The recent op-ed piece by Paul Hollis and John Kay was one big lie from start to finish. President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats did not "ram" Obamacare through. Negotiations between Democrats and Republicans began as soon as Obama took office in January of 2009. The ACA was not signed until March 23, 2010 — after much debate and many votes. The Republicans were pretty clear that they could not possibly care less about the plight of uninsured Americans. They still don't. The ACA was outright sabotaged from Day One by the Republicans in Congress and their stooges in the red states. Did some folks lose their existing policies after the ACA was passed? Yes, but this was almost entirely due to the fact that old-style catastrophic coverage plans are no longer considered as real insurance. Those plans provided slim coverage with high deductibles and still weren't cheap. They have been replaced with actual insurance that provides real, reliable coverage at a reasonable price. There were generous subsidies offered to those who couldn't afford to pay. Did some people end up worse off? Again — yes — but if you balance the few hundred thousand individuals who are paying more now against the 20 million who couldn't get insurance before, there is no comparison. Premiums are currently on the rise. However, so are the subsidies. According to the Kaiser Foundation, in all but two states, a 40-year-old non-smoker earning $40,000 a year will see NO increase in his net out-of-pocket because as his premiums go up, so do the subsidies. In Massachusetts, where Obamacare was invented by a Republican, over 97 percent of the people have health insurance. The mandate that forces you to buy insurance is solely the product of the conservative Heritage Foundation. It wanted to prevent what it referred to as "freeloaders" on our healthcare system. Until this GOP plan was adopted by a Democratic president, conservatives thought that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. When President Obama agreed, they dropped it like a hot rock. This was part one of the million-part-plan by the GOP to make Obama a single-term president. Big picture: the ACA has achieved its primary goal of reducing by nearly half the number of uninsured in the United States. In Louisiana alone, we went from 22 percent of our citizens with no health insurance to 12.5 percent. There is still work to do. Trump and the Republicans are not willing to do it. All they want is to take us back to where we were eight years ago when, according to the Harvard Medical School, 45,000 Americans died every year just because they didn't have insurance. Unacceptable.
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_63797998-f92f-11e6-998e-fbe514c44dad.html
Friday, February 24, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Medicaid Expansion in Louisiana
Finally, under a Democratic Governor, Medicaid was expanded
in Louisiana. Article: The Louisiana Department of Health announced on Thursday
that enrollment is at 400,635 new enrollees. A recent Gallup report found the
uninsured rate in Louisiana fell by nearly half from 21.7 percent in 2013 to
12.5 percent in 2016.According to stats from LDH, more than 58,700 adults have
now received at least one preventive or primary care service after enrolling in
the expansion. Sixty-seven women have been newly diagnosed with breast cancer,
and 1,193 adults newly diagnosed with diabetes, among other outcomes cited. Michele
Kidd Sutton, president and CEO of North Oaks Health System in Hammond, said in
the LDH release that the hospital has seen a 60 percent increase in mammograms
for Medicaid patients, 61 percent increase in bone density screenings and a 26
percent increase in cervical cancer screenings. These are all real people, with
real needs, who have had their lives changed for the better.
Trump Can't Build a Wall Without the Real Estate
Mr. Trump fails to take into account the major hurdle the
wall faces: eminent domain. To build the wall, the U.S. would need to own all
1,954 miles of the border. Most of this land is now private property—especially
in Texas, where the U.S. government owns only 100 miles of the 1,254-mile
border. To acquire the rest of the land it would need, Washington would need to
employ eminent domain, the authority under the Fifth Amendment to seize private
property for public use upon payment of “just compensation.” Recent history
shows that’s easier said than done. In 2006 Congress passed the Secure Fence
Act with strong bipartisan backing, including the support of New York Democrat
Chuck Schumer, now Senate minority leader. The law authorized construction of a
border fence along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, including 100 miles in
Texas. Lawmakers expected swift completion of the project. Instead, a decade
later, there are unfenced gaps—because the fence had to have holes to
accommodate local ranchers whose cattle graze on the southern side, but also
due to property owners’ fighting land seizures in federal court.
At the end of 2016, more than 120 separate cases pertaining
to eminent-domain seizures for the fence were still active in the U.S. court
system. In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security inspector general issued a
report that noted, “Acquiring real property from non-federal owners is a
costly, time-consuming process requiring negotiations and sometimes
condemnation.”
Friday, February 17, 2017
In Today's Newspapers/Quotes
The Trump opposition-Democrats,
unions, Never Trumpers-now know that if they can turn three Republican senators
against him, he won’t matter. ~Daniel Henninger from Wall Street Journal
And now with Betsy DeVos at the helm,
we have something we’ve never seen before-widespread fear of the Education
Department by the left. So it’s not time to wait four more years to try to
dismantle the department. The time for that is now. ~Neal P. McCluskey from
Cato Institute
“This is not about who won the
election. This is about concerns about intuitional integrity,” said Mark
Lowenthal, a former senior intelligence official. “It’s probably unprecedented
to have this difficult a relationship between agencies.” “I can’t recall ever
seeing this level of friction. And it’s just not good for the country.”
Trump’s fear of opening his tax
returns to public scrutiny could go beyond reveling what Donald Jr. called
family’s considerable business dealings with
Russia. The release could also expose a net worth well below the billion-dollar mark. ~ Froma Harrop
Russia. The release could also expose a net worth well below the billion-dollar mark. ~ Froma Harrop
Steve Schmidt, who worked in President
George W. Bush’s administration. “This is something entirely different. The
ineptitude, the sloppiness, the incompetence and the chaos are unprecedented.”
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
How Donald Trump Became Conspiracy Theorist in Chief
He's made the paranoid style of American politics go mainstream.
Nowhere is Trump's embrace of oddball ideas and cranks more evident than his courtship of Jones, a 42-year-old Texan who built a lucrative media empire by hawking anti-radiation tablets and fulminating about "false flag" operations and the globalist cabal. It was previously unthinkable for a major-party nominee to appear on Jones' show (broadcast from "FEMA Region 6"), but Trump is an exception. Stone has appeared regularly on Jones' daily program, and the two were inseparable at the GOP convention, where they co-hosted a pro-Trump rally. Campaign aides and Donald Trump Jr. have promoted Infowars stories on social media. And Trump himself, who phoned into Jones' show last December for a friendly chat, has welcomed the host's support and parroted his message to a degree that has shocked even Jones. "It is surreal to talk about issues here on air, and then word-for-word hear Trump say it two days later," Jones confessed on the air in early August.
