Donald Trump and Right Wing Evangelical Masculinity - Religion & Politics

In the end, many right wing evangelicals did not vote for Trump despite their beliefs, but because of them.

Many right wing evangelicals long ago replaced the suffering servant of Christ with an image that more closely resembles Donald Trump than many would care to admit.

They’ve traded a faith that privileges humility and elevates the least of these for one that derides gentleness as the province of wusses.

Having replaced the Jesus of the gospels with an idol of machismo, it’s no wonder many right wing evangelicals speak of Trump himself in terms of  "saving" them or the country

In the end, many right wing evangelicals did not vote for Trump despite their beliefs, but because of them.

It is not difficult to imagine how evangelicals, steeped in literature claiming that men were created in the image of a warrior God, might be receptive to sentiments like those expressed by the late Jerry Falwell, in his 2004 sermon “God is Pro-War.”

In fact, surveys demonstrate that traditionalist evangelicals are more likely than other Americans to approve of U.S. engagement in a preemptive war, support military action against terrorism, and condone the use of torture.

This brand of militant masculinity also helps explain the lack of outrage on the part of many evangelicals when it comes to Trump’s character issues.  Trump’s testosterone-fueled masculinity, which aligns remarkably well with that long championed by evangelicals. What makes a strong leader? A virile (white) man. And what of his vulgarity? Infidelity? Bombast? Even sexual assault? Well, boys will be boys.

The full article is available here

Corporate Media Paved Way for Trump’s Muslim Ban - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

While it’s important to lay primary blame for the Muslim travel ban at the feet of Trump, years of Islamophobic coverage in corporate media—right-wing, centrist and “liberal”—laid the propaganda groundwork to get us here.

Attention has rightly been paid to the Islamophobia industry—a loose consortium of professional far-right trolls such as Pam Geller, Frank Gaffney, Steve Emerson, Breitbart, Infowars, etc. 

And while these forces certainly were major factor in creating the Trump-friendly Muslim-fearing climate, it’s important not to lose sight of at least three other media phenomena that also had a major role:

1) The presentation of “terrorism” as a unique, existential threat, arbitrarily defined as applying almost exclusively to Muslim violence:  As FAIR has shown time and again (5/1/11, 4/15/14, 6/22/15, 6/14/16) over the years, media unjustifiably reserve the word “terrorism”—and the corollary breathless coverage it entails—overwhelmingly for political violence leveled by Muslims.

2) New Atheist bigots:  New Atheists, such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, routinely provide faux-liberal cover to the most vulgar aspects of anti-Muslim sentiment. Dawkins tweets things like “All the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge,” and had a much-mocked weeks-long feud with a 14-year-old Muslim kid over a clock he built for school, often times devolving into embarrassing conspiracy-mongering.

Sam Harris has turned anti-Muslim sophistry into a high art, focusing heavily on the alleged "pernicious influence" of Muslim immigrants and the dangers they pose.

3) Disproportionate news coverage of the ISIS spectacle:  Americans’ perception of terrorism is, for the most part, not informed by actual terrorist activity, but rather what we call “meta-terror,” or the fear caused by the coverage of terrorism, unconnected from any actual threat.

The full article is available here

The "Liberal's Are Ruining Universities" Canard - Tucker Fitzgerald

Universities aren't bereft of anti-intellectual conservatives because of a vast liberal conspiracy. 

There's a strong strain of anti-intellectualism in American Evangelical Christianity.  Through their allegiance with pro-big business corporate interests, they've worked actively to undermine scientific thinking.

From those corners, an often-repeated talking point is, "liberals and political correctness are ruining universities" or that "conservative students and professors are persecuted at the university level."

But that canard doesn't take into account that being anti-evolution, anti-climate change, anti-intellectual, and anti-factual aren't values that line up with most universities.  Universities aren't bereft of anti-intellectual conservatives because of a vast liberal conspiracy.  Rather, it's that people committed to anti-intellectual views aren't a good fit in an environment dedicated to being open-minded, inquiring, and growing intellectually.

An inherently regressive worldview of anti-intellectualism is different than unpopular ideas getting a hearing, differing opinions being debated, and sincere disagreements between people of differing philosophies that can be a part of on-going dialogue and clarification - all things that the academic tradition have cherished and nurtured for millennia. In other words, the level of agreement that is sought isn't that of homogeneous opinions but rather of agreeing to be intellectually honest and rigorous.

I have no interest in universities being populated by people who think just like me.  No one is.  But I do have an interest in them being populated with people who are willing to think.

The full article is available here

Trump's Immigration Ban and A Constitution In Peril - John Tirman

The fact that the Customs and Border Protection agency is defying court orders not to enforce certain provisions of the ban means we have a constitutional fracture just 10 days into Trump's presidency.

