“MAGA Church” takes aim at hypocritical evangelicals

MoonHowler

Axios

“MAGA Church,” the first digital video from the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans, takes aim at President Trump’s standing with evangelical voters —interspersing clips of him talking about faith with videos of him speaking crudely.

Why it matters: Trump has recently taken steps to shore up his evangelical base after an editorial in Christianity Today, a magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, attacked his “gross immorality and ethical incompetence.”

His latest move was an “Evangelicals for Trump” event last weekend at one of the largest Latino evangelical churches in Miami.
The state of play: In the video, the group warns evangelicals to “beware of false prophets.”

“IF THIS IS THE BEST AMERICAN CHRISTIANS CAN DO,” it says, “THEN GOD help us all.”
The big picture: The Lincoln Project, which announced its creation last month, aims to persuade “enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that don’t enable or abet Mr. Trump’s violations of the Constitution.”

The Lincoln Project’s advisory board consists of George Conway, Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn, Mike Madrid, Steve Schmidt, Ron Steslow, John Weaver and Rick Wilson.

How on earth can people of faith support a serial liar, serial womanizer, serial adulterer? Good for those former Republicans who want to reclaim their party. Whatever happened to the family values crew? They have obviously lost their way if they do not see the folly in worshipping this extremely incompetent, flawed man. It makes you wonder if some sort of possession hasn’t taken over.

I was pleased to see the names of George Conway and Steve Schmidt on this list.

Is this how the world now sees the United States of America?

MoonHowler

New Zealand Herald cartoonist Rod Emmerson apparently sees a different America from the one that was drawn together by tragedy on September 11, 2001. Today, America seems divided by a crude incivility that looks at our differences rather than our common ground.

A tiki torch seems to have replaced the beacon of light held by lady liberty as we reflect on the events in Charlottesville, children kidnapped from their parents at our southern border and a president double fist pumping at a somber gathering of mourning in Shanksville, PA on 9-11-18.

America is better than this.

An anonymous source tells all regarding Trump

MoonHowler

From the New York Times:

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

 

 

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Trump attacks Senator Gillibrand in sexually suggestive tweet

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

President Trump attacked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in a sexually suggestive tweet Tuesday morning that implied Gillibrand would do just about anything for money, prompting a swift and immediate backlash.

“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. Schumer and someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump,” the president wrote. “Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”

Gillibrand’s response:

“You cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office.

Gillibrand hit the nail on the head.  That any sitting president would demean the office of the presidency by suggesting that a senator “would do anything for them”  (campaign contributions) simply makes him unfit for the office that he serves.

Trump needs to resign before he is removed from office.

Meanwhile, Kathy Kay weighed in:

Katty Kay, an anchor for BCC World News America, also took to social media to respond to the president’s missive against Gillibrand, casting it in tweets as “clearly sexual” and “demeaning to women.”

“What is so maddening about the Gillibrand tweet is that women can be smart, work hard, become Senator and STILL get sexual c**p thrown at us,” she wrote. “Enough.”

 

A growing list of women are filing complaint against Trump’s past alleged sexual misbehavior.  Additionally, Gillibrand  joined Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in calling for Trump’s resignation.

Where will this all end?  Trump’s behavior is despicable.

 

Trump: lies, political lies and dishonorable lies

MoonHowler

Bostonglobe.com:

WASHINGTON — President Trump falsely asserted on Monday that his predecessor, Barack Obama, and other presidents did not contact the families of American troops killed in duty, drawing a swift, angry rebuke from several of Obama’s former aides.

Trump was responding to a question about why he had not spoken publicly about the killing of four US Green Berets in an ambush in Niger two weeks ago when he made the assertion. Rather than answering the reporter’s question, Trump said he had written personal letters to their families and planned to call them in the coming week. Then he pivoted to his predecessors.

“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said during a news conference in the Rose Garden with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. “A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate.”

Trump’s assertion belied a long record of meetings Obama held with the families of killed service people, as well as calls and letters, dating to the earliest days of his presidency. Before he decided to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, Obama regularly traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the arrival of the caskets of service members.

Donald Trump continues to be a liar.  This time he surpassed even his own race to the bottom.  He has mortified the American people on a global level and he has reinfected pain on the families of those who gave their all.

What is wrong with this moron?  Yes, I will call him a moron.  (Thank you, Secretary of State Tillerson)  He first failed to mention the deaths of the 4 Green Berets who were killed in Niger.  His lame attempts to justify this neglect turned to lying about his predecessors and then making it all about himself.  No Trump, a killed service person isn’t about YOU, its about that person who gave his or her life for the country and those families who have lost a loved one.  It is our country’s loss.

