EOMMD

It's time again for the End Of Month Meme Dump. It's been a pretty active month.

SNL

Even though there has been one serious shit pile of news since Saturday Night Live broadcast their last live show in February (?) or March (?), I somehow knew they would be covering the recent debacle in the Senate re Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.

Vote 'Em Out

Willie Nelson held a benefit concert for Beto O'Rourke recently. At last check, the race between Beto and Ted Cruz was neck-and-neck.

New Rule

I do appreciate Bill Maher's digs at religion.

unfit

Judge Brett Kavanaugh showed the world that he is unfit to sit on the Supreme Court. Hell, it looks like he's unfit to sit on the D.C. District Court, which is where he has been since 2006, I believe. And he lied his way onto the court then too! The GOP cannot be trusted to have the best interests of the entire country at heart.

Kavanaugh finally showed us who he really is. And he’s unfit for the court.

by Paul Waldman of The Washington Post

Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, left and right agree, are just a show. The nominee is cagey and evasive, the senators grandstand for the cameras, and we don’t get anything like a true picture of who the potential justice really is.

Until Thursday.

The extraordinary performance by Brett Kavanaugh was not just unusual, it may have been the most revealing testimony we’ve ever gotten from a Supreme Court nominee. If you wanted to know who this man really was, he sure showed you.

Everything that came before turned out to be either a partial and misleading snapshot or an outright attempt at deception. The letters from friends testifying to how lovely and supportive he is toward women, the ludicrous Fox News interview where he portrayed his youth as just short of saintly (“I was focused on academics and athletics, going to church every Sunday at Little Flower, working on my service projects, and friendship”), his insistence at his first round of hearings that he remains blissfully free of any influence other than the sacred texts of law and Constitution (“A good judge must be an umpire — a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy”) — none of that helped us understand the real Brett Kavanaugh.

But now we’ve seen him in full. And what did we learn? Let’s see:

Kavanaugh is an intense Republican partisan. To be honest, I was surprised it took this long for this fact to become clear. In the past decade, I’ve heard people say numerous times that the guy Republicans would really love to have on the Supreme Court is Brett Kavanaugh, but he probably can’t be nominated because he’s known as too much of a partisan hack. He worked for Ken Starr, where he urged that Bill Clinton be questioned in the most lurid way possible. He worked on the George W. Bush legal team during the 2000 Florida debacle. He worked in the Bush White House. He might have the qualifications, the argument went, but a hard-charging partisan like him would be too controversial. Yet somehow that reality got wiped away in all the encomiums to his brilliant mind and stellar record.

On Thursday, no doubt realizing that the only way to save his nomination was to reinforce feelings of party loyalty among Republican senators, Kavanaugh not only came out swinging at Democrats, he made clear that he’s a Supreme Court nominee for the age of negative partisanship. I deserve to be on the court, he said in effect, because I hate Democrats as much as you do. This part of his testimony sounded like what you hear from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity:

This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.

Read that and the other things he said about Democrats (“The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment”), combine it with his history as a Republican operative, and ask whether you think Kavanaugh will be “a neutral and impartial arbiter” when it comes to questions that come before the court where Republicans are on one side and Democrats are on the other. The very idea is absurd.

Kavanaugh is angry, belligerent and unable to restrain his emotions. I know: Republicans will say, “If this was happening to you, you’d be angry, too!” But just look at the contrast between how Christine Blasey Ford conducted herself on Thursday and the way Kavanaugh did. She’s been thrust into the spotlight; she’s been the target of vicious attacks and death threats; she’s had to move her family out of their home for their safety; she’s been called a liar and a fabulist and part of a conspiracy. And how did she act? With calmness, dignity and restraint.

