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Author Topic: Corruption in Government  (Read 72913 times)

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Surly1

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"What's good for you is in no way appropriate for me, because my flow of rubles and other kickbacks is none of the business of you peasants."

And for a brief review of the resume of this rebuke ratfucker, Sensenbrenner, remember his body of work under the Cheney administration?

He shut the lights off in the congressional house and the CSPAN cameras so democrats could not have hearings on voter manipulation and theft at precincts across the country and forced them into the basement so CSPAN couldn’t hold the live hearings! They had to use their phones to record the hearings.

Patriot Act author: Using phone records as impeachment evidence is 'abuse of power'

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Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) wrote the law authorizing warrantless wiretaps. Now, he's mad GOP Rep. Devin Nunes' phone records got caught up in legally subpoenaed evidence.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is accusing House Democrats of "abuse of power" after they found and released phone records showing that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) was in communication with an indicted businessman caught up in the impeachment investigation — raising questions about what role Nunes himself had in the alleged quest to force Ukraine to investigate Donald Trump's rivals.

"We're talking a lot about abuses of power here in the White House and the Executive Branch. Here I see a clear abuse of power on the part of the people who are prosecuting this impeachment against the president of the United States," Sensenbrenner said, referring to how Nunes' phone records were part of the House Intelligence Committee's report on evidence found as part of the impeachment inquiry. "They should be ashamed of themselves."

To some, it might be ironic that Sensenbrenner finds it offensive and wrong that a lawmaker's phone records were found in the course of the impeachment investigation via legally authorized subpoenas for evidence. That's because Sensenbrenner is the author of the PATRIOT Act, which made it easier for the government to "spy on its own citizens," according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly opposes the law.

However, Sensenbrenner clearly could not see that irony, instead comparing Democrats to the late Joe McCarthy, the disgraced senator who blacklisted people accused of being communists — often falsely and without any evidence.

"Folks, you have made Joe McCarthy look like a piker with what you've done with the electronic surveillance involved," Sensenbrenner said. "It is something that has to be put a stop to now, it is something that has to be fessed up to now."

However, nothing Democrats did to find out that Nunes was having phone conversations with a key figure in the impeachment inquiry was illegal.

Nunes' conversations with Lev Parnas — an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who helped lead the smear campaign against former United States Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch — were found via legal subpoenas.

And the fact that Nunes would be talking to Parnas is germane to the impeachment investigation — as Nunes was the ranking Republican on the committee who did the fact-finding for the impeachment investigation, and it turns out Nunes may have played a role in the very issue he was investigating.

Nunes, for his part, has had a difficult time explaining why he was talking to Parnas at all, with his explanation constantly changing. Instead, he's lashed out at reporters who ask Nunes why he was speaking to Parnas, who faces federal charges for allegedly violating campaign finance laws.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, for his part, suggested Nunes may have been "complicit" in Trump's effort to force Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

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AGelbert

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The times, they are tragic 😟

Dec 9, 2019

Today is the day that you can officially say the United States has become a Banana Republic. When the president says and is supported by his lackeys like Jordan, Meadows and Rand Paul, that it is OK to knowingly break a federal law by exposing a whistleblower. Then I believe it is impossible for those people to say they support the Constitution. We are a nation of laws. The whistleblower complaint has been verified under oath by multiple people and is no longer open to questioning the facts. It is deeply disturbing the drafter dodger president continues to slander and demean long serving ambassadors and Purple Heart awarded soldiers with no push back from veterans. Inexcusable!

Two of the president’s closest supporters have been proven to lie. Three people have now testified that they told Pompeo that the lady ambassador was being forced out, and he still said with a straight face he did not know about it. The “acting secretary of state,” Ruday Giuliani, has been revealed to have been paid more than $500,000 by a Ukrainian company for advice. He said that is OK, but not OK for Biden’s son? Beyond belief!


Hypocrisy is just part of the skill-set. Speaking of that "Libertarian™" sock-puppet, Rand Paul, that most beloved by the late and unlamented Golden Oxen, you should be aware of the following:


By Matthew Chapman December 9, 2019
On Monday, Politico reported that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is pushing to change congressional rules to prohibit subpoenas from committee chairmen from seeking the phone records of members of Congress, as well as those of journalists.