But it's not just Clinton who's in the crosshairs of the Trump-Jones conspiracy machine—it's electoral democracy itself. This summer, Jones warned of an attempt at "rigging" the election to deny Trump the presidency. He proposed sending teams of cameramen to polling sites to document the "illegals" voting for Clinton. By early August, Trump was channeling Jones in his stump speech. "I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest," he said. He told the Washington Post that he feared unscrupulous Democrats would try to "vote 10 times." By injecting so much distrust into electoral results, Trump could delegitimize a Clinton victory, setting himself up as a bomb-thrower in exile.
No wonder Jones has told listeners that he's urged Trump to keep pushing the "rigged election" narrative. The Infowars host filmed a short segment wondering if the Democrats would try to have him killed. After all, by calling him out, Clinton did something his enemies, those globalist tyrants and UN stooges, had spent years avoiding at all costs. "You don't say, 'Alex Jones'! You never say the name Alex Jones!" he said. "But more and more, they have to speak the name that no one says." For once, he had a point—a lot of people were saying it.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/trump-infowars-alex-jones-clinton-conspiracy-theories
Nowhere is Trump's embrace of oddball ideas and cranks more evident than his courtship of Jones, a 42-year-old Texan who built a lucrative media empire by hawking anti-radiation tablets and fulminating about "false flag" operations and the globalist cabal. It was previously unthinkable for a major-party nominee to appear on Jones' show (broadcast from "FEMA Region 6"), but Trump is an exception. Stone has appeared regularly on Jones' daily program, and the two were inseparable at the GOP convention, where they co-hosted a pro-Trump rally. Campaign aides and Donald Trump Jr. have promoted Infowars stories on social media. And Trump himself, who phoned into Jones' show last December for a friendly chat, has welcomed the host's support and parroted his message to a degree that has shocked even Jones. "It is surreal to talk about issues here on air, and then word-for-word hear Trump say it two days later," Jones confessed on the air in early August.
But it's not just Clinton who's in the crosshairs of the Trump-Jones conspiracy machine—it's electoral democracy itself. This summer, Jones warned of an attempt at "rigging" the election to deny Trump the presidency. He proposed sending teams of cameramen to polling sites to document the "illegals" voting for Clinton. By early August, Trump was channeling Jones in his stump speech. "I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest," he said. He told the Washington Post that he feared unscrupulous Democrats would try to "vote 10 times." By injecting so much distrust into electoral results, Trump could delegitimize a Clinton victory, setting himself up as a bomb-thrower in exile.
No wonder Jones has told listeners that he's urged Trump to keep pushing the "rigged election" narrative. The Infowars host filmed a short segment wondering if the Democrats would try to have him killed. After all, by calling him out, Clinton did something his enemies, those globalist tyrants and UN stooges, had spent years avoiding at all costs. "You don't say, 'Alex Jones'! You never say the name Alex Jones!" he said. "But more and more, they have to speak the name that no one says." For once, he had a point—a lot of people were saying it.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/trump-infowars-alex-jones-clinton-conspiracy-theories
Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump
Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump --The question should be
what are their beliefs and what ideas are they basing their actions? What is
behind this Muslim Ban? And the deeper reason for the soon to see more and more rounding up of undocumented
immigrants? Both men seem to be showing the country they want to burn
everything down which includes Washington Establishment, our norms and our institutions.
But Why? And what will come next after everything comes crashing down? To get
anywhere with answering these questions the Alt-Right must be studied.
Article: In
July, Bannon, who soon would leave Breitbart to become a top campaign aide to Trump, was
interviewed by journalist Sarah Posner. He proudly declared of Breitbart, "We're the platform for the alt-right." The alt-right is an
extreme but not well-defined wing of the conservative movement that rants
against immigrants, Muslims, the globalist agenda, and multiculturalism and
that generally advocates white nationalism (if not white supremacism—in this
world, there is a difference). The alt-right also generates a hefty amount of
anti-Semitism.
In March, the
website published an article headlined "An Establishment Conservative's Guide
to the Alt-Right," which was co-written by Milo Yiannopoulos, a prominent
figure in the movement. It noted that the alt-right opposed "full
'integration'" of racial groups: "The alt-right believe that some
degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be
preserved.”
What does
Spencer, the intellectual guru of the movement, advocate? He is quite explicit:
an all-white United States. This is not a secret. In a recent interview with Mother Jones, Spencer explained his belief that America's white population is
endangered, due to multiculturalism and immigration, and he advocated "a
renewed Roman Empire," a dictatorship where only white people could be
citizens. "You cannot view another white person as your enemy," he
remarked. His goal is a white ethnostate. How to get there may be unclear. He
added that he hoped America's nonwhites can be convinced to leave the country
on their accord: "It's like presenting to an African that this hasn't
worked out. We haven't made each other happier. We are going to have to take
part in this paradigmatic shift together." During the campaign, Spencer declared, Trump "loves white people."
Race is
central to the alt-right. Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor, notes, "The alt-right, in a nutshell, believes that
Western culture is inseparable from
European ethnicity." That is, being white.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
In Trump's mind, it's always really sunny. And that's terrifying
I rehash this weather history because it’s not subject to
debate. This is tantamount to Trump declaring black is white or day is night.
It was overcast, and he declared that it was “really sunny.” This disconnect
from reality is my biggest fear about Trump, more than any one policy he has
proposed. My worry is the president of the United States is barking mad.
“More than
anyone else I have ever met,” Tony Schwartz, Trump’s ghostwriter for “The Art
of the Deal,” told the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer at the time, “Trump has the
ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is
true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.” My Post colleague
Jennifer Rubin, a conservative blogger, picked up on this theme in an important
post this week, recalling Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) description of Trump as
somebody who “doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies” and “his
response is to accuse everybody else of lying.” Rubin raised the prospect that
Trump might eventually need to be declared unfit to serve under the 25th
Amendment if he can’t “separate what he wants to believe and what exists.”
That’s why
it’s frightening not only that Trump embraces the fantasy that millions voted
illegally but also that he supports the falsehood by citing a Pew Center on the
States report that says nothing about voter fraud — and by claiming pro golfer
Bernhard Langer was turned away from voting in Florida while other,
suspicious-looking people were permitted to cast provisional ballots. Langer, a
German citizen, can’t vote in the United States, and it turns out he witnessed
no such thing.
When Trump
caused international havoc with tweets about China, North Korea and others,
there was speculation that he was pursuing the “madman theory” to unsettle
adversaries by making them think he’s crazy.
He’s doing
such a convincing job of it that I worry that being a madman isn’t Trump’s
theory but his reality.