How did Kavanaugh act? He shouted, he cried, he interrupted senators trying to ask him questions, he was rude and contemptuous and generally unhinged. At one point, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked him whether he had ever drunk so much that he forgot events that occurred — a highly relevant question given the allegations against him — and he replied, “I don’t know, have you?” like some kind of petulant teenager. Klobuchar was stunned for a moment, then said, “Could you answer the question, judge? That’s not happened, is that your answer?” He replied: “Yeah, and I’m curious if you have.”

Kavanaugh is dishonest. Kavanaugh has lied and dissembled to the Judiciary Committee on numerous counts. He began his first round of testimony by saying “No president has ever consulted more widely, or talked with more people from more backgrounds, to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination” — an obvious lie. He claimed not to have known Democratic documents he trafficked in during previous judicial fights had been stolen, which badly strained credulity.

In Thursday’s hearing he kept it up. He repeatedly said that others had “refuted” Ford’s account of her sexual assault, when that isn’t true — they only said they had no memory of it, something very different. Perhaps because of the accounts of multiple people who knew him in high school and college of his frequent excessive drinking, Kavanaugh changed his story about his virtually sin-free youth. Now he portrayed himself as a regular drinker (“I like beer”) but not someone who ever got blackout drunk. He said that high school seniors were allowed to drink because the drinking age in Maryland was 18 at the time, but that is false — by the time he was 18, the drinking age in the state had been raised to 21.

He also gave utterly ridiculous explanations of the multiple references in his yearbook to drinking and sexual boasting. Was the “Beach City Ralph Club” a reference to frequent vomiting from excessive drinking? Oh no, it’s merely because he has “a weak stomach, whether it’s with beer or spicy food or anything.” What about the reference to “Devil’s Triangle,” a nickname for a threesome with two men and one woman? Nuh-uh, that’s “a drinking game,” like quarters. Right.

In what may have been the most despicable moment of the entire day, Kavanaugh was questioned about how he and his buddies had claimed in their yearbook entries to be “Renate alumni,” referring to a girl at a nearby school — an obvious attempt at sexual boasting and slut shaming. He not only claimed ludicrously that the references were only there because they all valued her friendship so highly, but pretended to be outraged that a senator would even imply otherwise, posing as the gallant defender of her honor, the girl he and his friends set out to make an object of ridicule and humiliation.

By the time you read this, Kavanaugh will be on the road to approval by the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and from there to a vote in the full Senate, where the outcome is uncertain. But think about the man you saw on Thursday — that angry, entitled, disrespectful, uncontrolled man appealing not to the country but to his party to rally around him in order to stick it to the other side — and ask yourself if he demonstrated the kind of temperament you’d want on the Supreme Court.

Original.

Stephen Colbert

Hi, Stephen!

Kavanaugh

What a fucking mess. If I didn't think that the GOP has pulled every trick in the book, such as voter suppression, restriction of voting places, gerrymandering, and the ever-present doubts about our voting machines, I would give the GOP more of the benefit of the doubt about things. But all of these things together paint the GOP as merely a greedy, power-seeking parasite on the body politic.

Trae Crowder has a few thoughts on the recent Senate "hearings" with Ford and Kavanaugh.

progressive Dems

IMHO, Democrats should take note of how Nate McMurray is running his campaign for the U.S. House in New York state.

A progressive is co-opting Trump's messaging to unseat Chris Collins

Nate McMurray is a progressive Democrat running for Congress in the most Republican congressional district in New York. President Donald Trump may have lost statewide by 23 percent in 2016, but here in the 27th congressional district, which stretches across rural western New York from outside Buffalo to outside Rochester, he won comfortably by 24 percent.

Nate McMurray and Chris Collins

Winning the 27th was thus destined to be a long-shot bid for McMurray. But that bid became a little more plausible in August when his opponent, Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), was arrested on charges of insider trading. In the last six weeks, Collins has suspended his campaign, un-suspended his campaign, and returned to actively running for re-election. Collins was the first person in Congress to give Trump his endorsement, which means all the conflicts over the president’s divisive rhetoric and policies colors the race in the 27th. And though Collins is currently out on bail and facing real jail time, he will still be difficult to beat.

