with the Democratic Party” in the United States; there was also a reiteration of the importance of bipartisan support in Washington.

The same objectives were mentioned by Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, at a speech last week during a Rosh Hashanah reception. “The Jewish people are a very big tent,” Dermer said, adding that the event hosted people “from across the political and ideological divide. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. We should always remember that despite our differences, we are still one people.”

>> U.S. split on Israel: Netanyahu favorite leader of Republicans, unpopular among Democrats

It’s no surprise that almost two years after President Donald Trump’s surprise victory, making November’s midterm elections particularly contentious, Israeli diplomats are stressing bipartisanship. Israeli officials are emphasizing their concerns about support for Israel among Democrats, especially among younger voters and minorities.

These concerns have been reinforced by a number of polls over the past year. One recent survey showed that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is relatively popular among Republicans, he’s very unpopular among Democrats. An earlier poll showed that fewer Democrats choose to state they sympathize with Israel more than with the Palestinians.

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Following the news of the Foreign Ministry report last Wednesday, Haaretz spoke to experts and former American and Israeli officials on what can be done to strengthen Israel’s standing among Democrats.

Dan Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel for most of the Obama administration, says that while it’s good to see Israeli officials addressing the issue, “there’s no doubt that more can be done.”

Shapiro says the most urgent thing Israel can do is “convince Democratic voters that it is committed to achieving a two-state solution, even if not in the immediate future. The view right now is that this government isn’t committed to keeping the two-state solution alive. That’s not helpful in any way.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigns for fellow Democrat Kaniela Ing ahead of a Democratic primary, Honolulu, August 9, 2018.Marco Garcia / Reuters

Two states, anyone?

The current right-wing government in Jerusalem doesn’t officially support a two-state solution. In fact, it offers no official solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.

Shapiro warns that this “raises questions” about Israel’s direction. The bond between Israel and the United States is based “on common values and security interests,” he says. The common-values part of the equation is threatened by the idea of permanent Israeli control over the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem without providing equal rights.

>> Meet the bigots running in the U.S. midterms (and one of them is Jewish) ■ This Jewish community in the ‘ultimate swing state’ will play a crucial role in deciding who controls the Senate ■ This young progressive could become the first Palestinian-American congresswoman << 

Democrat Ilhan Omar speaks during an interview at a cafe in Minneapolis, August 16. 2018.Jeff Baenen / AP

According to Shapiro, the Israeli government’s relationship with Trump could also be less flattering. “It’s natural for any foreign government to want to enjoy a strong and healthy relationship with the American president,” he says.

“Nobody expects Israel not to strive for that goal. But there is a difference between thanking the administration for decisions that Israel supports, and embracing the president’s politics and speaking of him sometimes in almost messianic terms. That is unnecessary and it can be alienating for those who disagree with him.”

Shalom Lipner, a former official at the Prime Minister’s Office who has worked extensively on Israel’s ties with world Jewry, makes a similar point on how Netanyahu and other senior officials talk about Trump.

“Everyone understands that the prime minister and the ambassador to Washington have to work closely with the administration and to thank him for his support,” Lipner says. The problem is that sometimes they choose to flatter Trump in ways that “create division and tension,” Lipner says.

“I’m not sure it’s necessary to constantly emphasize, again and again, how much this president is supposedly ‘the greatest supporter Israel has ever had’ – which is clearly a comparison to his predecessors.”

Lipner says that while such statements are appreciated by Trump, “they are also heard by people in the Democratic Party and in the parts of the Republican Party that are less satisfied with Trump. I understand what Israel gains by doing this, but it’s important to also think about the future price.”

Israel, Lipner adds, can’t accept a scenario in which it becomes a partisan issue associated clearly with the Republicans. “American politics go through pendulum swings every few years. If Israel will give up the Democratic Party, just because right now there are some challenges, that will cause trouble.”

Shapiro says Israel should look not only at national American politics, but also at ties with local officials at the state and municipal level. “You have to work with governors, mayors, state legislators and in some places even city council members,” he says. “If you don’t invest in a bipartisan approach, you’ll lose many places.”

New generation

Democrats have suffered big losses at the state level over the past decade, but they’ve won a string of victories in local elections since Trump entered the White House – including in races that took in parts of the country previously considered solidly Republican.

Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, says she wasn’t surprised to see the Foreign Ministry prioritize ties with the Democratic Party as an objective for the coming year.

“Israelis are very politically astute, and they’re seeing what we’re all seeing, which is a blue wave coming in November,” she says. “Americans as a whole are overwhelmingly rejecting the administration’s policies. We believe this will lead to an overwhelming election this November.”

Soifer rejects the notion that Israel should be concerned about its standing with the Democrats. “There is a natural alliance between the Democratic Party and Israel. Democrats in Congress are overwhelmingly supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship and of military aid to Israel,” she says. “That will not change. This will always continue and it will even increase.”

While it’s true that the vast majority of Democrats in Congress consistently support military aid to Israel and oppose boycotts and sanctions against Israel (and the West Bank settlements), Israeli officials are concerned about the new generation of Democratic politicians much more critical of Israel and its policies. That includes at least three politicians who will very likely be elected to Congress this November – Rashida Tlaib in Michigan (who is poised to become the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress), Ilhan Omar in Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.

One Israeli official who requested anonymity said that “we have great friends and supporters in both parties. Overall, support for Israel is still strong and bipartisan in the United States. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore some worrying trends that are taking place. I don’t think we have a real problem right now with either one of the parties, but I do think we could have a problem in the future. That’s why we need to start working on it today.”

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[pamphletstoinspire]

Understanding The Bible - A Practical Guide To Each Book In The Bible - Part 32

Written by: PETER KREEFT

NINE

________

The First Systematic Christian Theology: Romans

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Romans “the most profound book in existence”. Godet called it “the cathedral of the Christian faith”. It is placed first among the epistles not only because it is the longest, but also because it is the greatest.

Romans was probably written shortly before Nero’s persecution began in A.D. 64. According to Tacitus, the Roman historian, Christians were already “an immense multitude” then.

Paul had not founded the Roman church, Peter had. But Paul came to Rome to appear before the emperor and to be martyred. Acts ends with his preaching the gospel from house arrest in Rome.