Progressive Bubble
In Time Magazine article titled - The California Republic Comes Roaring Back. Back in his studio in San Francisco, artist Eric Rewitzer takes issue with the notion that he lives in a bubble, though the reality he describes sounds rather bubble-like—a place where people all believe in the same progressive future. "When Trump won, it reminded me how comfortable I had become in just accepting that progress was going to continue. If the bubble is anything, it's a sense of comfort that we're doing the right thing," he says. "What happened after the election is I felt I have to stand up. I can't take for granted that this is the way good people think everywhere."
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
In Trump’s Washington, Nothing Feels Stable
Last week’s executive order on immigration continues to reverberate. The handling of the order further legitimized the desire of many congressional Republicans to distance themselves from the president, something they feel they’ll eventually have to do anyway because they know how to evaluate political horse flesh, and when they look at him they see Chief Crazy Horse. What went wrong has been fully adjudicated in the press. But this should be said: The president and his advisers are confusing boldness with aggression. They mean to make breakthroughs and instead cause breakdowns. The overcharged circuits are leaving them singed, too. People don’t respect you when you create chaos. Prudence is not weakness, and carefulness is a virtue, not a vice. If all this was spontaneous, the left is strong indeed. If it was a matter of superior organization, that’s impressive too. You should never let your enemy know its own strength. They discovered it in the Women’s March, know it more deeply now, and demonstrated it to Democrats on the Hill. It was after the demonstrations that Democratic senators started boycotting the confirmation hearings. They now have their own tea party to push them around. Americans want an America that looks after itself, but they don’t admire bigotry or respect prejudice. They’re embarrassed by it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-trumps-washington-nothing-feels-stable-1486081546
We Ignore Trump at our Peril
I wish I could agree with those who say we should pay little attention to President Trump’s verbal eruptions and focus only on concrete actions, but I can’t. It matters that the most powerful man in the world insists on “facts” that are nothing but self-aggrandizing fantasy. It matters that the president of the United States seems incapable of publicly admitting any error. It matters that Trump’s need for adulation appears to be insatiable.
My point is that Trump’s off-the-wall statements and Twitter rants cannot be dismissed as mere attempts to distract. We have a president who is obsessed with his public standing, given to outlandish statements, eager to believe in conspiracy theories and unwilling to admit when he is wrong. To our peril, his character and moods will shape his policies. ~ Eugene Robinson/The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-ignore-trump-at-our-peril/2017/01/26/1d8bf630-e3ff-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?postshare=5201485535240116&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.d7749fd02829
Trump's bigotry, fearmongering will make America weak again
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2017/02/trumps_bigotry_fearmongering_w.html#incart_river_index
So, what does this mean for the United States under Trump?
First, Trump's policies aren't about making us safer, but about pandering to the racists, bigots and xenophobes in his base.
Second, members of Congress and others who enable or who tacitly approve these policies will bear the indelible stains of the hate and ignorance that inspired them.
Third, a nation that crafts foreign and domestic policies out of fear, hatred and ignorance is a nation in decline.
Fourth, the ban (and the White House has repeatedly called it a "ban"), endangers our people and emboldens our enemies by targeting a specific faith.
Retired Gen. David
Petraeus, a finalist for Trump's secretary of state, told the
House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 1, "We must also remember that
Islamic extremists want to portray this fight as a clash of civilizations, with
America at war against Islam. We must not let them do that."
With his ban, Trump is
encouraging them to do just that.
The choice is ours. We can abide hateful
policies that erode our democracy and threaten our moral standing -- or we can
defend American values. Trump hopes we'll do the former. To save our country,
we must do the latter.
Robert Mann, an author and former U.S. Senate and gubernatorial staffer, holds the Manship Chair in Journalism at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.
The Johnson Amendment and Trump
Trump proposes to get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment. The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sees the separation of church and state as a blessing, not a curse, quickly issued a statement that repealing the Johnson Amendment would not further the religious liberty that it fights for. "Politicizing churches does them no favors," the statement says. "The promised repeal is an attack on the integrity of both our charitable organizations and campaign finance system. Inviting churches to intervene in campaigns with tax-deductible offerings would fundamentally change our houses of worship. It would usher our partisan divisions into the pews and harm the church's ability to provide refuge."
Trump's announcement has the whiff of political payoff rather than addressing a real policy need. Going after the Johnson Amendment is little more than political pandering. ~ Tim Morris at Times Picayune
Trump's announcement has the whiff of political payoff rather than addressing a real policy need. Going after the Johnson Amendment is little more than political pandering. ~ Tim Morris at Times Picayune
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
To Conservative Voters
To conservative voters: You have been given a gift. The
gift is this: Your guy won, your team has the house and the senate. And it's
going....not great. My charge to you: figure out how you want to be represented
in history. You are on the cusp of being the party that rose up and fought for
what you told us you stood for, or you can be the people we have to explain to
our children, when they asked why no one fought the breakdown of our democracy.
If you voted for the president or a republican senator
because you believe in fiscal conservatism, you should be furious that your tax
dollars are going to build a wall that will have zero impact on the effects of
immigration.
If you hate the left because of "Political
Correctness," you need to be asking yourself if you're okay with the
President censoring communications from MULTIPLE government organizations like
the National Park Service, the EPA and more.
If you voted because you
hated Secretary Clinton's email server, I expect you to be calling your
representatives to ask why Steve Bannon and others continue to use their
unsecured personal emails and why your president is using an unsecured android
device still.
If you voted because you believed they would be better
protection against terrorists, you need to ask yourself why it's okay that your
president just took away $130 million in anti-terror funds from New York with
his punishment of Sanctuary Cities.
If you are angry that your insurance is too expensive,
you should ask why your senators are repealing ACA without a replacement, an
action that will leave 20 million people without insurance at all.
If you believe the Clinton initiative provided unequal
treatment to countries that supported their foundation, you should be livid
that your president has moved to block visas from Muslim countries like Syria,
Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, but not places where he has
business ties like Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
This is an opportunity to prove that you voted for the
reasons you told me you did. I am taking you seriously, I am taking you
literally.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Dear World, From America
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/01/28/dear-world-from-america/
This is not our America.
Our America affirms the inherent, priceless beauty of every human being. Our
America declares that no person is ascribed less value because of their skin color,
religion, gender, financial means, sexual orientation, nation of origin, or any
other variable. Our America is home for those seeking hope and joy and rest.
Article: And we hope
that in whatever way you can, that you will stand with us. We know that we have
made this mess ourselves. We understand that you have your own problems to
contend with, some far more urgent and pressing than this, but we believe that
we are a single community; that we are tethered together in our Humanity, that we
are in real-time crafting the life our children and their children will
inherit.