This comes directly after a subpoena served to AT&T revealed that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) had been covertly communicating with indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, as well as right-wing reporter John Solomon, who was responsible for disputed reports attacking former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

“Nobody should get your phone records,” said Paul in conversation with reporters. “This is a big deal, this is a huge deal.” He then warned that those reporters should be pushing back against House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), or they could be next.

Schiff has denied GOP accusations that the Intelligence Committee subpoenaed phone records for Nunes or Solomon, asserting that they were simply discovered during a narrower investigation into the phone records of Parnas specifically.

You know, these fascists have a track record of carefully studying how they got caught doing their skullduggery and taking steps to take that enforcement tool away from government. Back in the 1970's after the Church Committe uncovered much of the despicably illegal skullduggery of the CIA, the reputation and career of every politician with integrity on the Church committee was methodically destroyed. Also, steps were taken before that to make sure the process taken by the House to impeach Nixon would be severely hampered in the future (as long as the POTUS was a Republican, of course). That's where that "You cannot prosecute a sitting POTUS" bullshit came from. That's why the impeachment of Clinton NEVER alluded to "crime" per se. That's why Graham talked all that ya-yada-ya during the Clinton Impeachment about Impeachment "not being about breaking the Law". As you said, hypocrisy is an integral part of the skillset of these lying, doubletalking, fascist BASTARDS.

So, it is par for the Orwellian course for Senator Rand Paul, an inveterate crook and liar, to engage in the old fascist whack-a-mole of the lawful tools that can be used to prosecute crooks like him, Nunes, Giuliani and Trump (etc. long Trump Administration list, but you get the idea).

Right after WWII, the German fascist industrialists, who had run the cartels to build up NAZI Germany under Hitler, joined with their pals in the USA and South America (the rest of western Europe came a decade or so later into the "New Capitalist" fascist fold) to make sure they were NOT unprofitably "penalized" by the U.S. Court System for their MANY War Crimes during WWII. They KEPT their patents and strengthened the cartelization of industry, the exact opposite of what the history books say happened to Germany after WWII. They did all this through whack-a-mole (by 🎩😈 rich, influential fascist sympathisers in the USA) of inconvenient laws AND making sure the "right" people were running the chemical and oil indistries in the USA. A HUGE debt Germany had was "forgiven" by the USA while countries like Haiti, that never killed off millions of people and who's only "crime" was to fight a European power for their independence, continued to be forced to pay a debt to France (for over a CENTURY!) that should never have been imposed.

It's an old story. Orwell had their number.

The brave fellow, James Stewart Martin, who wrote the book explaining, among other things, how the fascist modus operandi works, described their total dedication to fascism with a metaphor. The metaphor applies TOTALLY to our NOW hollowed out Government Institutions. Hollowed out structures collapse without warning.

This quote from the book, "All Honorable Men", pretty much sums up WHY these SCUM enjoy such a corrosive influence on human society:

Quote
Termites are able organizers, and thoroughly attached to their way of life. The area they occupy is small in relation to the house (just the heavy underpinnings). They object vigorously to outside interference from the people who live in the other parts of the house. They object especially to structural changes, which they are bound to consider unwarranted.

They have two good reasons for objecting to changes. In the first place exposure to light and air kills them. In the second place any movement of the underpinnings ruins the whole structure of tunnels and channels which their enterprise has built within the framework of the house.

We hated to disturb them. They looked busy and enterprising. They seemed to want nothing more than a comfortable existence in accordance with their way of life.

We cleared the termites out to save the house, but I think I know how they looked at the whole matter. At the end of the Second World War I spent two and a half years in Germany dealing with some people who must think pretty much the same way. http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/key-historical-events-that-you-may-have-never-heard-of/msg12774/#msg12774
« Last Edit: December 10, 2019, 11:54:47 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Ravaged Puerto Rico Robbed By 🦀 Trump Administration!
2,003 views•Dec 9, 2019


Thom Hartmann Program
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Donald Trump administration is holding money from Puerto Rico with no legal standing to do so and it all comes down to racism!
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

How can we help Puerto Rico fight against the neocolonialism of Ben Carlson and Donald Trump?