The imbroglio caused by President Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees is, above all, a constitutional crisis. As was apparent in the first two days after the order was signed on Friday, the crisis pivots not only on the substantive merits of the White House action — whether or not certain classes of people can be banned from entering the United States — but the fact that the Customs and Border Protection agency is defying court orders not to enforce certain provisions of the ban. Thus, by the 10th day of the Trump presidency, a constitutional fracture was emerging.

The manner in which travelers have in fact been detained, questioned, prevented from entry or flights and denied access to legal counsel also prohibits the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

This is, like the Custom and Border Protection’s violation of court orders, a crime of implementation rather than inherent in the executive order. But the order was inviting such insolence by its vague, broad and discriminatory language.

It is this implementation that sparks fresh worries about the Trump regime. The ban itself, for all its detestable qualities, was promised by Trump during the campaign, and will likely be overturned in court. But the process of realizing that promise has been fraught with incompetence and malevolence.

The full article is available here  

Trump’s Faulty Refugee Policy Comparison - Factcheck.org

Trump ordered a far wider ban — albeit also temporary — without identifying a specific threat.

President Donald Trump defended his sweeping immigration policy by calling it “similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.” That’s a faulty comparison.

The fact is that the Obama administration was responding to a known and specific threat from one country and limited its response to refugees from that country, while Trump’s order temporarily bans refugees from all countries — indefinitely in the case of those from Syria — and temporarily bars all other visitors from seven predominately Muslim countries.

There was a delay in processing Iraqi refugees in 2011 after it was discovered that two Iraqi refugees living in Kentucky had been involved in roadside bombing attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. One of the refugee’s fingerprints were found on a detonation device in Iraq, prompting U.S. immigration, security and intelligence agencies to use federal databases to rescreen about 58,000 Iraqi refugees in the U.S. and more than 25,000 Iraqis who had been approved to enter the U.S., but had not yet been admitted, Department of Homeland Security officials testified at the time.

The Kentucky case not only caused a backlog in processing Iraqi refugees in 2011, but it also resulted in an overhaul of the refugee screening process.

The full article is available here

Confused Why Women Marched Against Trump? I'll Help You Out - Jeff Wiersma

If you're confused about the women's march on D.C., let me help you out.

At a recent panel discussion that I attended, Historian Heather Cox Richardson summed it succinctly:

I will expand upon that.

We elected a president who rates women by the size of their breasts, who called bragging about how he has grabbed women's private parts without asking permission - which is sexual assault - as just "locker room talk."

We elected a man who went on the Howard Stern show bragging about how he liked to barge into the ladies dressing room uninvited and see his pageant girls naked (bragging he got away with it because he was president of the show).

We elected a man who bragged about the size of his own daughter's breast and said that if she wasn't his daughter, he'd probably be dating her, and said that his daughter is hot enough to pose in Playboy.

We elected a man who said he'd love to have sex with Lindsey Lohan because "deeply troubled" girls are the best in bed, who called his own wife a "young, beautiful piece of ass", who mocked a woman saying she had "blood coming out of her wherever."

These are but a few of the countless misogynistic things Trump has said and done.

If you think that making someone like this the president of the USA doesn't shape the self-view of young girls, doesn't normalize sexism, and doesn't need women to stand up for their worth, then you're on the wrong side of history.

Not only that, but plenty of men attended these marches too; men who are fathers, brothers, husbands and friends of amazing women and who wanted to publicly demonstrate that they're in opposition to such dreadfully sexist misogyny.

Birtherism: The Big Lie Behind the Rise of Trump - Bill Moyers

Donald Trump rode to power on the wings of a dark lie — one of the most malignant and ugly lies in American history: the Birther lie. This should not be forgotten.

Bill Moyers and four historians dissect the big lie Trump rode to power: Nell Painter, historian and Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University; Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Christopher Lebron, assistant professor of African-American studies and philosophy at Yale University; and Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Professor of Government, Hamilton College discuss the fertile ground on which the birther lie was sown: our nation’s history of white supremacy.

CHRISTOPHER LEBRON: I remember when he was going to prove that President Obama was not American, that he was not able to offer that proof. And even more amazingly, Trump has been able to not only convince himself for the longest time but has been able to convince a not-insignificant portion of the American people that no matter what documentation President Obama provides, he’s not American, which is an amazing thing to have done. 

NELL PAINTER: The ground was very fertile for the birther lie, and in fact, if it hadn’t been, somebody could have said oh no, no, no, the president was not born in this country, he cannot be president — and it would have fallen to Earth. It never would have gone anywhere. 

KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD: More particularly it expresses the illegitimacy of a person of African descent as a true American, as someone truly endowed with the capacity to govern this great nation. And that lie is just the tip of the iceberg, though foundational for everything else that flows from Donald Trump’s lips. 