Article: Dear World, we’re sorry
and we hope you’ll endure these days with us.
With Despair and Hope in equal measure, in Peace and Unity with you,
The American Majority
He does not speak for us.
His America is not our America.
Article: Please
understand that nearly three million more people voted for his opponent Hillary
Clinton than for him. (Yes, we realize this is completely screwed-up). Millions
more voted for other candidates, and sadly nearly 90 million of our people did
not vote at all. The point is, the vast majority of Americans are not with him.
Article...Over the past week, we’ve watched long erected pillars of our
Republic bulldozed in the stroke of a madman’s pen. We’ve seen the very
hallmarks of who we are as a nation tossed in the garbage; the celebration of
diverse coexistence, the open welcome to the oppressed, the guarantee of
unalienable rights for every person, the same access to health and opportunity
and safety afforded to everyone, the freedom to speak without censor or
restraint. At this moment these are all in great jeopardy.
Article:we want you to
know that this is not who we are. It may be who this man is. It may be who
those sharing power with him are. It may even be the tens of millions who
originally voted for him (though that support is vanishing quickly among those
who not among the religious zealots and extremists).
But this is not America.
It is not the steady, strong beacon of freedom that it was intended to be. It
is not the America our people have fought and died for. It is not the one first
formed in the crucible of oppression and cast into the words of our
ever-disregarded Constitution.With Despair and Hope in equal measure, in Peace and Unity with you,
The American Majority
He does not speak for us.
His America is not our America.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Mr. President, If You Were a True Leader..
Mr. President, If You Were a True Leader...
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/01/23/mr-president-if-you-were-a-leader/
Article: I also know how you spent your first day in office. You spent it angrily Tweeting and hastily arranging press conferences. You spent it shutting down websites and pasting up photo boards. You spent it dispatching your apologists and cronies to try and discredit us. You spent it verbally assaulting the very people you are charged with caring for. You spent it spitting venom at millions of Americans who were being America, and by doing so— you proved us right.
You did this because you’re simply not a true leader, Mr. President.
If you were a leader, you would have found some humility, some dignity, some grace.
If you were a leader you would have checked that eggshell ego and that paper-thin skin and you would have paid attention.
If you were a leader you would have shut your mouth and listened, instead of responding like an embarrassed middle schooler who’d just been jilted by a crush in the cafeteria.
If you were a leader you would have realized the incredible healing that might have taken place in our country, if you had said to the millions marching and the millions more who love and support them: “I see you, and I want you to know that I want to be your President too. I want to protect you and to advocate for you and your families. I hear you and I am listening, and I will prove to you that I am deserving of your trust. We’re in this together.”
But you didn’t say any of that, Mr. President.
Article: Your supporters keep telling me to “give you a chance”. I do and you keep blowing it. You blew it again, this weekend—bigly. You squander every conceivable opportunity to show that you are for us.
If you were a true leader, you would have stepped up and met those of us marching right where we were and led us to a place of redemptive conversation and measured compromise. You would have validated and reassured and acknowledged us—but you didn’t. Instead you condemned us and attacked us and diminished us.
And this is why we’ll keep resisting you every single hour of every single day until you’re no longer here, or until you prove to all of us that you can be the leader this great nation deserves.
We aren’t going anywhere. These marches were not a landing pad they were a launching pad.
We have eyes, Mr. President and we see you clearly.
You had a golden moment this weekend to bring healing to the people of this country—and you missed it.
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/01/23/mr-president-if-you-were-a-leader/
Article: I also know how you spent your first day in office. You spent it angrily Tweeting and hastily arranging press conferences. You spent it shutting down websites and pasting up photo boards. You spent it dispatching your apologists and cronies to try and discredit us. You spent it verbally assaulting the very people you are charged with caring for. You spent it spitting venom at millions of Americans who were being America, and by doing so— you proved us right.
You did this because you’re simply not a true leader, Mr. President.
If you were a leader, you would have found some humility, some dignity, some grace.
If you were a leader you would have checked that eggshell ego and that paper-thin skin and you would have paid attention.
If you were a leader you would have shut your mouth and listened, instead of responding like an embarrassed middle schooler who’d just been jilted by a crush in the cafeteria.
If you were a leader you would have realized the incredible healing that might have taken place in our country, if you had said to the millions marching and the millions more who love and support them: “I see you, and I want you to know that I want to be your President too. I want to protect you and to advocate for you and your families. I hear you and I am listening, and I will prove to you that I am deserving of your trust. We’re in this together.”
But you didn’t say any of that, Mr. President.
Article: Your supporters keep telling me to “give you a chance”. I do and you keep blowing it. You blew it again, this weekend—bigly. You squander every conceivable opportunity to show that you are for us.
If you were a true leader, you would have stepped up and met those of us marching right where we were and led us to a place of redemptive conversation and measured compromise. You would have validated and reassured and acknowledged us—but you didn’t. Instead you condemned us and attacked us and diminished us.
And this is why we’ll keep resisting you every single hour of every single day until you’re no longer here, or until you prove to all of us that you can be the leader this great nation deserves.
We aren’t going anywhere. These marches were not a landing pad they were a launching pad.
We have eyes, Mr. President and we see you clearly.
You had a golden moment this weekend to bring healing to the people of this country—and you missed it.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education
Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education: Donald Trump's win followed a campaign that revealed deep divisions that were as wide and in some cases wider than in previous elections.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Monday, August 8, 2016
Friday, August 5, 2016
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The facts behind Donald Trump’s many falsehoods
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-facts-behind-donald-trumps-many-falsehoods/2016/08/01/0571b048-582d-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html
The Republican presidential nominee tweeted over the weekend that rival Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats “are trying to rig the debates” by scheduling them during NFL games. (In fact, the bipartisan debate commission, independent of parties and candidates, announced the dates on Sept. 23, 2015.)
The Republican presidential nominee tweeted over the weekend that rival Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats “are trying to rig the debates” by scheduling them during NFL games. (In fact, the bipartisan debate commission, independent of parties and candidates, announced the dates on Sept. 23, 2015.)
He further alleged that “I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous.’ ” (The National Football League says it sent no such letter.)
Monday, August 1, 2016
Jennifer Rubin: Start differences between the two conventions
Jennifer Rubin: Start differences between the two conventions
The Democrats once again excel in the medium of popular culture. They do “look like America.”
Alas, Republicans have become exactly what their critics claim — the party of white, rich, angry men from rural America.
Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
The Democrats once again excel in the medium of popular culture. They do “look like America.”