Rome was, of course, the center of the entire world, the greatest city in the world in power and population, but already decadent with slavery, political corruption, and extremes of wealth and poverty. Into this cesspool, Paul drops the seed of the gospel, which was to conquer the world.

Romans is the only systematic theology in the Bible, except for Hebrews, which is not about Christianity as such but about Christianity and Judaism, like Romans 9 to 11. But Christianity is not a theory, a philosophy, but a story, “news”. The epistles interpret this “news”. They teach timeless truths, but truths about time: (1) the significance of the temporal events in the Gospels, especially Christ’s death, the event each Gospel lingers longest over; and (2) the outworking of these events in our lifetimes.

The main point of Romans, and of Christianity, and of life itself, is Christ. Romans presents Him as the Second Adam, the new man, and humanity’s second chance. He is “the righteousness of God”. This is the phrase Paul uses to identify his main theme at the beginning (1:16-17): “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” This is a two-verse summary of the entire book.

Romans is the book that sparked the Protestant Reformation when Luther discovered the doctrine of justification by faith in it. The Catholic Church teaches this doctrine too, of course. The Church cannot contradict the Bible. That would be like a house contradicting its foundation. Nor is there any contradiction between Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith (in Romans and Galatians) and James’ teaching that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:14-26). Luther thought there was, and he called James “an epistle of straw”. But even Romans includes James’ point. It ends with chapters 12 to 16 about the necessity of good works.

There is no book in the Bible in which it is more necessary to look at the outline. For Romans is an extended logical argument, especially chapters 1-8. The more you read, study, and think about it, the tighter and clearer it becomes. It is much better to do the detailed outlining yourself than to let any commentator do it for you. It may sound like dull “schoolwork”, but you will find it extremely rewarding and even exciting.

The unity of the argument centers around four key concepts: righteousness, faith, law, and sin. Paul uses each term over sixty times. The main outline is as follows:

Personal Introduction: 1:1-15

Main Theme: 1:16-17

I. Doctrine

  A. Christianity

    1. The problem, the bad news, sin: 1:18-3:20

    2. The solution, the good news, salvation: 3:21-8:39

  B. Judaism: 9-11

II. Practice: 12-15

Personal postscripts: 16

At each major transition point in Paul’s argument, there is a key “therefore” or “but”.

The major transition, from sin to salvation, in the passage of 3:20-21, is this: “For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law. . . . But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law” (emphasis mine).

Chapter 5 draws a corollary with another “therefore”: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Chapter 6 also begins with a “therefore”: “What shall we say then [therefore]? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!”

Finally, chapter 8, Paul’s great, triumphant conclusion, begins with the final “therefore”: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Each chapter expands upon its first verse, exploring a new step in the argument.

The first step is the problem, the “bad news” that we all have a mortal disease called sin, “the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile)”. The good news is that all are offered salvation, “the Jew first and also the Greek. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Gentiles may think they have an excuse because they do not have divine revelation, so Paul first shows that Gentiles are inexcusable and responsible for their sins because they too know God, by nature and conscience. This passage (1:18-31) lays the foundation for “natural (rational) theology”.

Jews may think they need no Savior because they do have revelation and are God’s chosen people. Paul replies that the Jewish law cannot save you if you disobey it, and all do (2:1-3:8).

This demolishes the answer most Catholics give to the most important question in the world: How are you going to get to Heaven? Most Catholic students I have polled think they will be saved because their obedience to some law is good enough, whether the Ten Commandments or the principles of pop psychology.

The good news makes no sense unless you believe the bad news first. A free operation is not good news if you don’t think you have a mortal disease. In a more realistic age, the main obstacle to believing in Christianity was the good news. It seemed like a fairy tale, too good to be true. Today the main obstacle is the bad news: people just don’t believe in sin, even though that’s the only Christian doctrine that can be proven simply by reading daily newspapers. When did you last hear anyone, even your priest, use “the s-word”?

Calling a person sinful is not to deny that his being remains good, any more than calling the statue of Venus de Milo a damaged work of art means denying that its sculptor created a masterpiece. Humanity is a good thing gone bad, the image of God in rebellion against God, God’s beloved in a state of divorce.

The transition from the bad news (1:18-3:20) to the good news (3:21 ff.) is objectively Jesus’ death and subjectively our faith. More exactly, Paul mentions three aspects of justification: by grace, by blood, and by faith. Its origin is grace (3:21-24), its means is Christ’s death (3:25-26), and our reception of it is by faith (3:27-31).

Paul distinguishes three steps in God’s plan for our salvation: (1) the Father’s plan and predestination, (2) our justification by the death of the Son, and (3) our sanctification now and glorification hereafter by the Spirit. Salvation, like God, is trinitarian.

Chapter 4 proves that even Abraham was justified by faith. It incidentally demolishes the common fallacy that Judaism is only a religion of law, justice, judgment, and fear, while Christianity invented grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.

Chapter 5 explores the consequences of justification by faith, including peace with God (5:1), joy in suffering (5:3-8), and hope rather than fear toward God’s judgment (5:9-11).

Then comes the contrast between Adam and Christ (the Second Adam), as the historical basis for the two main points, original sin and salvation.

Chapter 6 answers the natural objection: Why not go ahead and sin if we’re saved by grace, not by law? The answer is that our identity is now bound up in Christ. We are new creatures, little Christs. We hate and avoid sin now not out of fear of punishment (the former motive), nor simply out of gratitude (Luther’s answer, but not Paul’s here), but because of who we are: Christ’s. The point in Romans 6:1-3 is the same as in 1 Corinthians 6:15.

If we are alive with Christ’s life, we are dead to Adam, sin, and the law. Chapter 7 explores this death. God gave us the law not to save us but to reveal our sinfulness, not as our operation but as our X-ray. Not law but Spirit saves us—that is, God the Holy Spirit, really present in the believer’s soul.

This salvation is completed by our sanctification. Jesus is called “Savior” not because He saves us only from punishment for sin but because He saves us from sin. The three trinitarian aspects of salvation are like the root, stem, and flower of a beautiful plant. But the flower is the fairest, and the consummation. It is fitting, then, that chapter 8 is the fairest, most joyful chapter in the Bible. Our sanctification in this life (8:1-17) and our glorification in the next (8:18-39) are the point of the whole divine plot. Tolkien calls this “happy ending” the “eucatastrophe”, the good catastrophe. “There is no tale ever told that men more wish to be true”, he says. But unlike lesser fairy tales, this one is!