PAINTER: I have said, more than once, that we would not have Trump without Obama. And that is, we have this running current of white supremacy — the assumption that nonwhite people are sort of over there and they’re inferior, they don’t work hard. 

PHILIP KLINKNER: If you’re going to tell a lie about somebody, it works a lot better if you focus on somebody who is different from you. They have a different skin color, they attend a different church or house of worship. They come from a different country or speak a different language. It’s harder to sort of see them a common citizen. Easier to see them as somebody who’s different and therefore dangerous to you and to your country.

The full article is available here

Isn't the "not my president" sentiment counter-productive? - Jeff Wiersma

If you're among those saying "not my president" about Trump, could I politely ask you to reconsider?

I'm as anti-Trump as they come and have been since before he even announced his candidacy (birtherism, his fear-mongering in the case of the Central Park Five, etc.)

He is a despicable, disgraceful man who is woefully unqualified to be president and represents everything I teach my sons not to be. His misogyny, fear-mongering, bullying, sexual assaulting, greed, narcissism, and prosperity gospel idolatry are unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

As a student of history and politics and as an advocate for justice, I'm highly exasperated, discouraged, and concerned by all of this. I will continue - in radical solidarity with those Trump demonizes and scapegoats - to resist and oppose him.

Yes, his election is far different than ones in the past where the candidate I did not prefer ended up winning (I was rooting for Trump to lose, not for Hillary to win). Yes, he represents a credible, existential threat to our republic. I will not "get over" that.

HOWEVER ... isn't the "not my president" sentiment counter-productive? Yes, he is not kind of person that many of us want to be the President. Yes, many of us can plainly see that he has no business being the President.

But he is our president.

Once that is acknowledged, we need to work within the mechanisms of democratic society to quarantine Trumpism for the good of our republic.

The Progressive Future Of The Republican Party - historian Heather Cox Richardson

Historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of a history of the Republican Party entitled To Make Men Free (2004), explains the rise of the cabal of Movement Conservatism in the 1950's, then discusses how she sees Moderate Conservatism coming to the fore again in the coming years and how it will be a progressive movement.

 Betsy DeVos Just Flunked Her Senate Test - The Nation



From guns in schools to accountability for for-profit colleges, the nominee for Secretary of Education either could not or chose not to answer most serious policy questions.

If confirmed as secretary of education, would Betsy DeVos promise not to strip funding from public schools? “I look forward, if confirmed, to working with you to talk about how we address the needs of all parents and all students,” the Republican donor and activist told a Senate committee in response.

What are her proposals for making childcare affordable? “I would look forward to working with you,” DeVos responded. 

Does she support transparency around student loans? “I certainly will look forward to working with you and your colleagues.”

Do guns have a place in public schools? That’s “best left to locales and states to decide,” she said, adding that they might be necessary to ward off grizzly bear attacks. 

There were plenty of moments in Tuesday’s hearing that betrayed DeVos’s lack of preparation for the country’s top education post, but none more than her stumble over protections for disabled students. Should all schools that receive taxpayer money be required to provide an equal education to students with disabilities? “I think that is certainly worth discussion,” DeVos said.

DeVos appeared unfamiliar with (or uncommitted to) the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, a major civil rights law that requires publicly-funded schools to accommodate disability.

The full article is available here 

Trump AG Pick Needs Sunday School Lesson On Immigration - Religion News Service

Sessions might want to find fodder in the Bible for his reactionary positions, but the fact is he is isolated and out of step with more than a millennium of Christian thought and discipleship. 

While Donald Trump thrilled crowds during the election campaign with his pledge to build a “great wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions - who Donald Trump has picked to be his Attorney General - cited the Old Testament story of Nehemiah to make a defense of the president-elect’s plans. 

Scripture scholars and religious leaders — including many conservative evangelicals —widely agree that Old Testament's unmistakable message to the Israelites is to protect and defend the stranger. 

In the New Testament, Jesus radically expanded the definition of neighbor in the parable of the good Samaritan, praising the Samaritan (whom Israelites despised for being foreigners) for stopping to help a man wounded by the side of the road while the respectable of society — a priest and a Levite — passed him by. 

When George W. Bush, a self-styled “compassionate conservative” and "born-again Christian," pushed a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2007 that was supported by many business and law-enforcement officials, Sessions railed against what he called the “no illegal alien left behind bill” and led the charge against the failed effort. Sessions is also opposed to increases in legal immigration, and his views are well outside the mainstream. 

Sessions might want to find fodder in the Bible for his reactionary positions, but the fact is he is isolated and out of step with more than a millennium of Christian thought and discipleship.

The full article is available here

California Democrats Did NOT Just Legalize Child Prostitution - Snopes

It is still illegal for Californians to hire prostitutes (child or otherwise).