McMurray’s campaign didn’t just throw out the traditional playbook on how Democrats can compete in safe Republican seats — it never bought it in the first place. McMurray, a small-town supervisor with international business experience, isn’t trying to hide his progressive principles. But he is trying to translate them for Trump voters to make the case that the economic ideas that originally got them excited about Trump’s message are actually rooted in Democratic party traditions: Bad trade deals have hollowed out the American middle class. The forgotten men and women of America need someone who fights for them. And progressivism, not Trump conservatism, is truly the home to the policy ideas that will fix these messes.

McMurray contends that both Trump voters, and progressives who want to stop losing elections alike, should listen to candidates like himself who forcefully articulate progressive policies, not those who emulate Trumpian conservatism.

Medicare for All? It’s the main reason he’s running, he told ThinkProgress. Insurance companies “protect their monopolies so they can price gouge.” If the richest country in the world “can’t afford a way to provide basic care to its citizens, it’s wrong, it’s shameful.”

“This is the moral and economically smart thing to do,” McMurray contends. Democratic politicians who don’t support it “need to read some books, wake up.”

Money in politics? He believes “dark money in politics is ruining our country” and so he isn’t taking corporate money. “If someone controls you financially,” he says, “they control you every single other way.”

Climate change? He says it’s an existential problem, and we have to invest heavily in renewables. “It’s horrible what’s happening to the world and it’s going to get worse and worse, and it’s going to affect our business,” he contends.

Much more at the link.

Rick Estrin

...and the Nightcats. Can't find the lyrics on the net. Shocking!!

fall planting

Even though the calendar says it is now "autumn", here in the Rio Grande Valley in deep south Texas, that's about the only indication we have so far. It's still hot as hell, punctuated by more-frequent showers than August or July, and then bright sunshine, creating a veritable sauna in your backyard. Or front yard. The only relief is actually ON the beach, where it's just too windy to be too muggy.

Didn't do much gardening last fall, as we were still getting over the shock of quitting working, and we had no fence around the lot. No fence, and people will park their cars on your lot. Sometimes signs will keep them away, sometimes not. I'm hot enough already.

from the South Padre Parade, a gardening update from R. Lewis Landscaping, which does seem to exist, somewhere. I post this here so I can easily find it again. 

The third week of September officially starts the fall garden season in the Rio Grande Valley. Now that we finally got some rain, well that just makes it better. It is a perfect time to plant basically everything. Last week I mentioned herb plants, fall color plants and tomatoes and vegetable plants. This week let’s spend more time on these topics. 

For most practical purposes, this is the best time to plant herb plants. In our region of the country the fall/winter temperatures are ideal for herb plants. This does not mean that you do not need to protect your plants from cold weather extremes like we had last winter, but even with that, just bringing your herb planters into the garage or adequately covering herbs that were planted in beds would have been enough to save them. Basil plants should be grown in smaller pots in order to bring inside the house for extreme cold fronts or a freeze. If you bring them in once you may decide just to leave them indoors by your brightest window and enjoy them as houseplants. 

How many times have you planted cilantro in the spring season just to be disappointed by their “bolting” and going to seed almost immediately? This time of year, for us is truly their season. Plant them now, or stagger plant them through the next few weeks and you should enjoy cilantro at any time from now until the spring season. Again, you many need to protect them from extreme cold like last year. Either protect them by covering them or plant in pots and move them to the garage for protection. Herb plants like chives, dill, lemon grass, mints, oreganos and rosemary should thrive through our normal winters, but if they get hurt by cold temperatures, just cut them back in springtime and they will continue on growing. 

Tomato plants and most vegetable plants that are considered spring vegetables will do well planted in the late summer/fall season. Again, you must think of how you can protect them if we have an early (midNovember) cold blast. Floating row cover usually offers good protection or even an old towel or sheets will help, but you need to have a plan in place because this can happen. At this time you can be planting seeds of cold weather crops like lettuce, broccoli, kale, cauliflower and onions, if not transplants of these are available later into October. 