The next three chapters in Romans show how Christianity views Judaism: their past election by God (chap. 9), their present rejection of God (chap. 10), and their future restoration by God (chap. 11).

The concluding practical, moral chapters include the seminal passage about the Christian and politics (13:1-7), love as the fulfillment of the law (13:10), the best passage in the Bible for the aging (13:11-12), the passage that delivered Saint Augustine (13:14; see Confessions 8,12), and the meaning of “life or death” (14:7-8), among other gems. Romans, quite literally, shows us the way to Heaven, the way to receive God’s greatest gift—eternal life with Him. Who could ask for anything more or settle for anything less?

[blackchristiannewswire]

When a Conservative Republican Black Pastor Is Told he Is 'Not Black Enough', Dr. Michael Brown Is Led to Ask 'Is Black a Color or an Ideology?'

[caption id="attachment_428870" align="aligncenter" width="564"] (PHOTO: REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ) Protesters hoist a sign reading "black lives matter" as they demonstrate in New York City.[/caption] One of my friends is a black pastor. He is also a conservative Republican. As a result of his political views, he has been told by many of his friends that he is not black enough. And that leads to an obvious question: Is black an ideology and not just a color? If so, since when, and why? I imagine that Kanye West would have something to say about this today. He has come under heavy criticism for his positive tweet about black conservative Candace Owens, followed by even more intense criticism for his open support of President Trump. As noted by the strongly-leftist Teen Vogue, "People have expressed everything from rage at what they feel is a form of betrayal in his coming out as a Trump supporter to concern about his mental health." But where is it written that blacks must be Democrats or liberals? Where is the betrayal? As Chance the Rapper tweeted, "Black people don't have to be democrats." (By no means, though, was he expressing support for Trump, as his following comments made clear.) It's true that a large percentage of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. But that was ideologically driven based on their evangelical convictions, not their whiteness. For them, defeating the ultra-liberal, pro-abortion Democrat, Hillary Clinton was of paramount concern. (According to exit polls, 57 percent of whites voted for Trump, 37 for Clinton, and 6 percent for other candidates, or they didn't respond to the poll. So, the white vote as a whole was hardly monolithic. Plus, there has been a steady stream of white evangelical resistance to Trump.) It's true that a large percentage of American Jews voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That too was ideologically driven, since most American Jews are quite liberal, espousing a highly humanistic form of Judaism. In contrast, the more traditional a Jewish person is, the more he or she is to vote Republican. Exit polls also indicated that two-thirds of Asians and Latinos voted for Hillary (compared to slightly over one-quarter who voted for Trump), and among other races, 56 percent voted for Hillary and 36 percent for Trump. So, while the clear majority of non-white voters stood for Hillary, they were hardly monolithic in their vote. In contrast, the black vote for Hillary was 89 percent, with only 8 percent for Trump (and 3 percent other or no answer). Why this overwhelmingly high percentage of black support for Hillary? It's perfectly understandable that many black voters would have cast their lot with President Obama, recognizing the historic importance of having our first black president. But their support for him in 2012 was not that much higher than their support for Hillary Clinton in 2016 or other Democratic candidates in previous elections. Why the assumption that blacks will vote Democrat? On average, black Americans are more religious than white Americans, and many black Americans have strong, pro-family roots. How then do they end up being Democrats in such high numbers? Planned Parenthood hasn't done them any favors. (Massive understatement.) The welfare system has not elevated their status. Identity politics have not served them well. Why, then, can a black pastor be told that he is not black enough because of his conservative political views? The obvious answer is that African Americans share a unique history (and, often, ongoing experience), because of which they share certain beliefs and convictions and outlooks. In their mind, it is the Democratic party that has shown an interest in their well-being, that understands their struggles, and that wants to work with them against inequality and injustice. Many African Americans also see the Republican Party as being insensitive to their needs. It is, some think, the rich (white) man's party. It's almost as if, in the minds of many black Americans, it was Republicans who enslaved them in the past. (Interestingly, from what I have gleaned anecdotally, more recent African immigrants do not lean Democrat in such large numbers. But I'm not aware of solid data to support this.) All this being said, it is an insult to believe that African Americans cannot think for themselves, as if they, of all ethnic groups in our country, are unable to break out of the pre-conceived mold. It is true that Taleeb Starkes listed "Lack of Diversity" as one of "The Top 5 Issues Facing Black Americans." In his words, "Blacks repeatedly demand an 'honest dialogue or debate about race.' But how can there ever be an honest dialogue about race between blacks and whites when there is virtually no honest dialogue between blacks and blacks? It's hypocritical. And if a black doesn't think, 'whites are ultimately responsible for black people's problems,' they're labeled a 'sell-out,' 'Uncle Tom,' or 'race-traitor.' "As long as this type of groupthink exists, race-reverends of the Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson type will continue to be celebrated while independent black thinkers such as Professors Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams will be shunned." This is certainly a problem, but perhaps now is a good time to put these issues on the table again and ask: Must blacks be Democrats? And what (or who) are you betraying if you are not? What if Trump's economic policies proved beneficial for black Americans? Would that change their vote? And what would it take for Republicans to make African Americans feel welcomed and esteemed? These days, it's not just black intellectuals like Professors Sowell and Williams who are making the case for conservatism. It's voices like Diamond and Silk. And maybe even voices like Kanye. Either way, whichever way black Americans decide to vote, my only encouragement is this (and I look in the mirror as I speak as a white evangelical): Don't allow groupthink to do the work for you. You are far better than that, and our nation needs your independent voices. We need you to think for yourselves.

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Saving a Sick America: A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.

[johnhardinsawyer]

The Politics of the Kingdom

John Sawyer

Bedford Presbyterian Church

3 / 25 / 18 – Palm/Passion Sunday

 Mark 11:1-11

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Philippians 2:5-11

 “The Politics of the Kingdom” (Using Jesus, and Other Mistakes)

 A little over a week from now will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in Memphis.  Over the past five decades, Dr. King has achieved an almost saint-like status for some. In a 2011 poll that was taken by the Gallup organization, 94% of respondents had a favorable view of Dr. King.[1]  I was surprised to learn, though, that Dr. King was not nearly this popular when he was alive.  