A report circulating on right wing websites, blogs, and Facebook pages that claims that California Democrats had legalized prostitution for minors was based on a faulty understanding of a new law.

A California law passed in 2016 provides that minors involved in sex trafficking and prostitution will be treated as victims instead of criminals.

It is still illegal for Californians to hire prostitutes (child or otherwise), and sex traffickers will still face consequences if they are caught prostituting children.

The law represents a shift away from prosecuting underaged victims for their involvement in prostitution, which can end up on their record for life.

The California law is in line with the stance of the Department of Justice, which has also noted that children involved in prostitution should be considered victims.

The full article is available here

It Still Nowhere Near Okay To Act Like Donald Trump - The Onion

Report: "Acting like Mr. Trump does for even a moment will result in a wide range of negative social—and in some cases, criminal—consequences for you personally."

In the weeks since Donald Trump’s stunning election to the nation’s highest office, reports have confirmed that, regardless of circumstance, it is not even remotely close to okay to act like Donald Trump.

“Just to be perfectly clear, speaking or behaving in a manner similar to President-elect Trump is just as unacceptable now as it has ever been,” the reports stated, adding that in zero percent of cases is it even borderline permissible to conduct oneself either personally or professionally in a fashion akin to Trump, and that has not changed in the past.

“In fact, acting like Mr. Trump does for even a moment will result in a wide range of negative social—and in some cases, criminal—consequences for you personally. Put simply, you should not be engaging with the world in any way comparable to Mr. Trump. This was true before he was elected, and it will be true long after he’s gone.”

The full article is available here

Trump Overstates His Foundation's Charitable Giving - NPR

Austerity On Trial: Flint Emergency Manager Faces Criminal Charges - Common Dreams

"All too often, there's been a fixation on finances and balance sheets," said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. "This fixation cost lives."

Putting austerity on trial, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday announced criminal charges against four high-level officials for their role in causing the Flint water crisis, including former city manager Darnell Earley, who made the budget-driven decision to switch the city's water supply to the dangerously corrosive Flint River.

"All too often, there's been a fixation on finances and balance sheets," said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. "This fixation cost lives."

Earley, as well as another former emergency manager Gerald Ambrose—both appointees of Republican Governor Rick Snyder—are being charged with false pretense and conspiracy to commit false pretense, which each carry a 20-year sentence, as well as misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.

"There are some who would simply wish that the problems in Flint would go quietly away, and there are voices out there who hope the poisoning of the water would be swept under the rug," Schuette said during a Tuesday morning press conference. "These voices hope to simply blame nameless bureaucrats, call it a day and move on."

The full article is available here

How Tyranny Begins: Why Trump Rallies for Trump - Robert Reich

A president intent on developing a base of enthusiastic supporters who believe boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy.

Donald Trump has just finished the last of his nine post-election “thank you tour” rallies. Why did he do them? And why is he planning further rallies after he becomes president?

One clue is that Trump conducted them only in the states he won. And most attendees appeared to have voted for him – overwhelmingly white, and many wearing Trump hats and T-shirts. When warm-up speakers asked how many had previously attended a Trump rally, most hands went up.

A second clue is that rather than urge followers to bury the hatchet, Trump wound them up. “It’s a movement,” he said in Mobile, playfully telling the crowd that in the run-up to the election, “You people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall?’ ‘We want the wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison!’ ‘Prison!’ ‘Lock her up!’ I mean, you were going crazy. You were nasty and mean and vicious.” He called his followers “wild beasts.”

A third clue: Rather than shift from campaigning to governing, Trump’s post-election rallies were almost identical to the rallies he held when he was a candidate – the same format, identical pledges (“We will build a great wall!”), and same condemnations of the “dishonest” media. They also elicited many of the same audience responses, such as “Lock her up! Lock her up!”

In short, the rallies and tweets give Trump an unprecedented platform for telling Big Lies without fear of contradiction – and therefore for advancing whatever agenda he wishes.

This is how tyranny begins.  A president intent on developing a base of enthusiastic supporters who believe boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy.

The full article is available here 

Psychopathology In The 2016 Election - Rabbi Michael Lerner

The triumph of hyper-capitalist selfishness as common sense has created a huge psycho-spiritual crisis and a society filled with deeply scared and lonely people.

In present-day America we are witnessing the way the ethos of financialized, global capitalism - and its impact on daily life - shapes and nurtures a growing societal-based psychopathology.

The triumph of hyper-capitalist selfishness as common sense has created a huge psycho-spiritual crisis and a society filled with deeply scared and lonely people.

This pain operates on two levels. On a psychological level people are suffering because they have absorbed the capitalist message: “You live in a meritocracy, so you get what you deserve, and if you haven’t achieved the level of success you want, it’s your fault."