For annual color, I always say that petunias give you the best bang for the buck. Most independent nurseries will have these fall plants in now. Petunias do wonderfully in beds, pots or even hanging baskets. Usually the nurseries will have begonias, impatiens, geraniums, etc in stock now as well. Watch the watering on these now as it is still warm and don’t let these get bone dry, but as we get into late October and the cooler months it is overwatering that you need to be concerned with. 

Hopefully that’s enough to get your fall gardening activities started. One last thing is the farmers markets in our area will soon be full of beautiful locally grown product. They will be at their peak from October into and through next spring. Please support your local independent nurseries and your local farmers markets. You will get your best information and plants from them. R. Lewis T.C.N. #132

49 days!?

Now here is a job that I would NOT want to have. Here is a glimpse into another culture.

Teenager Survives Being Lost at Sea for 49 Days on a Wooden Raft: 'I Just Prayed Every Day'

from People magazine

A teenager from Indonesia working as the solo lamp keeper aboard a wooden raft was rescued just off the coast of Guam after drifting in the ocean for seven weeks, reports the Jakarta Post.

Aldi Novel Adilang, 19, was first swept out to sea on July 14  after a strong wind snapped the line that anchored his fishing raft, called a “rompong,” which was positioned 78 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. Adilang was at the mercy of the currents and waves as he had no way to steer himself back, as the raft is not powered by an engine and has no other instruments to control its movements.

“I thought I will never meet my parents again, so I just prayed every day,” Adilang told the Associated Press. Adilang ran out of food after a week and survived by eating fish and drinking partially-filtered seawater, he said.

“After he ran out of the cooking gas, he burned the rompong’s wooden fences to make a fire for cooking,” Mirza Nurhidayat, Indonesia’s consul general in Japan, told the Jakarta Post. “He drank by sipping water from his clothes that had been wetted by sea water.”

According to the AP, Adilang’s six-month contract with his employer required him to use a lamp at night to capture fish. It is a lonely job, they note, as the rompongs are positioned so far out into the ocean that they can’t be seen from shore, and other rafts are miles away. Supplies are usually dropped off once every seven days, and he was only left with a gas stove, utensils and a generator.

“I was on the raft for one month and 18 days. My food ran out after the first week,” said Adilang. At one point, Adilang says he was even followed by a shark.

“I could only pray that the shark went away,” he told TribunManado news, according to NBC.

Aldi Novel Adilang was adrift in a wooden raft

Adilang found himself using the lamp and walkie-talkie to try to signal passing boats during the 49 days he was afloat, but each boat passed by with no idea the trouble he was in.

“Aldi said he had been scared and often cried while adrift,” Fajar Firdaus, a diplomat at the embassy in Japan, told the Jakarta Post. “Every time he saw a large ship, he said, he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had sailed past him, none of them stopped or saw Aldi.”

Finally, a Panamanian-flagged vessel spotted Adilang off the coast of Guam, almost 1,200 miles from his original position. Adilang used his walkie-talkie to radio “help” to alert the crew, who fed him and cut his hair once they got him aboard.

The vessel transported Adilang to Japan (their original destination), and he was finally reunited with his family on September 8. Adilang no longer wants to work on a rompong, he told the AP.

Original.

offensive jokes

Keep your funny bone well-fed. Offensive is subjective.

morally bankrupt

The more we see of this guy Brett Kavanaugh, the worse he looks.

Brett Kavanaugh's fellow alumni at Yale Law School call him 'morally bankrupt' in scathing open letter.

from The Other 98

Less than an hour after Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Yale Law School issued a press release praising their alumnus, Kavanaugh, in superlative language.