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Why Puerto Rico is America's Fantasy Island 

2,090 views•Aug 6, 2019


Thom Hartmann Program
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A crucial, clear-eyed accounting of Puerto Rico's 122 years as a colony of the  US.

Two years after Hurricane María, Puerto Rico is still reeling from the storm's physical destruction and the ensuing infrastructure collapse. The devastation compounded the harmful effects of over a century of exploitative US economic, political, and social policies, including the trauma inflicted by its $72 billion debt crisis.

🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the front lines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.

Taking readers from San Juan to New York City and back to his family's home in the Luquillo Mountains, Morales shows us the machinations of financial and political interests in both the US and Puerto Rico, and the resistance efforts of Puerto Rican artists and activists. Through it all, he emphasizes that the only way to stop Puerto Rico from being bled dry is to let Puerto Ricans take control of their own destiny, going beyond the statehood-commonwealth-independence debate to complete decolonization.

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #1084 on: December 11, 2019, 06:06:39 am »
What this Trump criminal grift has done to Puerto Rico is appalling, but as adduced above, it's nothing new. It's almost as if the FSoA treats PR as a colonial possession.

AGelbert

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In Senator 🐘 Mitch McConnell’s Legislative Graveyard , Senate Republicans Block Commonsense Legislation To Secure Our Elections, Protect Americans’ Health Care, And Safeguard Pensions Earned By Working Americans

November 5, 2019

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard, refusing to take action on critical legislation that already has bipartisan support. More than 250 House-passed bills are buried in Leader McConnell’s legislative graveyard, and that number continues to grow.

Republicans have kept the Senate at a standstill while urgently needed bills to protect our elections against the threat of foreign interference, protect Americans’ health care, shield survivors of domestic abuse, and meaningfully address the gun violence epidemic languish in Leader McConnell’s legislative graveyard,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. “Senate Republicans need to remember why they came to the Senate in the first place, make a U-turn, and allow the Senate to work for the people.”

On the Senate floor, Republicans have repeatedly blocked legislation to secure our elections, protect Americans’ health care, support workers, and take action on climate change. And Leader McConnell is refusing to allow the Senate to debate critical issues like universal background checks and prescription drug pricing. Democrats are ready to tackle these challenges and get to work for the American people. It’s time for Leader McConnell to stop standing in the way, because Americans deserve a Senate that is working for them.

SEE LIST OF REPUBLICAN BLOCKED LEGISLATION as of November 5, 2019 (there's more since then):

Agelbert NOTE: Keep watching Fox News, and you will never be told any of the above hard truths about who is REALLY hurting your pocketbook and your future. Keep watching Fox News and you will keep being SUCKERED out of house, home, job and health by the American Oligarchs that OWN the Republicans (and a significant amount of Democrats), Fox News and most, if not all, of the Mainstream Media. For your own good, and that of your loved ones, .


LEADER McCONNELL HAS PROUDLY PROCLAIMED HIMSELF THE “GRIM REAPER” FOR 🦅 LEGISLATION TO HELP  THE MIDDLE CLASS:
Quote
“The one thing I get to do that the other 99 don’t get it do, is decide what we’re going to do.” [Remarks at Susan B. Anthony List, 6/3/19]
 
“Donald Trump still in the White House, and as long as I'm 🐘 Majority Leader of the Senate, I get to set the agenda, that's why I call myself the Grim Reaper.” [Fox News Hannity, 5/9/19]

“🐘 If I'm still the majority leader of the Senate, think of me as the Grim Reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass. None of it. 😈 [Remarks in Owensboro, KY via CNN, 4/22/19]

🐘 Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans have blocked efforts by Democrats to pass commonsense bills on the Senate floor, including:

Election Security

S.2238/H.R.2722, Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, legislation to help safeguard elections from foreign interference, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

S.2242, Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act, bipartisan legislation to require presidential candidates to report contact from foreign state actors to the FBI.