Alas, Republicans have become exactly what their critics claim — the party of white, rich, angry men from rural America.
Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
Friday, July 22, 2016
For some Christians talking about race is tough, and long overdue they say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-some-christians-talking-about-race-is-tough-and-long-overdue-they-say/2016/07/19/4b3d85b0-4dd4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html
“We are gathered where Martin Luther King Jr. preached the last Sunday sermon of his life, urging us to stay awake in the light of stained glass windows,” said the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington and interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. The controversial windows, she said, “glorify a way of life that was sustained by chattel slavery and even now demands that we take account of what resources churches like ours was built on.”
The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the cathedral’s canon theologian, honed in on why the “white church” was being singled out. “Why not just ‘the church,’ ” she asked? “You say white racism is a sin. Why colorize it?”
Wallis, who is white, chimed in: “If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less reason to fear for their children. That’s a fact.” He paraphrased a verse in the book of Corinthians that says when one part of the body of Christ hurts, all of the body feels the pain.
“Not happening,” Wallis said. “When the black part of the body hurts, the white part doesn’t know what’s happening most of the time.”
The discussion was prompted by a sermon given last year by the Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor at Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md. The sermon was a resurrection of themes from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Sent to eight white ministers, the letter said King had “almost reached the regrettable conclusion” that the Ku Klux Klan was not the greatest stumbling block to black freedom; it was white moderates who were more devoted to order than to justice.
“We are gathered where Martin Luther King Jr. preached the last Sunday sermon of his life, urging us to stay awake in the light of stained glass windows,” said the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington and interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. The controversial windows, she said, “glorify a way of life that was sustained by chattel slavery and even now demands that we take account of what resources churches like ours was built on.”
The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the cathedral’s canon theologian, honed in on why the “white church” was being singled out. “Why not just ‘the church,’ ” she asked? “You say white racism is a sin. Why colorize it?”
Wallis, who is white, chimed in: “If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less reason to fear for their children. That’s a fact.” He paraphrased a verse in the book of Corinthians that says when one part of the body of Christ hurts, all of the body feels the pain.
“Not happening,” Wallis said. “When the black part of the body hurts, the white part doesn’t know what’s happening most of the time.”
The discussion was prompted by a sermon given last year by the Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor at Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md. The sermon was a resurrection of themes from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Sent to eight white ministers, the letter said King had “almost reached the regrettable conclusion” that the Ku Klux Klan was not the greatest stumbling block to black freedom; it was white moderates who were more devoted to order than to justice.
In praising Trump, Mike Pence pushes an imaginary and corrupt narrative
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-some-christians-talking-about-race-is-tough-and-long-overdue-they-say/2016/07/19/4b3d85b0-4dd4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html
The Trump syndrome was on full display in Pence’s convention speech. The vice-presidential nominee praised Trump as the natural heir of Ronald Reagan, which, no doubt, Pence wishes Trump to be. Pence said that Trump would stop “apologizing” to American enemies. He would “stand with our allies.” He would “lead from strength.”
But the same day as Pence’s speech, Trump gave a revealing interview to the New York Times. The candidate who would stop apologizing said: “I don’t know that we have a right to lecture. … How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood?” The candidate who would stand with our allies raised a cloud of questions about the United States’ commitment to NATO allies near Russia’s borders. We might come to their aid, said Trump, if they “fulfill their obligations to us.” The candidate who would lead from strength proposed a retreat from bases around the world. “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger,” Trump said.
There is a type of isolationism in which the United States is corrupted by engagement in the world, its ideals sullied by the lure of empire. And then there is Trump’s type of isolationism, in which the United States is too corrupt to engage in the world. In the mouth of any Democrat, Republicans would describe these words as anti-American. I cannot imagine such thoughts even crossing Reagan’s mind, much less leaving his lips. I think it is fair to say that if Reagan were alive today, Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric would make him puke.
There are many radiating effects of having a Republican nominee who is entirely ignorant about U.S. foreign policy but who wants to fundamentally redefine it. One of those effects is to make Pence look like a fool. His description of Trump had no connection to reality, which was demonstrated on the same day. Remember that soon after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) reluctant endorsement, Trump attacked a Hispanic judge in a manner that Ryan called “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Every serious Republican who crosses the event horizon of endorsing Trump is sucked into a black hole of compromise and self-deception. And many of us — still loyal to a humane conservatism — will never be able to think about such leaders in the same way again.
The Trump syndrome was on full display in Pence’s convention speech. The vice-presidential nominee praised Trump as the natural heir of Ronald Reagan, which, no doubt, Pence wishes Trump to be. Pence said that Trump would stop “apologizing” to American enemies. He would “stand with our allies.” He would “lead from strength.”
But the same day as Pence’s speech, Trump gave a revealing interview to the New York Times. The candidate who would stop apologizing said: “I don’t know that we have a right to lecture. … How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood?” The candidate who would stand with our allies raised a cloud of questions about the United States’ commitment to NATO allies near Russia’s borders. We might come to their aid, said Trump, if they “fulfill their obligations to us.” The candidate who would lead from strength proposed a retreat from bases around the world. “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger,” Trump said.
There is a type of isolationism in which the United States is corrupted by engagement in the world, its ideals sullied by the lure of empire. And then there is Trump’s type of isolationism, in which the United States is too corrupt to engage in the world. In the mouth of any Democrat, Republicans would describe these words as anti-American. I cannot imagine such thoughts even crossing Reagan’s mind, much less leaving his lips. I think it is fair to say that if Reagan were alive today, Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric would make him puke.
There are many radiating effects of having a Republican nominee who is entirely ignorant about U.S. foreign policy but who wants to fundamentally redefine it. One of those effects is to make Pence look like a fool. His description of Trump had no connection to reality, which was demonstrated on the same day. Remember that soon after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) reluctant endorsement, Trump attacked a Hispanic judge in a manner that Ryan called “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Every serious Republican who crosses the event horizon of endorsing Trump is sucked into a black hole of compromise and self-deception. And many of us — still loyal to a humane conservatism — will never be able to think about such leaders in the same way again.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
James Dobson and The Christian Right Sleep With the Enemy
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/27/james-dobson-and-the-christian-right-sleep-with-the-enemy/
From Article: Every day people tell me that they’re finished with organized Christianity; that they’re walking away from the American Church for good, and it isn’t because of gays or cultural decay or materialism or lust or whatever these preachers like to lift while in the pulpit.
These millions of honest, wise (and yes faithful) people are making their exodus because they see Dobson and people like him and they realize the absolute absurdity of it all.