Yale Law’s Dean, Heather Gerken, offered this breathless praise:  “I have known Brett Kavanaugh for many years. I can personally attest that, in addition to his government and judicial service, Judge Kavanaugh has been a longtime friend to many of us in the Yale Law School community. Ever since I joined the faculty, I have admired him for serving as a teacher and mentor to our students and for hiring a diverse set of clerks, in all respects, during his time on the court.”

The backlash from Yale Law alumni who actually care about the fate of Roe vs Wade specifically, and the Court’s swing towards the Right more broadly, was swift. They published this open letter the next day, which has already garnered almost a thousand signatures.

July 10, 2018

To Dean Gerken and the Yale Law School leadership

We write today as Yale Law students, alumni, and educators ashamed of our alma mater. Within an hour of Donald Trump’s announcement that he would nominate Brett Kavanaugh, YLS ‘90, to the Supreme Court, the law school published a press release boasting of its alumnus’s accomplishment. The school’s post included quotes from Yale Law School professors about Judge Kavanaugh’s intellect, influence and mentorship of their students.

Yet the press release’s focus on the nominee’s professionalism, pedigree, and service to Yale Law School obscures the true stakes of his nomination and raises a disturbing question:

“Is there nothing more important to Yale Law School than its proximity to power and prestige?”

Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination presents an emergency — for democratic life, for our safety and freedom, for the future of our country. His nomination is not an interesting intellectual exercise to be debated amongst classmates and scholars in seminar. Support for Judge Kavanaugh is not apolitical. It is a political choice about the meaning of the constitution and our vision of democracy, a choice with real consequences for real people. Without a doubt, Judge Kavanaugh is a threat to the most vulnerable. He is a threat to many of us, despite the privilege bestowed by our education, simply because of who we are.

Since his campaign launched, Trump has repeatedly promised to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Overturning that decision would endanger the lives of countless people who need or may need abortions — including many who sign this letter. Trump’s nomination of Judge Kavanaugh is a reliable way to fulfill his oath. Just a few months ago, Judge Kavanaugh ruled to deny a detained immigrant minor her constitutional right to abortion. Decades-old Supreme Court precedent makes clear that the government may not place an undue burden on a pregnant person’s access to abortion. But Judge Kavanaugh clearly did not feel constrained by precedent: what could be a greater obstacle than a cage? The minor had never wavered in her decision to seek an abortion and had received a judicial bypass from a state judge who found that she was competent to make the decision. Yet Kavanaugh condescendingly and disingenuously held that she must wait weeks until she was in a “better place” to make a choice about her own bodily autonomy — at which point she might not be able to have a legal abortion. Further, Kavanaugh argued that to require immigration authorities to stop blocking her from accessing this right would force the government into complicity.

The judge employed similar spurious reasoning in a 2015 dissent arguing that the ACA’s contraceptive mandate violated the rights of religious organizations, even though those organizations were granted an accommodation that allowed them to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage. Kavanaugh’s opinions give us grave concern that he will consistently prioritize the beliefs of third-parties over the rights of the oppressed — not only when it comes to abortion and contraception, but also regarding other forms of medical care (including care for transgender patients), family privacy, and sexual liberty. Litigants harness this same logic when arguing that institutions have a religious right to discriminate against LGBT people — an issue the Court is certain to take up in the years to come.

Judge Kavanaugh would also act as a rubber stamp for President Trump’s fraud and abuse. Despite working with independent counsel Ken Starr to prosecute Bill Clinton, Judge Kavanaugh has since called upon Congress to exempt sitting presidents from civil suits, criminal investigations, and criminal prosecutions. He has also noted that “a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a president can be criminally indicted and tried while in office.” This reversal does not reflect high-minded consideration but rather naked partisanship. At a time when the President and his associates are under investigation for various serious crimes, including colluding with the Russian government and obstructing justice, Judge Kavanaugh’s extreme deference to the Executive poses a direct threat to our democracy.