On the spiritual level, tens of millions of people are suffering because they desperately want meaningful and purposeful lives and instead are trapped in jobs that do not produce anything of lasting value, and feel that they are wasting their lives yet believe that there is no alternative and no way out.

Right-wing, ultra-nationalist, fundamentalist, and/or racist movements gain support as more people begin to lose faith in the efficacy of democratic governments and turn to authoritarian leaders in the hope that their own fears and pain can be alleviated.

When ultra-nationalist movements arise and promise to “Make America Great Again,” people believe that things will magically return to how they were before African Americans, women, and gays and lesbians made gains for equality, mistakenly directing their blame at them rather than at the ruling class for its massive onslaught of attacks on the rights of the working class.

When right-wing programs and policies fail to deliver a more fulfilling life for people at work and for people in family life, this failure will be blamed on the demeaned others of the society who are portrayed as taking from the white majority the economic security, community solidarity, and safety that supposedly existed at some earlier historical moment.

The full article is available here 

Comic Relief - Satiring Trump's Appointments

Perry's Who Should Run the Department of Energy, Ranked

Perry's who should run the Department of Energy, ranked:

1 - Matthew Perry
2 - Katy Perry
3 - Luke Perry
4 - Joe Perry
5 - Perry Farrell
6 - Steve Perry
7 - Perry Ellis
8 - Perry Como
9 - Tyler Perry
10 - William “The Refrigerator” Perry
11 - Gaylord Perry
12 - Perry Saturn
13 - Perry Jones III
14 - Being blown up by a nuclear weapon
15 - Rick Perry

Trump Postpones Business Conflicts Announcement = Maintaining The Swamp

If you elect a clown, you get a circus. 

Corporate Oil Megalith Executive To Be Trump's Secretary Of State

Trump has picked an oil company megalith executive with no governing experience and close ties to Russia to be his Secretary of State.

Trump's EPA Head and Taiwan Phone Call = Maintaining The Swamp

Trump Chooses Fake Wrestling Matriarch for Small Business Administration

Battling Trump's Hate Speech - Southern Poverty Law Center

Trump's Pants On Fire Claim That "Millions Voted Illegally" - Politifact

The full article is available here

Trump's Cabinet = Maintaining The Swamp

Weather Channel's Kait Parker Explains Climate Change to Breitbart

Targeting Corporate Democrats Part of Fighting Trump - Mark Engler in Common Dreams

The only hope for minimizing the damage of Trump's agenda will be to fight his hate-mongering and right-wing faux populism with a progressive vision.

At a time when Donald Trump has risen to the presidency by railing against the Washington establishment and upending the traditional rules of politics, the Democratic Party’s propensity for compromise and triangulation only plays into his hands.

The only hope for unseating Trump and minimizing the damage of his agenda will be to fight his hate-mongering and right-wing faux populism with a progressive vision. This vision must express a genuine criticism of Washington politics, but be devoted to eliminating the corrupting power of the wealthiest one percent, rather than scapegoating immigrants and people of color.

In the short run, this will require pressuring fickle and opportunist politicians to stubbornly oppose and filibuster White House extremism, even at the risk of being labeled obstructionist by critics.

If the incoming president was truly anti-establishment, seriously willing to take on Wall Street, end the rule of the rich over our democracy, and uphold Constitutional values of equal rights, religious tolerance and free speech, there might be grounds for such cooperation. Instead, Trump has given every indication that he will fill his administration with corporate lobbyists and advocates of hate.

In the longer term, it will involve creating an effective opposition in the Democratic Party to ensure that Trump’s next opponent will not be another establishment candidate, deeply compromised by ties to corporate America. Rather, this opponent must be someone who can genuinely speak to the disenfranchisement and frustration that many in this country feel.

The full article is available here

Breitbart Meme

Evangelicals Proud of Trump After Years of Judging People's Lifestyles - Kerry Eleveld

"White evangelicals, your moral credibility is zero. When you elevate someone like Trump, you’ve sacrificed your integrity. In totality. There’s just no recovering from that. And the next time you claim something is immoral, all we’ll have to say is: Trump."

The full article is available here

With Fact-Checking vs Without Fact-Checking - Viralgranskaren

How hate is ginned up and how those predisposed to fear the "other" spread it like a virus.

What The 2016 Election Revealed - Jeff Wiersma

We need a shared vision which rejects Religious Nationalism, Hate Speech Demagoguery, and Economic Darwinism - showing the way instead to expressions of social justice, compassion, empathy, and radical solidarity.  

The 2016 Election was not your run-of-the-mill Presidential Election.

As Andy Borowitz said, "Trump wasn’t created in a vacuum; he is the inevitable product of a coarsened culture that rewards bullying over kindness, humiliation over respect, hatred over love."