S.1247, Duty to Report Act, legislation to require candidates to report offers of assistance from foreign state actors to the FBI and FEC.

S.1540, Election Security Act, legislation to require paper ballots and provide election security grants.

S.2669, SHIELD Act, legislation to prevent foreign interference in elections.

S.1356, Honest Ads Act, bipartisan legislation to apply the existing rules on disclosures in political ads on TV to those on social media platforms.

S.949, For the People Act, a sweeping package of pro-democracy reforms that aims to make it easier, not harder, to vote; end the dominance of big money in politics; and ensure that public officials work for the public interest.

S.890, Senate Cybersecurity Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to provide cybersecurity assistance to the Senate.

S.1834, Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Protection Act, legislation to stop practices designed to prevent Americans from voting.

Health Care

S.1556, No Junk Plans Act, legislation to overturn the Trump administration’s expansion of junk health insurance plans.

H.R.986, Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

S.Res.18, a resolution authorizing the Senate Legal Counsel to intervene in the federal court case that would undermine protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions.

S.Res.94, a resolution asking the Department of Justice to protect individuals with pre-existing conditions.

S.1905, ENROLL Act, legislation to help Americans find a quality health care plan.

S.916, MOMMA’s Act, legislation to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rate.

Worker Protections

H.R.7, Paycheck Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation to empower women to challenge pay discrimination in the workplace, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

S.2598, Pension Stability Act, legislation to protect workers’ and retirees’ pensions.

S.2254, Butch Lewis Act, legislation to protect workers’ and retirees’ pensions.

S.27, American Miners Act, legislation to protect coalminers’ pensions.

Climate Change

S.J.Res.9, bipartisan legislation calling on the United States and Congress to take immediate action on climate change.

S.Res.97, legislation to establish a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

Other Critical Issues

H.R.2486, FUTURE Act, legislation to reauthorize funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which passed the House on a bipartisan voice vote.

H.J.Res.77, a bipartisan resolution opposing President Trump’s removal of US troops from northern Syria, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

S.2625, Syrian Allies Protection Act, legislation to make visas available to Kurdish Syrians supported to US armed forces in Syria.

H.R.549, Venezuela TPS Act, legislation to protect Venezuelans from deportation, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

S.2603, RELIEF Act, legislation to eliminate the green card backlog.

🐘 LEADER MCCONNELL HAS BURIED COMMONSENSE, BIPARTISAN PROPOSALS PASSED BY THE HOUSE IN HIS LEGISLATIVE GRAVEYARD.

More than 250 bills passed by the House are awaiting legislative action in the Senate, including:

H.R.986, Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.987, Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act, legislation to counteract the Trump administration’s efforts to sabotage the healthcare system, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.8, Bipartisan Background Checks Act, legislation to enact the common sense, widely-supported expansion of background checks for gun purchases, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1112, Enhanced Background Checks Act, legislation to close the “Charleston Loophole” for gun purchases, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1, For the People Act, a sweeping package of pro-democracy reforms that aims to make it easier, not harder, to vote; end the dominance of big money in politics; and ensure that public officials work for the public interest.

H.R.2722, Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, legislation to help safeguard elections from foreign interference, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.4617, SHIELD Act, legislation to prevent foreign interference in elections.

H.R.2513, Corporate Transparency Act, bipartisan legislation to crack down on money laundering by Russian oligarchs, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.582, Raise the Wage Act, legislation to increase the federal minimum wage, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.7, Paycheck Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation to empower women to challenge pay discrimination in the workplace, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.397, Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act, bipartisan legislation to protect workers’ and retirees’ pensions, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1585, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.777, Debbie Smith Act, bipartisan legislation to help end the backlog of untested ra pe kits, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.5, Equality Act, legislation to prevent discrimination against the LGBTQ community, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1500, Consumers First Act, legislation to strengthen the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

H.R.1994, SECURE Act, legislation to help workers save for retirement, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1423, Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, legislation to eliminate forced arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, and civil rights cases, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.J.Res.77, a bipartisan resolution opposing President Trump’s removal of US troops from northern Syria, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.6, American Dream and Promise Act, legislation to protect Dreamers and those with Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure by ensuring they have a path to citizenship, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.549, Venezuela TPS Act, legislation to protect Venezuelans from deportation, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.2486, FUTURE Act, legislation to reauthorize funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Minority-Serving Institutions, which passed the House on a bipartisan voice vote.