They see that to align one...self with Donald Trump in the name of “shared faith”, is the same as a vegan going into business with Burger King. It’s all dissonance. It’s a compete disconnect undermining the very bedrock of their core beliefs, and so they’re choosing to leave instead of being associated with such a blatant powerlust move. They’ve run out of patience with a spirituality that’s for sale. They’re through with a Christianity that only needs to win. And I’m right with them.
Article...If Donald Trump is the next President, Dobson and those with him right now will need to look in the mirror and repeat the question Jesus asked of his disciples: “What will it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul?”
These Evangelicals are making their bed right now, and it’s costing them everything to lie in it.
Morning is going to be rough.
Donald Trump is a Christian Leader. The GOP Says So.
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/02/21/donald-trump-is-a-christian-leader-south-carolina-and-the-gop-just-said-so/
From article: The GOP voter’s embracing of Donald Trump fully embodies the Frankensteined faith that the extreme Evangelical Right has been violently stitching together for the past few decades; the brutal, bastardized new monster Gospel, formed of equal parts power, white privilege, capitalism, xenophobia, warmongering, a little Old testament wrath of God rhetoric—and good old-fashioned hatred.
There’s no sense in fighting it or denying it or ignoring it: This is what Christ...Christianity in American is now.
It is not an outlier.
it is not the lunatic fringe.
It is the rotten, stinking center.
It is orthodoxy.
Donald Trump can claim Christ and fit comfortably here.
Bill Moyers: Tea Party Has ‘Sucked The Soul Out Of The GOP’
http://www.liberalamerica.org/2013/10/08/tea-party-radicalization-bill-moyers-says-they-have-sucked-the-soul-out-of-the-gop/
From article:
From article:
least let’s name this for what it is — sabotage of the democratic process. Secession by another means.” Moyers said. “And let’s be clear about where such reckless ambition leads. As surely as night must follow day, the alternative to democracy is worse.”
Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans and their rich supporters, Moyer argued, have “sucked the last bit of soul from the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln,” turning them first delusional, then rabid, with the aid of conservative... mouthpieces like Fox News and “multi-millionaire fabulist” Rush Limbaugh.
Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans and their rich supporters, Moyer argued, have “sucked the last bit of soul from the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln,” turning them first delusional, then rabid, with the aid of conservative... mouthpieces like Fox News and “multi-millionaire fabulist” Rush Limbaugh.
Moyers also blasted the GOP for taking their opposition to the Affordable Care Act — and related demands — to extremes that threaten to damage the U.S. as a whole.
“When the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Moyers said. “Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the Union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn the place down, sink the ship of state, and sow economic chaos to get their way. This says it all: they even shuttered the Statue of Liberty.”
"To believe Donald Trump is going to beat Hillary Clinton requires one to believe so much that is not so and ignore reality. The reality is that this emperor has no clothes. The campaign, laid naked and bare, is a disaster built on top of a steaming divot." ~Erick Erickson - Conservation writer
“When the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Moyers said. “Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the Union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn the place down, sink the ship of state, and sow economic chaos to get their way. This says it all: they even shuttered the Statue of Liberty.”
"To believe Donald Trump is going to beat Hillary Clinton requires one to believe so much that is not so and ignore reality. The reality is that this emperor has no clothes. The campaign, laid naked and bare, is a disaster built on top of a steaming divot." ~Erick Erickson - Conservation writer
When did the decline of American character begin?
When did the decline of American character begin? Whenever. Whatever. Pick your date and trend. Not everything that happened to the American character in the past 50 years is bad—we are more tolerant, more empathetic and more relaxed—but much of it undoubtedly is. If Republicans are going to spend the next few days talking about making America great again, shouldn’t part of that discussion also be about making Americans great again—or, at very least, making us better? From it...s beginning, the impulses that have dominated Mr. Trump’s candidacy are the insult, the put-down, the slander, the threat, the refusal to apologize. These have poured out of him in such profusion and at such velocity that they have degraded Republicans simply by accustoming us to them. Mr. Trump’s apologists praise this as a refreshing burst of political incorrectness, but that just betrays an ignorance of what it means to be politically incorrect.
This column will elicit the usual mental wheezing from the True Believing Trumpsters, whose skins are as thin as their candidate’s, along with the slightly better rebuttal that the presumptive GOP nominee is the lesser of two evils. That’s pure conjecture, based on the prayer that Mr. Trump will soon transform into a statesman. People who believe this also kiss frogs.
But that’s beside the point. What’s at stake in Cleveland this week isn’t the identity of the next president. It’s the identity of the GOP: its ideas, its leaders, its followers. Above all, its character.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Fellow conservatives: the same goes for your political party.
GOP Conservative writer Bret Stephens July 18, 2016
This column will elicit the usual mental wheezing from the True Believing Trumpsters, whose skins are as thin as their candidate’s, along with the slightly better rebuttal that the presumptive GOP nominee is the lesser of two evils. That’s pure conjecture, based on the prayer that Mr. Trump will soon transform into a statesman. People who believe this also kiss frogs.
But that’s beside the point. What’s at stake in Cleveland this week isn’t the identity of the next president. It’s the identity of the GOP: its ideas, its leaders, its followers. Above all, its character.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Fellow conservatives: the same goes for your political party.
GOP Conservative writer Bret Stephens July 18, 2016
Election 2016- Voting Morally
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_efc951c2-4a0a-11e6-920a-97ef2a314037.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share
Michael Gerson’s recent column did a great job of exposing the moral disingenuousness of those Trump supporters who call themselves evangelical Christians.
Their actions reveal them far less Christian than they would like to claim. Donald Trump, a man with the moral certitude of a will-o’-the-wisp, has charmed the Christian right into accepting his multitude of positions on abortion, his overt racism toward Hispanics, his intolerance of religions he doesn’t like, the advocating not only torture but the killing of families of suspected terrorist and his misogyny, as well as the fact that he intends to be an authoritarian ruler. Still, they find him a morally acceptable candidate for the presidency of the United States.
What would it take to dissuade these people from voting for this morally (and four times financially) bankrupt person?
Would any real Christian really approve of such a man? Not in the Bible I read.
And his quote about Hillary Clinton, “She’s been in the public eye for years and years and yet there’s no — there’s nothing out there,” is so Trumpian. It is a statement devoid of meaning or content, the intent of which is character assassination by negative inference. How can one argue with a statement without meaning? How can anyone accept a statement without content?
Jim G.