As part of his assault on the administrative state — based not in law, as he claims, but on policy preference — Judge Kavanaugh has undermined attempts to protect the environment and regulate predatory lenders and for-profit colleges. He has called now-defunct Net Neutrality regulations violations of the First Amendment. If elevated, the judge would pose an existential threat to the government’s ability to regulate for the common good and further twist the First Amendment beyond recognition, using it as a sword to advance his personal political preferences. His appointment would usher in a new era of Lochner, with “black-robed rulers overriding citizens’ choices.”

Judge Kavanaugh has consistently protected the interests of powerful institutions and disregarded the rights of vulnerable individuals. On the D.C. Circuit he denied a student with disabilities access to the remedial education he was promised after he emerged from juvenile detention. In a 2008 dissent, Judge Kavanaugh argued undocumented workers are not protected by labor laws. In 2016, Judge Kavanaugh ruled that employers can require employees to waive their right to picket. In a concurrence, he argued that the National Security Agency’s sweeping call surveillance program was consistent with the Fourth Amendment. As an attorney, he advocated for prayer at open public school events in brazen contravention of our country’s separation of church and state.

The list goes on. We see in these rulings an intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologue intent on rolling back our rights and the rights of our clients. Judge Kavanaugh’s resume is certainly marked by prestige, groomed for exactly this nomination. But degrees and clerkships should not be the only, or even the primary, credential for a Supreme Court appointment. A commitment to law and justice is.

Now is the time for moral courage — which for Yale Law School comes at so little cost. Perhaps you, as an institution and as individuals, will benefit less from Judge Kavanaugh’s ascendent power if you withhold your support. Perhaps Judge Kavanaugh will be less likely to hire your favorite students. But people will die if he is confirmed. We hope you agree your sacrifice would be worth it. Please use your authority and platform to expose the stakes of this moment and the threat that Judge Kavanaugh poses.

Signed,

Go here to see the list.

sad reality

Carlin on abortion

Sometimes you have to turn to a comedian to get the truth. Sure miss George Carlin. 

Dr. David Brill

Brill is running as a Democrat in Arizona against incumbent Paul Gosar. The Gosar family sounds really peachy.

Trae & Al

Sarah Silverman

on Brett Kavanaugh

Trumpianity

Yeah, wow, the hypocrisy of the so-called "Christian" leaders these days. And people wonder why so many are becoming disillusioned with modern religion?

from Patheos

10 Signs You're Actually Following TRUMPianity Instead of CHRISTianity.

BY BENJAMIN L. COREY

In the Era of Trump’s America, I must admit that I hardly recognize the very people who raised me. I was brought up by the Religious Right, and went on to become a faithful foot soldier for the cause of conservative Christianity and right-wing politics until my mid 30’s. However, long gone is their commitment to the values they tried to instill in me, and so much else that once consistently encompassed their collective identity.

Sadly, my old tribe seems to collectively struggle to realize they’ve done exactly what they spent the entire Left Behind series warning me not to do: they have fallen in line behind a worldly leader who arose to power during a time of “wars and rumors of wars,” who did so by falsely pretending to be a Christian, but who would ultimately lead them to follow an entirely new religion.

To help my former right-wing family out, here’s the top 10 signs you’re now following TRUMPianity instead of CHRISTianity:

10. You spent 8 years criticizing every move of Obama, but the minute Trump was sworn in you started telling everyone that “Christians should respect the president” and that being “divisive” is a sin.

Remember the you of two years ago? That’s okay, because I do– and you certainly didn’t seem to believe that Christians should “respect the president” or that being politically divisive was any sort of sin.

Here I am recalling you taught me that, “sin is always sin” and doesn’t change just because culture changes. Huh!

9. You think, “but we’re a nation of laws” somehow trumps biblical teachings on how immigrants are to be treated.

You didn’t expect me to forget all of those years where you taught me that the Bible is the “final authority for all matters of living,” did you?

Good, because I didn’t– but it certainly sounds like you did. I’m reminded every time you dismiss what the Bible teaches about the treatment of immigrants with, “But, but… we’re a nation of laws!”