In the years leading up to his assassination, the preacher and civil rights activist was less popular than ever. A 1966 Gallup poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Dr. King and a third had a positive opinion.[2]

If you learn about some of the things that Dr. King said and did that didn’t involve the beautiful phrase “I have a dream,” you might start to understand why he wasn’t all that popular.  When he started talking about racism, segregation, and housing in the North, and poverty and economic justice, and the war in Vietnam, and “restructuring American society,”[3] it was clear that King’s dream of a different kind of Kingdom was ruffling the feathers of all kinds of people and his popularity dropped – both in the white community and the black community.  “I Have a Dream is so nice,” people thought, “but all that other stuff is too political.”

Hmmmm. . . political.  This is a word that really gets people going, isn’t it?  I don’t know how many times in recent months I have heard one person or another talking about how they don’t want politics in their football or their food choices, their hobbies or their habits, their awards shows or their gun shows, the rhetoric they hear or the religion they espouse.  If you take the word “politics” back to its root in the Greek, you get the word polis, which means city or state[4] or nation.  Anyone who lives in a polis tends to have opinions about what would make that polis a better place to live.  The only trouble is, all those who are seeking the well-being of their polis rarely agree on what would make that polis better.  I guess this is where politics – the process of “making decisions that apply to members of a group”[5] – becomes partisan.  People choose sides, thinking that that their opinions about the polis are the only ones that make sense to them.  And they don’t want to recognize that what’s best for everyone in the polis might look different from how they feel things should be.

Jesus lived in politically divided times.  Around the time of Jesus’ birth, the Romans moved in to stay and became the main governing and occupying force.[6]  By the time Jesus was an adult, the Roman empire had been involved in the politics of Judea for decades.  This was not the first time the descendants of Abraham had been conquered by one group or another.  Empire after empire had invaded the land, laying waste and laying claim.  The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks, had all left their mark over the centuries – and sometimes that mark was quite bloody.  Now the Romans were in charge.  They put puppet rulers on the throne – the Herodians – but it was clear that Rome held all the real power.  And the people who lived in the land had to choose:  would they go along with the empire who had conquered them, or would they resist?

In Jesus’ day, even though Rome held almost all of the power, there were different groups squabbling over whatever little power was left.  This was especially true in the Jewish religion.  As shocking as it may sound, there are times when the politics of power are mixed with religion, and vice-versa.  As we learned in our Wednesday night Bible Study a few weeks ago, in the Jewish religion, the Pharisees were concerned with following the Law of Moses, the Sadducees were concerned with sacrificing things in the Temple, the Essenes thought that the Pharisees and Sadducees were impure, so they went out to the desert to get away from it all.  To top it all off, there was a growing number of people who were thinking revolutionary thoughts of somehow rising up against the Romans.  Things were quite complicated and volatile.

And then, Jesus came onto the scene.  And everywhere he went, he was interacting with people of different religious backgrounds, and different political leanings, different levels of purity and different races.  He didn’t make things easy for himself when he healed a Roman Centurion’s servant, and talked with women and men who were not Jewish, and mixed it up with the Pharisees and Sadducees.[7]  Different groups tried to test him to see whose side he was on.  The scribes and Pharisees were especially persistent, asking Jesus why he was eating with sinners, and tax collectors, and other undesirables.  It seemed, that if Jesus sided with anyone at all, it was with the people who had no power at all – the poor, the outcast, the sick, the sinners, and the children. In the Kingdom of God, the lowest and the least and the last are the ones God prefers.  Answers like these didn’t satisfy the Pharisees so they went out, pretty early on, and conspired with the Herodians – the Jews who were allied with the Romans – to destroy Jesus.  This is just one example of how political things were for Jesus.  But, when he rode into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, things got really political.

In Mark’s version of the Palm Sunday story, the people use “cloaks” and “leafy branches”  (Mark 11:8)  instead of palm branches, but this scene of Jesus riding a colt into the city of Jerusalem with people laying down their cloaks and waving branches was a symbolic recreation of triumphant parades from the past.  Symbols like this can carry a lot of emotional and historical weight.  

There was this one time – a couple of hundred years before Jesus – when the city of Jerusalem had been conquered by the Greeks and was being held by the Seleucids – a group of people who had burned all of the copies of the Hebrew scriptures that they could find.  Times were tough for the children of Israel.  But then, the Maccabees, a Jewish family, led a revolt that made it all the way to Jerusalem. They took most of the city from the Seleucids and laid siege to a fortress where the last of their enemies were hiding.  Finally, when the fortress fell, they went in “. . .with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.”  (1 Maccabees 13:51)  Years later, when people saw Jesus – someone from the household of King David, someone who had been talking about the “Kingdom of God,” someone who had enough of a following to actually do something dramatic – riding into the city, in full view of all of the parties and groups who wanted a piece of him, there were likely some in that crowd who knew their history, and thought about the “great enemy,” the Romans, and waved their palm branches with revolution on their minds. A palm branch is a symbol loaded with meaning.  Perhaps, you might be able to think of other symbols like this – both positive and negative.

You see how political things were for Jesus?  He had some influence with the people who followed him and could have claimed power with that influence.  But he didn’t. . .  at least not like everyone else wanted him to.

Many of the people who waved branches and cheered for Jesus could only guess what was on his mind as he rode down the steep slope of the Mount of Olives and up into the city of Jerusalem.  Just so you know the road down the Mount of Olives is very steep and I don’t think we give Jesus enough credit on his colt-riding skills, especially since he was riding a “colt that [had] never been ridden.” (Mark 11:2)  Reading Mark’s account, we don’t know if Jesus was happy about all of the cheering, we just know that he rode into the city, went into the temple, looked around at everything and went back out to Bethany (probably to return the colt that he borrowed).  Nowhere do we read that Jesus met with this group or that group – that he tried to curry favor or play politics.  There were those who had revolution, or the Law, or the Romans, or human political power on their minds, but Jesus had the Kingdom of God on his mind.