H.R.9, Climate Action Now Act, legislation to hold the administration to the United States’ commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1146, Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, legislation to block oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1941, Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act, legislation to ban offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.205, Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act, Republican-sponsored legislation to ban offshore drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

H.R.1644, Save the Internet Act, legislation to restore net neutrality, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

 
« Last Edit: December 19, 2019, 06:05:04 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Trump Should Be Removed from Office

It’s time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president’s character was revealed for what it was.

MARK GALLI

DECEMBER 19, 2019

SNIPPET:

The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.


Trump’s evangelical supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy, among other things, as achievements that justify their support of the president. We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

This concern for the character of our national leader is not new in CT. In 1998, we wrote this:

The President's failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on a presumption of trust: trust that the milk your grocer sells you is wholesome and pure; trust that the money you put in your bank can be taken out of the bank; trust that your babysitter, firefighters, clergy, and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for breaking campaign promises, while in office they have a fundamental obligation to uphold our trust in them and to live by the law.

And this:

Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead.

Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president. Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr. Trump. To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.

Mark Galli is editor in chief of Christianity Today.

Read more: 

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html

« Last Edit: December 20, 2019, 04:31:01 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #1087 on: December 20, 2019, 04:48:08 pm »

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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DIRECT eZine News

December 19, 2019

7. Garrett Graff: Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security

The idea that Fox News represents a literal threat to our national security, on par with Russia’s Internet Research Agency or China’s Ministry of State Security, may seem like a dramatic overstatement of its own—and I, a paid contributor to its competitor CNN, may appear a biased voice anyway—but this week has made clear that, as we get deeper into the impeachment process and as the 2020 election approaches, Fox News is prepared to destroy America’s democratic traditions if it will help its most important and most dedicated daily viewer.


The threat posed to our democracy by Fox News is multifaceted: First and most simply, it’s clearly advancing and giving voice to narratives and smears backed and imagined by our foreign adversaries. Second, its overheated and bombastic rhetoric is undermining America’s foundational ideals and the sense of fair play in politics. Third, its unique combination of lies and half-truths has built a virtual reality so complete that it leaves its viewers too misinformed to fulfill their most basic responsibilities as citizens to make informed choices about the direction of the country.


The network’s pantheon of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura In, Lou Dobbs, and the rotating couch-cast of Fox & Friends’ morning show dunces-by-choice together represent a level of ill-informed demagoguery that would make Father Coughlin and Huey Long wince.


More than simply embarrassing themselves by spouting obvious falsehoods, though, Fox News’ incendiary, fanatical rants serve to delegitimize to its viewers the very idea of a political opposition. Every Democrat is evil. Every person who disagrees with President Trump is an enemy of the state. Every career federal employee is a member of a deep state opposition.

Let’s hope that Fox News today, unlike in Orwell’s world, doesn’t manage to succeed in transforming our country from a functional democracy into an authoritarian cult. https://www.wired.com/story/fox-news-is-now-a-threat-to-national-security/


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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.” George Orwell



Americans have been at war 93% of the time – 222 our of 239 years – since 1776, according to Global Research. All US presidents can be technically considered “war presidents”. The US has never gone a decade without war,

AGelbert

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.” George Orwell


Americans have been at war 93% of the time – 222 our of 239 years – since 1776, according to Global Research. All US presidents can be technically considered “war presidents”. The US has never gone a decade without war,

Yep. Orwell knew what the big plan was. I think we arrived at the point Orwell describes below on September 11, 2001. We are still there. The only dynamic is an increasing percentage of the American public is poverty-stricken because of the ruthless Capitalist/Fascist American Oligarch Crooks who bribe politicians to coerce we-the-people to fund the 🦍 Militarty Industrial Complex.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: Though this interview of David Harvey is nearly two years old, it is of vital importance to listen to today. In addition to detailing the history of exactly how Capitalists conspired to get us to the present 'endless bailouts for the bankster 1% and debt peonage for the masses' government deficit spending mess we in now, he exposes the unceasingly CRUEL Neoliberal mens rea modus operandi entrenched in our UNJUST political system.