I thought you’d said, “We have a responsibility to follow God’s law, not man’s law!” just a few weeks ago. Silly me!

8. Your church is planning a “patriotic worship service” for the 4th of July.

Let me simplify this for you: there’s no such thing as “patriotic worship” unless you’re willing to simply admit you’re worshipping your own country.

You were the ones who taught me that if God isn’t the focal point of our worship, that it’s sinful idolatry. Surely you remember Jesus saying, “It is written: worship the Lord your God and serve him only”?

Apparently there’s now room for two. Strange!

7. You instinctively applaud when Trump threatens to “bomb the shit” out of people, but quickly push back if someone quotes what Jesus taught about violence and enemy love.

Jesus commanded we love our enemies, and that we never repay evil with evil but instead repay evil with good. I mean, it’s right there in the red words. I still have it underlined from 1984.

But now when I quote that in response to your thinking that it’s all cute when Trump wants to “knock the crap” out of a protestor or nuke a country, you tell me that I’m twisting scripture.

Sorry, but I think siding with Trump over Jesus is… as Trump would say: Sad!

6. You think that having a filthy mouth and boasting about sexual immorality is a sign of being unsaved, but when it comes to Trump you all of a sudden have a “Who am I to judge?” attitude.

I mean, c’mon. I grew up under your guidance and I think we both know that neither one of us ever thought we’d see the day when you became an advocate of not judging. You told me that if I had sex before marriage or used the F-word that it would be evidence I was never saved to begin with.

Doesn’t it seem odd to you that it was Trump, and not Jesus who got you to (selectively) soften up on the whole judging others thing? Interesting!

5. You think it’s God-honoring to refuse to bow to a national statue, but that you should be fired from your job, kicked out of the country, or even charged with treason for refusing to stand for the flag.

Let me get this straight: When everyone obeyed the king and bowed down to the national statue and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused– under the pain of death– to pledge their allegiance to anyone except God, they were the good guys of the story…

But fast forward to present day America, and the good guys are actually the ones who want to force everyone to pay respect to the national symbol? Plot twist!

4. You want the nation to return to “biblical values”… except for all those socialist sounding biblical things like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, giving food to the hungry, etc.

So you really want the nation to return to “biblical values”? You do realize that when Israel lived under God’s law (which you love to quote when talking of same sex marriage) also included laws that mandated the rich be taxed, even down to the food they had, and that the wealth was to be redistributed to the poor and immigrants, yes?

Or is this the one situation where you’d rather not remember that you keep saying, “But God’s law never changes”? Confused!

3. Your church spends one month a year celebrating the story of refugee family who fled their violent homeland and secretly crossed the border to safety, only to return home years later where their son became another unarmed person of color killed by the state’s violent security forces because they “felt threatened”…

Yet you spend 11 months of the year missing the obvious. Ironic! 

2. You claimed Barack Obama’s election was the result of evil forces, but the minute Trump was sworn into office you started quoting verses about how “God picks a nation’s kings and queens.”

For real, how does this work? Did God only get involved and start deciding elections with the past election cycle, or did you just start quoting this verse after the black guy left?

There’s a lot in this world I don’t know, but I do happen to know the answer to *that* one. Easy!

1. You spent the 90’s saying “character counts” but now say, “We don’t vote for a national pastor.”

Ahh, my absolute favorite sign you’re following Trumpianity instead of Christianity.

Version of you from today, I’d like you to meet the version of you from the Clinton administration. You were supposedly so morally outraged that you coined the term, “Character Counts” to explain why you felt Clinton was unfit for office.

The version of you from today? My, my… as I listen to you explain that “We don’t vote for a national pastor…” I am keenly aware of how having the political power changes things. Totally!

…

So you’re a loyal Trump supporter and a loyal Christian?

I’m not so sure.

You might want to take a more self-critical look and make sure you’re following Christianity, and not Trumpianity. Really!

Original.