It should be noted that in the Bible, the word polis is used to talk about human cities and nations, but it is also used to talk about the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.  At the end of the Book of Revelation, we see this Holy Polis[8] “coming down out of heaven from God.” (Revelation 21:2)  The holy city of the Kingdom of God is a place where every tear will be wiped away, where death and mourning and pain will be no more, a place where wholeness and peace and praise will be known by all, and where everyone will dwell fully in the presence of God.  In his earthly ministry – in the ways that he taught and preached and healed – with his very presence among all those who needed him, Jesus sought to create this Kingdom and bring it near.  And in his dying and rising, Jesus brings this Kingdom into full view.  This Kingdom is unlike any other.  It is a Kingdom of grace, made perfect in weakness and vulnerability.[9]

The prophet Isaiah writes about a suffering servant who listens to God, is not rebellious, and doesn’t turn back.  This servant is one who is struck on the face and is insulted and spat upon, and yet he keeps going.  Isaiah uses the image of a “face like flint” (Isaiah 50:7), the face of someone who appears hard and determined.  But if flint is struck in just the right place, the stone will chip, revealing just how vulnerable it can be.  The same can be said of Jesus, who had warned his disciples that the “Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, [rejected by all of the parties and power-brokers in the polis] and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31)

Jesus Christ “humbled himself and become obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8)  The cross is a symbol full of meaning because it is the place where the life of God brings an end to death, where God’s love is shown in all of its fullness, where a vulnerable God – a crucified God – shows true and gracious power.  It would seem that Jesus has an agenda all his own – one that so many did not understand, but one that applies to everyone in the human family.  And throughout the gospels, Jesus calls his followers to take up their crosses and follow him.

To follow Jesus does not mean that we will always join a joyous parade.  Sometimes, the march is full of hardship and tears.  But if we are striving for the Kingdom of God, the way is blessed because we have One who goes before us – One who has shown us the way, the truth, and the life.

The way of Jesus is one of non-violence – putting down our swords – of humility and healing, of peace and wholeness.  The truth of Jesus is that he came as a teacher and shows us – in his life and example – how to love and forgive.  The life of Jesus is abundant and full and everlasting.  It is a life that is always seeking, striving, and working for the Kingdom of God, both in the here-and-now and in the yet-to-come.

This is a Kingdom, that we see in the presence and person and humble power of Jesus Christ.  May we seek this Kingdom above all others.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

------

[1] http://news.gallup.com/poll/149201/Americans-Divided-Whether-King-Dream-Realized.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=plaintextlink&utm_term=Politics.

[2] http://www.newsweek.com/martin-luther-king-jr-was-not-always-popular-back-day-780387.

[3] Trailer for King in the Wilderness, documentary – 0:30.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGRg89DbyM.

[4] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1979) 685.

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics.

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_(Roman_province).

[7] Luke 7:1-10 (also Matthew 8:5-13), Mark 7:24-30, John 4, Mark 12:18.

[8] Nestle-Aland, ed. Novum Testamentum Graece (Stuttgart:  Deutsche Bibelgesellshaft, 1993) 675 – “hagian polin”.

[9] 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.

[learnprogress]

BREAKING: Billy Joel Makes Powerful Move to Shame Trump

With Donald Trump’s utter dereliction of sanity in his response to the neo-Nazi uprising in Charlottesville, other great Americans have been having to step forward to fill the vacuum. And that’s precisely what legendary songwriter Billy Joel just did. At his latest concert, Joel wore a Star of David symbol in a clear act of defiance against Nazism.

It’s tragic that wearing a Star of David is a necessary act of defiance these days. But that’s the sick reality America finds itself in under Trump’s presidency. When the former Grand Wizard of the KKK praises Trump’s “response” to Charlottesville, you KNOW things are seriously awry.

So, like the rest of us, Bronx-born Billy Joel was horrified at the outrageous belligerence of the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. Jewish himself, Joel decided to protest in his own special way—and he did it in the most famous arena in the world.

During his latest Monday night concert at Madison Square Garden, Joel wore a blazer that had two yellow Stars of David emblazoned on it—one on the front and one of the back. His message is clear: he and ALL decent Americans stand against the racists who reared their ugly faces in Charlottesville.

This act of protest is particularly moving because Hitler’s Nazi regime forced Jews to wear such yellow stars during the 1930s and 1940s for identification purposes during the Holocaust. Joel’s gesture is a challenge—as if to say, you have slaughtered innocents before, but you will never do so again.

Joel recently told Rolling Stone magazine that “I try not to get up on a soapbox and tell people how to think.” Though if this story’s any indication, Joel certainly leads by example, and his ex-wife Christina Brinkley declared as much on Instagram.

“And on the day of the Solar Eclipse a yellow star appeared on the jacket of another kind of star with a clinched fist that seemed to be gripping painful, no excruciating, memories of loved ones who wore that star to their death,” Brinkley wrote. “May that star also remind you today of the gold stars pinned to the jackets of soldiers for their bravery and valor for fighting an evil so hideous even the gold stars in the sky were afraid to shine.”

And on the day of the Solar Eclipse a yellow star appeared on the jacket of another kind of star with a clinched fist that seemed to be gripping painful, no excruciating, memories of loved ones who wore that star to their death. May that star also remind you today of the gold stars pinned to the jackets of soldiers for their bravery and valor for fighting an evil so hideous even the gold stars in the sky were afraid to shine. Thank you Billy for reminding people what was …so it may never ever be again. My darling @alexarayjoel another reason to be proud of your Pop. Photo @myrnasuarezphoto #historyteacher #billyjoel #msg #wealreadyfoughtthiswar #wedidntstarthisfirebutwewillputitout! #nohate

A post shared by Christie Brinkley (@christiebrinkley) on Aug 21, 2017 at 9:34pm PDT

THIS is the kind of moral leadership that America is all about. And it’s the kind of moral leadership that’s so sorely missing in the White House right now.

In these dark days for our nation, we ALL have to follow Joel’s lead and stand up. Only through speaking out can we prevent this new resurgent wave of Nazism from spreading further.

Trump and his fascist supporters stand for a kind of hate that has NO PLACE in America. We in the Resistance must rise up in the name of love and humanity to challenge them.

POLL: Do you agree with Billy Joel?

What do you think? Are you in agreement with Billy Joel’s stance against Nazism?

In our democracy, your greatest tool is your voice—so speak up and make yourself heard. Please participate in our poll below!

Trump’s White House is in crisis, and American society is too accordingly. Trump’s mockery of a presidency has been nothing short of a vacuum of leadership, and the American people are paying dearly because of it.

Let there be no further harm to our democracy. EVERY Congressional Republican needs to be contacted with thousands of messages demanding Trump’s immediate impeachment.