New Orleans
No, ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not ‘inherently racist’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/07/13/no-black-lives-matter-is-not-inherently-racist/
From article:
Pointing out this discrepancy in life experiences is not “inherently racist.” Those who insist otherwise are trapped in a world of make-believe. A world where there are no differences. Or worse, such differences are neither recognized nor acknowledged. That kind of myopia makes the necessary discussion of race impossible..
And then the president added this:
Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes, so that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous — and the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words and values and authority of his parents.
Both of those statements are true. Only an open mind and open heart will allow you to see it. Giuliani and Trump have yet to demonstrate that they have either.
From article:
Pointing out this discrepancy in life experiences is not “inherently racist.” Those who insist otherwise are trapped in a world of make-believe. A world where there are no differences. Or worse, such differences are neither recognized nor acknowledged. That kind of myopia makes the necessary discussion of race impossible..
And then the president added this:
Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes, so that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous — and the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words and values and authority of his parents.
Both of those statements are true. Only an open mind and open heart will allow you to see it. Giuliani and Trump have yet to demonstrate that they have either.
Trump and NATO
http://www.mediaite.com/online/amanpour-and-brexits-farange-spar-over-trumps-newest-flap-nato-is-an-american-led-alliance/
Amanpour ultimately noted that if the United States has grand ambitions of continuing to be the world’s leader, it simply can not adopt the proposed policies that have emerged from the GOP nominee. Spreading the principles of democracy, freedom, morality and American values can only come when the country is in the driver’s seat, not waiting for others to pay their share. “America can not be America first if America is absent,” Amanpour argued.
Amanpour ultimately noted that if the United States has grand ambitions of continuing to be the world’s leader, it simply can not adopt the proposed policies that have emerged from the GOP nominee. Spreading the principles of democracy, freedom, morality and American values can only come when the country is in the driver’s seat, not waiting for others to pay their share. “America can not be America first if America is absent,” Amanpour argued.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Thanks, Obama
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/23/thanks-obama/
You live the grace so many Christians evoke but rarely
model.
From Essay: The truth is, many of us understand that the Evangelical
Right, the NRA, FoxNews, and far too many ordinary folks living here were
simply never going to be okay with a man of color leading them and
succeeding—and yet you have done both.
Eight years later, those same people still strain to bait
you into reciprocating violence and in fulfilling their toxic prophecies of
you, while you simply continue to do what you do with nobility, compassion,
good humor, and steadfast, unapologetic conviction.
White Voices About White Racism Matter to Black Lives
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/07/07/white-voices-about-white-racism-matter-to-black-lives/
If Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were white they would still be alive today.
White people need to admit this.
We need to stop rationalizing the killing of young black men at the hands of police.
They are being murdered because of the color of their skin and it’s disgusting.
We can say this without condemning all law enforcement officers. Of course we do.
We can even say this without condemning most law enforcement officers. We absolutely do.
But we should condemn these ones and the ones who disregard the humanity of people of color—and you better believe we do.
We have to look this all too familiar ugliness in the face, white America.
We have to call it out when it parades itself in front of us every week in crystal clear video.
We can’t rationalize theses deaths away or make excuses or act as if our eyes aren’t really seeing what they are seeing as they are shot repeatedly.
Most white people know what we see, we just need the stones to say it:
Systematic racism is still alive and well in America and it is still killing
young black men.
We can’t be okay with this.
We can’t contend that the rules are the same for people of color.
We can’t pretend that the justice system is an equal opportunity entity.
We can’t act as though staying alive is simply a matter of “staying out of trouble”.
To paraphrase Pastor Eugene Cho, we can’t allow people to be killed, and then assassinate their character to make it okay.
For as far as we’ve come we are not at all where we need to be, not while black parents have to teach their children to fear the police, not while people of color are incarcerated at exponentially higher rates than whites, and not while men like Alton Sterling, Michael
Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice (a 12-year old child) continue to be snuffed out at the hands of people who are specifically taught to de-escalate tense situations, who are supposed to model restraint, men and women who are charged with protecting and serving all life equally.
And those of us who have every advantage also have a responsibility to speak. We have a responsibility to name bigotry. We have a responsibility to demand justice. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable.
As a white man I realize that I’ll never escape some inherent racism. It’s built into my operating system. My whiteness and nearly five decades in the cushy shoes of privilege will continue to create blind spots for me that are almost impossible to discern without a great deal of self-awareness, a lot of help, and a teachable spirit. And even then, despite every way that I try to stay aware of it, I will still unknowingly participate in both personal and systematic discrimination.
But I refuse to participate in this.
I refuse to be a white apologist for the mortal sins of other white people.
The only color my allegiance is to, is the identical red that runs through the veins of all of humanity.
Alton Sterling’s blood. Michael Brown’s. Freddie Gray’s. Tamir Rice’s. My son’s. My own. Yours.
I’m calling racism what it is and not something that is less offensive to those who don’t believe black lives matter enough to say that they matter.
I am not going to let my brothers and sisters of color grieve or fight or live or die alone by staying silent.
This silence it is consent.
This silence is blessing.
This silence is participation.
Of course we don’t need to indict all members of law enforcement who do some of the most difficult work on the planet, but if we can’t call out even these most egregious displays of disregard for human life, we have no chance to admitting and copping to and addressing the subtle, more insidious discrimination in our systems and our hearts.
White people we need to wake up—and we need to go to work.
We need to be in the trenches and in the streets and in the political process alongside people of color to demand equality.
We need to be as loud as the most hateful of our own friends and families and coworkers.
If not, we’re the problem.
My faith compels me to demand that all people be treated as though they are made in the image of God.
My homeland declares that all men and women are created equal in the eyes of the law.
I will no longer deny my faith or my country by accepting the unmerited death of Alton Sterling or any other man of color.
It’s time for the white people who say “not all white people are racist” to call out those white people who are—or we are too. If we refuse to stand up for the humanity of our brothers and sisters of color we forfeit our own.
I don’t know how to change things, but I know that saying and doing nothing will ensure that we’ll soon be eulogizing another black man.
And I won’t have that on my hands.
Black lives matter.
White Voices About White Racism Matter to Black Lives
July 7, 2016 by Pastor John
Pavlovitz
If Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were white they would still be alive today.
White people need to admit this.
We need to stop rationalizing the killing of young black men at the hands of police.
They are being murdered because of the color of their skin and it’s disgusting.
We can say this without condemning all law enforcement officers. Of course we do.
We can even say this without condemning most law enforcement officers. We absolutely do.
But we should condemn these ones and the ones who disregard the humanity of people of color—and you better believe we do.
We have to look this all too familiar ugliness in the face, white America.
We have to call it out when it parades itself in front of us every week in crystal clear video.