Meanwhile, his opponent was the 2nd member of Clinton Political Machine (preceded by Al Gore in 2000) to run a campaign that only compounded their likability problems and ultimately resulted in the election of an inferior Republican candidate.

Sociologically, this election has revealed the following:

• Technological changes combined with corporate global bottom-feeding, 36 years of voodoo economics, and hyper-capitalist financialization have left working people behind, who feel betrayed, unrecognized, and angry.

• Rhetoric about progressive social policy - policy that aims to help working people recover from the scorched-earth class war being waged against them by the 1% - falls on deaf ears when the Democratic candidate is the ultimate crony capitalist. 

•  The false lure of a conservative Supreme Court and single-issue voting still holds many Evangelicals hostage.  They have voted Republican for this one reason - all the while supporting wars, environmental destruction, the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor - and not gotten one bit closer to overturning Roe v Wade, which was made law by a Republican-nominated Supreme Court.  (And even if they did overturn it, abortion wouldn't go away without a culture that supports life).

• The entrenched attitudes of racial bigotry in American society have been shamelessly exposed.

• The decades-long pattern of manipulating racial fears, employed by the GOP beginning with their Southern strategy, now boiled over in an ugly political movement driven by resentment of those who are different. That their candidate was manifestly and dangerously unqualified didn't trump the affection that the President-elect's supporters lavished on him because he spewed hate speech at the same "other" that they've been told to hate.

• Fears and biases have clouded attention to facts. An entire self-reinforcing network of right wing media have captured an audience by playing to fears and biases, all while using the time-tested cult tactic of warning it's adherents that they are the only source of truth and that all other media sources are lying to them and biased.

• The white, largely male majority which controlled political power since America’s founding is losing its dominant power, provoking anxiety and political desperation among its adherents.

Within this setting, the need for public discernment and a resonant vision is paramount.

We need a shared vision which rejects the idolatry of Religious Nationalism, Demagoguery, and Economic Darwinism - showing the way instead to expressions of social justice, compassion, empathy, and radical solidarity.

Trump Is Maintaining The Swamp

Trump’s Conflicts of Interest Without Precedent - Drew Harwell in The Washington Post

Trump has so far resisted the long-standing presidential tradition of giving his holdings to an independent manager. 

Donald Trump’s victory will force the United States to confront a series of never-before-seen entanglements over the president’s private business, debts and rocky financial history.

No laws prohibit Trump from involving himself in his private company, the Trump Organization, while serving in the highest public office.

And Trump has so far resisted the long-standing presidential tradition of giving his holdings to an independent manager, stoking worries of conflicts of interests over his businesses’ many financial and foreign ties.

Trump’s business empire of hotels, golf courses and licensing deals in the U.S. and abroad, some of which have benefited from tax breaks or government subsidies, represents an ethical minefield for a commander in chief who would oversee the U.S. budget and foreign relations, some analysts say.

The full article is available here

It's Not That Hillary Lost - Jeff Wiersma

Those who deride the protests of people who are targeted by hate-mongers are privileged enough to do so because it doesn't personally effect them.

It isn't that Hillary lost. I didn't vote for her, nor have I ever voted for a Clinton.

It's that the candidate that the KKK, neo nazis and white supremacists endorsed won.

It's that the candidate whose demagoguery painted entire demographic groups as "other" and therefore necessarily to be feared, won. It's that the candidate who retweeted posts from White Supremacists won.

I'm not under any delusion that Trump can control who supports him, but it isn't like these people are fans of his because Trump lent them flour one time when they were baking or watered their plants while they were on vacation in July. They are fans because his rhetoric often echoes and amplifies their message.

Those who deride the protests of people who are targeted by hate-mongers are privileged enough to do so because it doesn't personally effect them.

Solidarity

Get Through Today - Ryan Stegink-Simes

An inspiring and uplifting reflection from my friend Ryan Stegnik-Simes:

"Make it your goal to get through today. Show up to work, be kind, allow yourself to grieve but don't give in to your anger and frustration. 

I want nothing more than to dig a hole, crawl in, and sob, and I imagine you might want to do the same thing, but your family, your kids, your parents, your friends, your neighbors and your nation need you today. 

Start thinking about solutions."

"Pro Life" Or Only "Pro Birth?" - Sister Joan Chittister

What You Need to Know About the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest - Bill Moyers

Native Americans from tribes all over the country are protesting the construction of a crude-oil pipeline slated to snake through sacred sites and under the water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

The Dakota Access Pipeline Project (DAPL) is a $3.78 billion conduit being built from the oil-rich Bakken fields in North Dakota, near the Canadian border. It which will be located a half-mile from the reservation through land taken from the tribe in 1958.