Join us in our crusade to hold Trump to account. Please share this story on Facebook ASAP.

The post BREAKING: Billy Joel Makes Powerful Move to Shame Trump appeared first on Learn Progress.

from BREAKING: Billy Joel Makes Powerful Move to Shame Trump

[the-record-columns]

August 16, 2017: Columns

Such long days, such a short year...

              John Cashion

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

(Editor’s note: The Record’s longtime co-worker and friend, John F. Cashion died on Aug. 14, 2016. What follows are remarks made by Record Publisher Ken Welborn at John’s memorial service, which was held at The Record Park on Friday, Aug.19, 2016.)

 I spent a good part of the day Sunday and Monday of this week on the phone trying to get in touch with friends and acquaintances to let them know that we had lost a man who was truly a one of a kind friend and co-worker, John Cashion.

Some of these folks had known John for many years, others not so long, but all had a story to tell. I said several times on those days that each phone call was like having a short memorial service for John — most all of them knew this day was coming, all were sad, but to a person they quickly perked up and told me of some way John had made them thankful to have known him. Even in death, John’s uncanny ability to make whatever circumstance he was involved in better, shined through.

At about 2 a.m., on this past Sunday, August 14th  (2016), John Cashion died.

He had been in declining health for a number of years, and had many previous brushes with death, but always managed to turn it around and bounce back amazingly well. In the past year when his health issues were clearly taking a heavier toll, folks would remark that he just didn’t look well. I would usually brush them off by reminding them we had buried John six times already, and that he just wouldn’t stay down.

John was a diabetic for over 50 years and that complicated everything else, and clearly, health issues were a dominant factor, but, for the most part, he stoically toughed it out. Never have I seen a man with such faith in the medical profession. Even with all he had against him, he never lost faith that somewhere there was another doctor or another pill that would help. To that end I was amazed at the medicines he kept up with, and, for that matter, how he functioned so well after taking them. I would kid him that Secretariat would have never left the gate of the Kentucky Derby after taking John’s daily medications.

I met John Cashion over 40 years ago when I worked in advertising for his uncle Paul Cashion at WWWC Radio. Then, 3WC was a Top 40 station, and Paul had asked John to come on board as the station manager. I was very impressed with his sales training and willingness to impart that to others, but most of all, his ability to work through the personnel problems he was handed at the time with an attitude that wasn’t judgmental, but nonetheless managed to get across the “shape up or ship out” facts of life. Through the years after the radio station, John was in one activity or another, but for the past 20 or so, he worked with me, first at Thursday Magazine and then for The Record.

But he was not just part of my work, he was part of my life, the life of my wives, and clearly the lives of my children; who regarded him as another wonderful uncle. He was as thoughtful as anyone could be, never forgetting a birthday, anniversary or anything else for that matter. When The Record’s offices burned in 2004, I made the remark that an old book my father had given me was one of the few things I had from him, and really regretted losing it. In no time there was a copy of that very book on my chair at work with a note, “Hope this helps.”

When he felt good enough to come to work, he was always the company man. He sold advertising, collected, gave us story ideas, even made it a point to scout out new locations for our newspaper boxes. His desk was near the front of the office and he was usually the first person our visitors would see and speak to, and he always made them welcome. In the past few years, as his health continued to deteriorate he still came to work whenever possible. I used to say he could sell more advertising by accident than most could on purpose.

I have been acquainted with his son, Matt, and his, mother Georgia (Puddin’ to most), for many years. Matt is a college professor in Wisconsin, is an often published author, and John was proud of him beyond words. Often I was present when Matt would call and John’s smile would light up the room as he always started his conversation with, “Well, hello young son.” I have to note that John Cashion was the only known Cashion Republican in captivity, and, it is a measure of Matt’s love for his dad that he, a flaming liberal, took John to the polls to vote in March of this year knowing he was going to vote for Donald Trump. Georgia Erwin is not your average ex-wife either. Many times John has told me of the uncounted kindnesses she had shown him though the years, long after they weren’t married, saying she “…pulled me out of the ditch” many times. When Matt and Georgia came together to visit last year, John laughed and told me “…they must think I’m going to die.” Well, he did, but in true John Cashion form, he put it off to the very last minute.

John was computer literate long before I ever sat down in front of one, as noted by his very early e-mail address, Mybudjohn@aol.com. He wrote his own obituary every day with his cheerful way and kind treatment of others. Among the things I am most thankful for today is my long and storied friendship with John — he was my bud John, too.

                                             John Fred Cashion

                              October 9, 1940 – August 14, 2016

                                              Rest in Peace

Ye of little faith…  Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith

By LAURA WELBORN

As I continue my search for how to be more mindful with the definition of “Mindfulness” is a way of paying attention on purpose, in the present moment – non judgmentally.  My quest is how to bring peace to my life, and the biggest difference between peace and stress is attitude. 

It’s all about how you look at a situation and what you decide to do with it.  It’s remembering that there are no certainties in life—we don’t know exactly what the future will bring.  So your best strategy for living is to make the best and most positive use of the present moment, even when it disappoints you!   Start by reminding yourself…

“Master your focus—where your attention goes.  Value what you give your energy to. 

Do things for the right reasons, even when things don’t work out as planned.  Your “why” must be bigger than the disappointments and challenges you face. 

Most people end up cheating on themselves and others, simply because they pay more attention to what they’re missing, rather than what they have.  Meditate on this, so you don’t fall back into old, tired patterns.  This one gets the best of even the best of us.  Toxic habits and behaviors always try to sneak back in when we’re doing better.  Stay focused.

Not everyone has the same heart as you. Forgive them, not because they absolutely deserve forgiveness, but because you absolutely deserve peace of mind.  Free yourself of the burden of being an eternal victim.

If somebody is working on themselves and changing for the better, it’s unnecessary to keep bringing up their past.  People can change and grow.  Take this to heart, and show yourself the same courtesy too. 

Calmness is a human superpower.  The ability to not overreact or take things personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace.  It’s never too late to change your attitude about something you can’t change.  Just decide to make the best of it. 

Mental strength is incredibly important.  Take care of your mind and the way you speak to yourself.  Don’t let negative self-talk weaken you.  Talk like you are blessed.  Walk like you are blessed.  Think like you are blessed. Work like you are blessed.  And you will be, one way or another.