We can’t rationalize theses deaths away or make excuses or act as if our eyes aren’t really seeing what they are seeing as they are shot repeatedly.
Most white people know what we see, we just need the stones to say it:
Systematic racism is still alive and well in America and it is still killing
young black men.
We can’t be okay with this.
We can’t contend that the rules are the same for people of color.
We can’t pretend that the justice system is an equal opportunity entity.
We can’t act as though staying alive is simply a matter of “staying out of trouble”.
To paraphrase Pastor Eugene Cho, we can’t allow people to be killed, and then assassinate their character to make it okay.
For as far as we’ve come we are not at all where we need to be, not while black parents have to teach their children to fear the police, not while people of color are incarcerated at exponentially higher rates than whites, and not while men like Alton Sterling, Michael
Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice (a 12-year old child) continue to be snuffed out at the hands of people who are specifically taught to de-escalate tense situations, who are supposed to model restraint, men and women who are charged with protecting and serving all life equally.
And those of us who have every advantage also have a responsibility to speak. We have a responsibility to name bigotry. We have a responsibility to demand justice. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable.
As a white man I realize that I’ll never escape some inherent racism. It’s built into my operating system. My whiteness and nearly five decades in the cushy shoes of privilege will continue to create blind spots for me that are almost impossible to discern without a great deal of self-awareness, a lot of help, and a teachable spirit. And even then, despite every way that I try to stay aware of it, I will still unknowingly participate in both personal and systematic discrimination.
But I refuse to participate in this.
I refuse to be a white apologist for the mortal sins of other white people.
The only color my allegiance is to, is the identical red that runs through the veins of all of humanity.
Alton Sterling’s blood. Michael Brown’s. Freddie Gray’s. Tamir Rice’s. My son’s. My own. Yours.
I’m calling racism what it is and not something that is less offensive to those who don’t believe black lives matter enough to say that they matter.
I am not going to let my brothers and sisters of color grieve or fight or live or die alone by staying silent.
This silence it is consent.
This silence is blessing.
This silence is participation.
Of course we don’t need to indict all members of law enforcement who do some of the most difficult work on the planet, but if we can’t call out even these most egregious displays of disregard for human life, we have no chance to admitting and copping to and addressing the subtle, more insidious discrimination in our systems and our hearts.
White people we need to wake up—and we need to go to work.
We need to be in the trenches and in the streets and in the political process alongside people of color to demand equality.
We need to be as loud as the most hateful of our own friends and families and coworkers.
If not, we’re the problem.
My faith compels me to demand that all people be treated as though they are made in the image of God.
My homeland declares that all men and women are created equal in the eyes of the law.
I will no longer deny my faith or my country by accepting the unmerited death of Alton Sterling or any other man of color.
It’s time for the white people who say “not all white people are racist” to call out those white people who are—or we are too. If we refuse to stand up for the humanity of our brothers and sisters of color we forfeit our own.
I don’t know how to change things, but I know that saying and doing nothing will ensure that we’ll soon be eulogizing another black man.
And I won’t have that on my hands.
Black lives matter.
If You Believe Donald Trump Deserves to Be President
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/05/24/if-you-believe-donald-trump-deserves-to-be-president/
O n African-Americans and Jews:
“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
“I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
“Our great African-American president hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.”
On women:
On protestors:
“That guy was so obnoxious and so loud maybe he should
roughed up.”
On Hillary Clinton:
On his daughter posing nude:
On sexual assault in the military:
“26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military — only
238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women
together?”
On John McCain:
On God:
On his penis:
On his supporters:
On revenge:
On his education:
On GOP candidate Carly Fiorina:
If you believe these
are the words of a man who is at all Presidential, whose character and
intellect and demeanor should represent America in the world, if you feel as
though they represent you, especially if you claim to follow Jesus…
… I guess I’m genuinely wondering why.
If You Believe Donald Trump Deserves to Be President
These are the words of GOP Presidential candidate and impending nominee Donald Trump…
These are the words of GOP Presidential candidate and impending nominee Donald Trump…
On Mexicans:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
“I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
“Our great African-American president hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what the media write as
long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
“Women have one of the great acts of all time. The smart
ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person
who came up with the expression ‘the weaker sex’ was either very naive or had
to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye
— or perhaps another body part.”
“I think the only difference between me and the other
candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
On Muslims:
“I think Islam hates us. We have to get to the bottom of it.
There is an unbelievable hatred of us — anybody. And we can’t allow people
coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States.”
“I think that we should definitely disallow any Muslims from
coming in. Any of them. The reason is simple: we can’t identify what their
attitude is.”
“They’re not coming to this country if I’m President.”
“I love the old days—you know what they used to do to guys
like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a
stretcher, folks.”
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock
the crap out of them. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.”
“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her
think she can satisfy America.”
“The only card Hillary Clinton has is the woman’s card.
She’s got nothing else to offer and frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I
don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is
the woman’s card, and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.”
“I don’t think Ivanka
would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka
weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was
captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well
been documented, are various other parts of my body.”
GOP platform, which calls coal ‘clean’, would reverse decades of U.S. energy and climate policy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/19/gop-platform-which-calls-coal-clean-would-utterly-reverse-decades-of-u-s-energy-and-climate-policy/
From article: The GOP platform calls coal “clean,” pledges to reverse a Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the Clean Air Act, seeks to open vast amounts of federally protected public lands and waters to oil, gas and coal exploitation, rejects the Paris climate accord and Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and opposes a carbon tax. It takes aim at “environmental extremists” and calls the environmental movement “a self-serving elite.”
Environmental groups have been tracking the GOP platform. Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said Monday night: “If this extremist platform were ever actually implemented, it would imperil clean air and clean water for all Americans. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and now the Republican Party has codified a radical and dangerous path to enable Trump and his anti-environmental ideology.”
From article: The GOP platform calls coal “clean,” pledges to reverse a Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the Clean Air Act, seeks to open vast amounts of federally protected public lands and waters to oil, gas and coal exploitation, rejects the Paris climate accord and Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and opposes a carbon tax. It takes aim at “environmental extremists” and calls the environmental movement “a self-serving elite.”
Environmental groups have been tracking the GOP platform. Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said Monday night: “If this extremist platform were ever actually implemented, it would imperil clean air and clean water for all Americans. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and now the Republican Party has codified a radical and dangerous path to enable Trump and his anti-environmental ideology.”
Friday, June 24, 2016
Trip to Monroeville Alabama - Harper Lee's Home Town
Harper Lee
Author of
To Kill a Mockingbird
Go Set A Watchman
May 2016 visit to Monroeville Alabama
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)