The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from the beginning, using the Nationwide Permit 12 process that treats the pipeline as a series of small construction sites and grants exemption from the environmental review required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says they were not consulted and a survey of the area found several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” in the pipeline path, including burial grounds.

The tribe says that the pipeline is a significant danger to their water supply since it passes underneath the Missouri River — the main source of water for the reservation. An earlier proposal had the pipeline crossing the Missouri north of Bismarck, but authorities were concerned about the risk to the capital’s water supply in the advent of a pipeline spill.

On Aug. 10, construction began and a dozen demonstrators were arrested as they tried to stop it. The call for help went out, using social media and the #NoDAPL hashtag to spread information, and within a week hundreds of protesters arrived, swelling the ranks to more than 2,500.

The full article is available here

Democrats Did NOT Hire Protesters To "Be Violent" - Politifact

As problematic as Scott Foval’s statements were, he also says in the tape that he did not coach people to stage confrontations inside the events.  Nor did he say on tape that he told people to "be violent" and "start fist-fights," as Trump alleged. 

During the third and final presidential debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of paying people to incite violence at his rallies.

However, the videos Trump referenced (which focus on Scott Foval, who is identified as the national field director at Americans United for Change, a liberal organization) are edited in ways that the context of the conversation or the meaning of the statement isn’t always clear, nor do you know when they took place.

Additionally, Project Veritas’ undercover operatives are often goading their subjects with leading statements. It has the effect of making the viewer infer that the people said something that he or she didn’t literally say.

Tellingly, the Trump campaign provided no evidence of payment from Clinton or Obama—a charge that the video itself does not substantiate.

Trump’s claim that the Chicago “riot” reached a point that “people could’ve been killed” would seem to hold even less water. And when things did escalate during the March protest, Trump supporters played their part, as well.

It should be noted, too, that for as problematic as Foval’s statements were, he also says in the tape that he did not coach people to stage confrontations inside the events.

"They’re not starting confrontations in the rally because once they’re inside the rally, they’re under Secret Service’s control," Foval said.

Nor did he say on tape that he told people to "be violent" and "start fist-fights," as Trump alleged. Instead, Foval’s stated goal was to bait Trump supporters into violent acts simply by wearing certain t-shirts or saying anti-Trump remarks.

The full article is available here

General Atomics Funded Think Tank That Promoted Increased Drone Exports - CorpWatch

With spending dropping from a high of $187 billion in 2008 to a projected $58.7 billion for 2015, the company realized that it faced a sharp drop off in sales.

A report by the New York Times and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting shows that General Atomics helped fund the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a major think tank in Washington DC, when it recommended that the Obama administration loosen export rules to allow the company sell more drones.

General Atomics manufactures the Predator and Reaper drones, the two main aircraft used by the U.S. military for surveillance and targeted killing in wars around the world from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iraq and Syria.

But with spending on such wars dropping from a high of $187 billion in 2008 to a projected $58.7 billion for 2015, the company realized that it faced a sharp drop off in sales.

"Think tanks are seen as independent, but their scholars often push donors’ agendas, amplifying a culture of corporate influence in Washington," wrote Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams in the New York Times in article about Brannen's work.

The full article is available here

The Rio You Won't See Watching Olympics On TV - Act TV

The Law Trump Violated With His "2nd Amendment People" Comment About Hillary

from http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/41/879

18 U.S.C. § 879 : US Code - Section 879:

Threats against former Presidents and certain other persons

Whoever knowingly and willfully threatens to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon -
(1) a former President or a member of the immediate family of a former President;
(2) a member of the immediate family of the President, the President-elect, the Vice President, or the Vice President-elect;
(3) a major candidate for the office of President or Vice President, or a member of the immediate family of such candidate;
or
(4) a person protected by the Secret Service under section 3056(a)(6);

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Did Trump Just Suggest Gun Nuts Should Shoot Hillary Clinton? - Common Dreams

Yes he did.  He most certainly did. And in doing so, he violated the law ...http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/41/879

Abusive people say horrible things and then say "just kidding." They aren't kidding.  He's just tossing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. There's not much room on the wall anymore.

The full article is available here

Film Review - Hillary's America: Conspiratorial Talking Points - AV Club

Polemicist Dinesh D'Souza's revisionist history appeals to the conspiratorial, persecuted conservative mindset. 

Conservative polemicist Dinesh D’Souza presents a series of conspiratorial talking points, a freewheeling parade through American history that is comically grotesque.

D’Souza is a master of historical elisions and ideological inversions, but his most impressive trick is his idea that the Republican and Democratic parties have not changed at all in 180-plus years.

This allows him to say that the Democratic Party has always been rotten, a band of thieves little changed from Andrew Jackson to the Clintons. His sustained attack on Hillary Clinton is a fever dream, which is entirely typical of D’Souza’s realm: malignant fantasy.