Everything gets a bit uncomfortable when it’s time to change (or when it’s time to recalibrate your expectations).  That’s just a part of the growth process.  Things will get better.  Be patient, and remind yourself that you will never have to force anything that’s truly meant to be.  Just do your best, then adopt a “whatever happens, happens” mindset.  Don’t try to force things — let go and allow the right blessings to flow.

The wrong choices can bring us to the right places.  The biggest failures often carry the best lessons.  When you fail to get what you want, consider that it just might be a blessing in disguise.” (Marc and Angel Hack Life blog)

And if you have the courage to admit that you’re a little scared, the ability to smile even as you cry, the nerve to ask for help when you need it, and the wisdom to take it when it’s offered, then you have everything you need at this moment.

Laura Welborn, Certified Mediator and Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist. Contact her laurawelborn1@gmail.com

 The World is Blind Concerning Israel

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

How can the entire world seemingly ignore the realities of the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbors — including the very real threats to Israel’s existence from radical Islam? Is it just blindness or something much deeper? World leaders apparently have not learned lessons from history. Obvious evils are going unchecked and most will not acknowledge the contamination of anti-Semitism in their own minds.

 The United Nations and the European Union make up a large segment of this blind and biased camp pressuring the Jewish people and the State of Israel to give away their battle-won lands to Arabs for virtually nothing but trouble in return. One important historical lesson is that appeasement never eliminates hatred and animosity. Many world leaders are completely ignoring the obvious - that the Palestinian Arabs are undeserving of an independent state being grossly unprepared to operate, manage and properly govern.

 Many have drawn attention lately to the eerie parallels between today’s situation in the Middle East and the appeasement of German dictator Adolf Hitler by English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain before World War II. Chamberlain refused to acknowledge that Hitler was a cruel demagogue bent on subduing and controlling all of Europe. He did not believe what Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf, about how he planned to conquer Europe. Instead, Chamberlain considered Hitler to be a good man with whom he could negotiate peace and cultivate good relations so Hitler proceeded to mercilessly bomb England almost into submission, besides murdering 6 million Jews and several million other Europeans. Clearly, appeasement did not bring peace. It simply encouraged more violence and bloodshed.

 Nonetheless, the UN, EU and others are ignoring important history lessons. In like manner to Chamberlain, they are turning deaf ears to the long-time and oft-repeated inflammatory declarations of Israel’s neighboring Palestinians and other Arabs, whose clear goal is the annihilation of the Jewish state of Israel. They are deliberately dismissing the historical truth that the Arabs have inflicted five wars on Israel with the unmistakable intent of destroying her. And one questions whether they are taking seriously the repeated threats from Iran’s leadership “to wipe Israel off the face of the map.” They want to think, like Chamberlain, that they can appease hateful Muslims into becoming kind and peaceful friends. But didn’t Hitler prove otherwise?

 Back to pressure from the Palestinians for the granting of their own state: Hamas is a terrorist entity and the Palestinian Authority government is a corrupt and non-viable farce. The Palestinian economy is in shambles. The Palestinians’ opportunity for independence and democracy in Gaza has been nothing short of a catastrophe, and this now “Jew-free” territory is nothing more than a base for terrorism. Moreover, don’t forget all the promises the PA government has made in more than five peace agreements which they have made no efforts to fulfill.

 How can the UN, EU and others continue to blindly ignore the blatant incompetence, corruption and violence of the Palestinians? On what basis do they conclude that this chaotic and destructive population deserves its own independent state — especially on land that does not rightfully belong to it? It’s a kind of mass insanity!

 The American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1953) once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The lessons of history are supposed to help us avoid repeating those failures and tragedies in the future. However, world leaders today are drawing the wrong conclusions from the past. Their attitudes and actions are causing great concern for Israel, as well as for the entire free world as the danger does not stop with the existential threat to Israel.

 Radical Arab Muslim leaders have clearly declared that their objective is to control and subjugate the whole world. Yet, it seems that the “wisdom” of the West today is to not take seriously the worldwide threats of the radical Muslim world. Most international leaders do not want to admit that any serious threat even exists and in their blindness they seem to have no concerns about allowing the state of Israel to become a “sacrificial lamb” should a policy of appeasement fail once again.

An Angry River, A Big Fish and A Few Friends

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

I never will forget a three day fly fishing trip I made a few years ago in Western North Carolina.  I had been invited to explore the newly mapped Western NC Fly Fishing Trail. I was concerned about the timing of the trip for a few reasons:  it was a very cold April, it had been raining for about a week, and I was sure the water would be high and fast. However, when I called to confirm I was assured things would be okay.

So I booked the camera crew and off we went. We had a nice large cabin with a rocked fireplace overlooking the Tuckasegee River, and the view could not have been better.

We were getting settled in when our fishing guide, Alex Bell, showed up to make sure we had everything we needed. Alex is a highly respected and well known fly fishing guide who spends much of his time in the mountain streams and offers guide service year round. He also manages to make his way to warmer waters for a bit of salt water fishing, which naturally provides more fishing tales.  Alex knew the best places to go and he made sure we had a good time.

There were also a few writers who joined the adventure, which as you might imagine made for colorful social gatherings. It was during these evening get-togethers that we sat around and told stories of our various adventures. It was no surprise that the fellow who had written the book with the most pages also had bragging rights for the largest catch of the day. It should also be noted that we were fishing catch and release and when he caught the BIG one he was around the bend by himself. We, of course, did not doubt him. Why should we? He was a fisherman, after all.

Some of my best memories of the trip were being in the middle of the cold, surging waters of the Tuckasegee River with a camera crew, doing all we could to not fall in while talking to fellow fishermen on camera. This was not as easy task. I remember approaching Doc Lawrence, a travel writer and producer from Atlanta who had just cast his line.

"Doc," I asked, "are you available for a quick conversation?"

He said sure, so there we stood in the middle of a somewhat angry river, having a conversation on camera, both of us hoping upon hope that we would maintain our footing. We did and we soon became fast friends.

The next day we went over to the Cherokee portion of the trail to fish in some of their waters. While the water had calmed a bit, it was still aggressive. Victor, our cameraman, loves outdoor adventure and was more fit than the rest of us, was setting up his shot in the water near the bank. I was talking with Alex and the next think I knew I heard a big splash and a few Spanish words. When I turned, I saw that Victor had fallen down. The cold mountain water was filling his waders but he was holding the camera safely in the air. We quickly rescued Victor and the camera, but I think it took the rest of that day and the next for him to thaw out.