David Harvey Talks about the Crimes of Capitalism

25,695 views•Dec 5, 2019


The Intercept
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This interview originally aired on January 17, 2018.

For the past year, we’ve all experienced an intense sort of political or news vertigo. It’s making us dumber by the day. Of course, part of this is due to the fact that Donald Trump is president and he constantly scoops the story of the latest outrage about himself by performing yet another outrage just as we start discussing the previous one. It’s exhausting and brain melting.

But this is also because major media organizations have all chosen to constantly chase the rabbit. In a way, all of us in media are complicit. When we’re constantly on the run, it’s very difficult to take stock of where we are and where we’ve been. To take a good look at the big picture becomes a luxury that none of us seem able to afford.

And this is going to have serious consequences. Our brains are actually being altered. The way we process news and information, our ideas about what constitutes resistance and what constitutes tyranny. In general, we live in a society that doesn’t study its own history — its unvarnished history. And often current events are analyzed in a vacuum that almost never includes the context or history necessary to understand what’s new, what’s old, and how we got to where we are. We’ve become detached from our own reality and our own work.

David Harvey is one of the leading Marxist thinkers in the world and an authority on Marx’s “Das Kapital,” which turned 150 years old late last year. Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the City University of New York and he was one of the pioneers of the discipline of modern geography.
 David Harvey has a new book out. It’s called “Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic reason.”

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Category News & Politics

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Chris Hedges on the Rot Within the American System
« Reply #1092 on: December 23, 2019, 05:13:41 pm »


Chris Hedges on the Rot Within the American 🦍 System

58,172 views•Dec 5, 2019


The Intercept

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This interview originally aired on November 7, 2018.

The journalist Chris Hedges has spent the last decade and a half trying to ring the alarm about the dangers of the U.S. political system and he writes about a corporate and financial coup d’etat that happened long ago in this country.

Now before Hedges embarked on this mission, he was a longtime war correspondent for The New York Times. In fact, he was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath. Hedges’ book “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning” remains a classic work for studying war journalism. Chris Hedges quit the New York Times after being reprimanded for his public denouncement of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. And that largely ended Chris Hedges’ relationship with large, powerful media organizations.

He’s currently a columnist at Truthdig, he hosts a show on Russian television on RT America, and he teaches a college class at a state prison in New Jersey. In 2012, Hedges sued President Barack Obama in a case known as Hedges v. Obama over Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act. Hedges said that that act would allow for the detention or rendition of US citizens. Hedges won an injunction in that case, but the decision was ultimately overturned on an appeal filed by the Obama administration.

Chris Hedges has written 12 books including the bestsellers “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt,” “American Fascists: The Christian Right and The War on America,” and “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.” His latest book is “America: The Farewell Tour.”

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Category News & Politics
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: The only quibble I have with this reasonably, though rather sparse, good news is that I do not think it is possible to embarrass big bank CEOs about the unethical behavior that they methodically and persistently engage in. THAT is who they ARE. They belong in prison for grand larceny, fraud and serial cruel exploitation.


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2019

📢 Congressional Oversight Claimed Important 🦅 Victories in 2019. Here Are the Top 5.

ALEXIS GOLDSTEIN, TRUTHOUT

The CEOs of the largest Wall Street banks are sworn in before they testify before the House Financial Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2019. MANDEL NGAN / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES


After a new Democratic Party majority in the House came to office, 2019 saw significant congressional oversight of both the Trump administration and powerful corporations. The top five oversight actions included holding Betsy DeVos accountable for harmful student debt policies, embarrassing the CEOs of big banks for paying low wages, pressuring financial institutions to withdraw support for private prisons, Rep. Ilhan Omar's grilling of war criminal Elliott Abrams, and the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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