If you scratch the surface any deeper than “Yeah go team GOP!!!!!”—much less run his historical summaries by Wikipedia—D’Souza’s arguments implode like a bad soufflé. It’s of a piece with the kind of blind Manichaeism Fox News is so into.

Yet at the same time, he presents himself as a “scholar” who is giving you the true version of American political history. In this way, he’s pretty savvy about tapping the conspiratorial, persecuted conservative mindset. His revisionist history appeals to these people precisely because it flatters them and doesn’t demand fact-checking.

The film’s fundamental claim is that Hillary Clinton steals things. And because Clinton steals, the entire Democratic Party is all about stealing, and it has been from its inception.

D’Souza doesn’t even make a credible argument that Bill and Hillary are corrupt, even though in many ways it’s low-hanging fruit. Instead, like many a fringe weirdo who has come after the Clintons over the years, he overreaches and invents an absurd conspiracy.

The full article is available here

Human Rights Abuse and Violence - The Olympics You Don't See On Television

Rio Olympics linked to widespread human rights violations, report reveals.

Residents, including thousands of children, are victims of violence and evictions stemming from building projects for 2016 Games.

Hillary Clinton: ‘When I Was A Child, Most Special Interest Groups Wouldn’t Even Consider Donating Large Sums Of Money To A Woman’ - The Onion

“It’s hard to fathom now, but back when I was growing up in the 1950s, Wall Street banks, major law firms, and every other special interest out there wouldn’t let a woman through the door, let alone funnel inordinate sums of money into her campaign as a means to advance their agendas,” said Clinton, adding that she personally had to work twice as hard as her male colleagues for decades just to be deemed qualified as a viable political conduit for hundreds of millions of dollars controlled by wealthy corporations and narrowly focused institutions.

Clinton then assured the cheering crowd that while she might be the first female presidential nominee of a major political party beholden to well-heeled influence peddlers, she would certainly not be the last.

Trump's Quasi-Mystical Appeal - Elijah Siegler

Throughout history, illusionists appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings because of their ability to deceive and manipulate the masses.  They were able to gain followers by playing on people's superstitions.

What is Donald Trump? Is he a prosperity gospel preacher? A Platonic tyrant?

To delve into this question, religion-oriented analysis can be useful.  After all, politics isn't just about policy.  It's about identity, community, meaning, and belief.

Trump has powered his campaign by playing on the fears of sinister threats. He has backed anti-vaxxers and engaged in nativist fantasies  Trump's most popular policies are based on fears of contagion; defined as "the communication of disease by direct or indirect contact."

To many in Trump's base, drummed-up fears of people that are deemed to be "other" have been extremely powerful motivating factors, in part accounting for the maintenance of their support of Trump and approval of his policies. His rhetoric both creates and ratchets up anxiety and fear on a daily basis. In the human brain, these visceral emotions, when continually stoked, bypass reason and logic altogether.

James Frazer, a Scottish anthropologist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, analyzed anthropological and classical literature to speculate on the origin of magic and religion.  According to Frazer, throughout history illusionists appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings because of their ability to deceive and manipulate the masses.

In The Golden Bough, he wrote that the best of them "perceive how easy it is to dupe their weaker brother and to play on his superstition for their own advantage." They were often sincerely convinced that they "really possessed those wonderful powers which the credulity of his fellows ascribes to (them)."

The savviest illusionist-king, in other words, tells the people what they want to hear, and truly believes that he is the best, the greatest, fantastic, unbelievable.

Frazer argued that society should be wary of these political illusionists, because they subvert democracy. They shift "the balance of power from the many to the one."

The full article is available here

Interdependence Days - Bryan Berghoef at Shalem Institute

Independence has its place, to be sure. But perhaps what needs remembering and cultivating, what really ought to be celebrated each and every day—is our deep and sacred interdependence—with one another, with the Earth, and with all living things.

Independence. It is a wonderful thing to be free of that which holds you back, presses you down, or even oppresses you. We are heading into a weekend in the U.S. in which parades, flags, fireworks and barbecues will all signal a corporate celebration of being free, of independence. A wonderful thing.

Yet in the wake of the recent vote for independence in Britain, the famous Brexit, we realize that there are limits to how good independence can be. We remember that underneath it all, there is a very real and essential interdependence. Human beings were not made to exist in isolation.

Even collections of human beings are not really able to live in true independence. There is always an impact from the other, a necessary global interconnection, in which trade from one nation helps another, travel in and through a region impacts a local economy, or in which pollution or carbon usage affects the global whole.

Independence has its place, to be sure. But perhaps what needs remembering and cultivating, what really ought to be celebrated each and every day—is our deep and sacred interdependence—with one another, with the Earth, and with all living things.

The full article is available here

Dorothy Day - We Must Talk About Poverty