That was a great trip, even in the cold. To this day I remember with fondness my first visit to the Western North Carolina Fly Fishing Trail.

It’s funny what we recall in life. I enjoy fishing but it’s not the fish I remember.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its seventh year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Sunday mornings at 10:00am. For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.  

Copyright 2016 Carl White / Carl White’s Life In The Carolinas

[inmybagathaharkness]

At this point, if you’re still a supporter of Donald Trump, here’s what you really are: You’re someone who’s cemented your place in history as an individual who we’re all going to look back upon with disgust and shame because you were ignorant enough to support the most corrupt, dishonest, vile, and incompetent “president” in United States history. This is a man who has: *Mocked a man with disabilities. *Attacked the parents of a fallen American hero. *Belittled POWs and the war record of Sen. John McCain. *Lied about how much money he raised for veterans. *Called a former Miss Universe “disgusting” and fat, telling his Twitter followers to find her non-existent sex tape. *Accused an American-born federal judge of being unfit to do his job because of his Mexican heritage. *Likely avoided paying taxes for nearly two decades. *Called most Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, even though that’s not remotely factual. *Lied about seeing “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. *Lied about getting a letter from the NFL complaining about the debate schedule. *Tried to exploit the death of an African American woman in Chicago to say that’s why black voters will support him. *Found the “bright side” to tragedies because his poll numbers tend to go up. *Settled with the Department of Justice after his company was found guilty of racially discriminating against minorities. *Was discovered on video admitting that he not only tried to cheat on his current wife, but he attempted to do so with another married woman. *Had his first wife publicly say that he did nothing when it came to raising their children until they were old enough to talk business. *Tweeted that women should have expected to be sexually assaulted when they mixed males and females together in the military. *Said he wants to target the families of terrorists. *Stated that he wants to ban an entire religion. *Praised a Russian president who obviously hates the U.S. and Americans. *Encouraged the Russian government to commit espionage against Americans. Insinuated that another Republican’s wife was ugly. *Tried to implicate another Republican’s father in JFK’s assassination. *Sought out the help of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes after he was fired following multiple allegations that he had sexually harassed women for years. *Made Breitbart’s Steve Bannon one of his top campaign people. *Had a former campaign manager abruptly resign after a report came out linking him to pro-Russian groups that were directly trying to undermine U.S. policy in eastern Europe. *Called Carly Fiorina ugly. *Has said climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese — then denied saying it. *Was a leading conspiracy theorist when it came to the racist-driven birther conspiracies against President Obama. *Dismissed nearly eight years of accusing the president of not being an American with a less than 30 second statement where he didn’t apologize for any of it. *Tried to blame Hillary Clinton for his racism. *Re-tweeted anti-African American propaganda created by a white supremacy group. *Played dumb about knowing who former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke was. Skipped a presidential debate because he was scared of a moderator. *Has, on several occasions, suggested he finds his daughter attractive. *Called a husband doing things like changing diapers and helping with the children, a man “trying to be the wife.” *Has said he wants more countries to have nuclear weapons. *Said he can’t release his tax returns because they’re currently being audited — even though the IRS said that’s a lie. *Feels he has the right to sexually assault women. *Lied, in the face of indisputable photographic evidence, about the size of his inauguration crowd. *Continues to push the unfounded conspiracy that “millions of people voted illegally” because his ego can’t handle the fact Clinton received 3 million more votes than he did. *Disgraced the CIA’s monument to fallen agents by talking about his electoral college victory. *After frequently criticizing President Obama for playing golf, has spent nearly half his weekends since being sworn into office playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. *On pace to cost taxpayers more on “extracurricular” expenses during his first 365 days in office than we spent on Obama during his 2,921 days as president. *Settled a $25 million lawsuit accusing him of purposely creating a fake university to scam people out of money. *Has already broken most of his biggest campaign promises. *Fired the head of the FBI for apparently not “swearing loyalty” and doing what he wanted in regards to the on-going investigations looking into his campaign’s ties to Russians. Then threatened the former head of the FBI just after firing him in an attempt to intimidate him from speaking out publicly. *Pushed an unfounded conspiracy against Barack Obama, accusing him of ordering unconstitutional wiretaps placed in Trump Tower — without providing a shred of evidence to back it up. *Seems to have been working with the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, to undermine congressional investigations into his possible Russian connections. *Had said, despite promising to do so, he doesn’t plan to ever release his tax returns. *Said he didn’t know being “president” would be so hard. *Apparently needed the president of China to explain to him why dealing with North Korea is complicated. *Signed two travel bans against Muslims that were overturned as unconstitutional. *Allowed state-run Russian media to bring electronic and photographic equipment into the Oval Office — while denying entry to any U.S. press — at the request of Vladimir Putin. *Said his surrogates shouldn’t be held accountable for the dishonest or contradictory things they say. *Admitted Australia, which has universal health care, has better health care than we do, then doubled-down on those comments, yet still supports a bill that’s almost the complete opposite of their system. *Months after the election, continues to bring it up the electoral college, even hanging a large printout of it on a wall in the White House. *Didn’t mention the Jewish people once during his speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. *Blamed Democrats for the initial failure of the House of Representatives being able to pass Trumpcare — even though Republicans have a 44-seat majority. *Is now bragging about the very same jobs reports he called “fake” and “phony” prior to taking office. *Continues to call the talk about the investigations into his connections to Russia “FAKE NEWS!” even though the FBI has publicly admitted these investigations are, in fact, real. *Has the lowest approval rating for a president this early into their presidency — in history. *Admitted he lied when he publicly threatened that he might have recorded his conversations with the former head of the FBI he had just fired — in a clear attempt to intimidate James Comey into not speaking out about what the two men had discussed. *Apparently doesn’t understand what “collusion” or “obstruction” actually mean. *Called the very same health care plan he publicly celebrated and said he supports “mean.” *Launched a disgusting attack against “low I.Q” MSNBC’s Mika Brzeninski, accusing her of “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when he saw her back in January, while calling her co-host Joe Scarborough, and former U.S. congressman, “psycho.”

Allen Clifton