How many times did Presidents Obama and Bush go off, in the night, without fanfare or press, to solemnly greet those caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base?  We will probably never know.  We will probably never know of the personal pain service- related deaths have caused past presidents, mainly because they didn’t trumpet their grief all over the cameras.

Donald Trump is a disgrace.  He owes the American people an apology as well as all gold star families.  He, in particular, owes John McCain an apology while he is at it.  Shame on Donald Trump, once again.

Trump craters his own damage control

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

NEW YORK — It took President Donald Trump two days to explicitly call out the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who engaged in violent protests over the weekend that resulted in the death of a 32-year-old Charlottesville woman.

It took him less than 24 hours to undo the damage control that had been foisted upon him by teleprompter-wielding, crisis-managing aides.

Bridling at the term “alt-right,” Trump attempted to redirect blame for the violence at the rally onto the other side.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?” he said at an unplanned news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower, referring to the “alt-right” protesters who gathered to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from a park.

Trump also said he has yet to speak to the family of the woman killed, Heather Heyer, but promised that he would be “reaching out” and applauded her mother’s “beautiful statement,” in which she praised Trump.

With no teleprompter to keep him on a message crafted for him by his top aides, like chief of staff John Kelly, Trump reverted to the “many sides” language he ad-libbed on Saturday — remarks that earned him criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, and even pushback from his own top aides.

“You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other,” Trump explained Tuesday, “and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch.”

He added: “I think there’s blame on both sides.”

What was he thinking?  Why can’t this man keep his mouth shut?    He simply cannot defend the KKK, the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, and other anti-American groups.  These groups have long been on various hate-group lists.  He is President of the United States.  He cannot defend their ideals.  Period.

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Julius Caesar interruptus

MoonHowler

Theguardian.com:

A rightwing protester has been charged with trespassing after interrupting a New York production of Julius Caesar during the assassination scene and shouting: “This is violence against Donald Trump.”

The protester, who later identified herself as Laura Loomer, interrupted the Shakespeare in the Park production on Friday night and shouted “this is political violence against the right” while audience members booed and told her to get off the stage.

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Neil Cavuto calls out Trump: Mr. President, you are the problem

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

Cavuto summed up his comments by telling the president that his critics are not the issue. “They’re not the problem, Mr. President,” he said. “Like I said, these days, you are.”

The host continued to call out the president for “scapegoating,” “feeding [his own] beast,” and “acting beastly with [his] own guys.” Cavuto criticized Trump for alienating members of his own party and creating the very distractions he blames for derailing his presidential agenda. He then urged the president to listen to his once-friendly allies.

“Use these critiques you’re now hearing from usually friendly and supportive allies as sort of like an intervention,” Cavuto suggested. “Because firing off these angry missives and tweets risk your political destruction.”

Trump has emerged on the international scene with skepticism toward longstanding U.S. diplomatic relationships. In a matter of weeks, the president has refused to reaffirm his commitment to aiding NATO allies under attack, withdrawn the U.S. from the landmark Paris Agreement and made rash comments about London’s mayor and Qatar ― moves that have all been met with backlash.

Finally I agree with Neil Cavuto about something. Hats off to him.  More people need to call out this bad behavior. Some lack the courage to do so.  Neil Cavuto has cojones!

Perhaps even Fox is fleeing this sinking ship.

Why conservatives won’t dance….

MoonHowler

dailybeast.com:   (Matt Lewis excerpt)

…[F]awning praise isn’t limited to the partisans in the White House or at Fox News. Over at National Review, Dennis Prager has authored a controversial column criticizing “Never-Trumpers” for not falling in line. He describes Trump as “our general” and theorizes that conservatives who oppose Trump “do not believe that America is engaged in a civil war, with the survival of America as we know it at stake.”

He concludes, “I beg them: Please report for duty.”

In fairness, there’s a lot of truth to Prager’s theory. Yes, a common denominator for Trump backers might be a belief in an apocalyptic future—lacking their Trumpian savior, of course. Likewise, Never Trumpers did not see a Trump loss as the end of America. But that is only one of the differences that separate the pro-Trump conservatives from the Never Trumpers.

Trump supporters, it seems to me, are more disposed to prize authoritarian traits like loyalty and hierarchy. For these Trump apologists, the analogies never end. He is our general. Sometimes he’s our daddy. Sometimes he’s our CEO. Whether it’s paternalistic, militaristic, or capitalistic, there are numerous ways to be subservient to him. Pick your favorite!

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One A-hole ruins 70 years of trust and good-will in Europe

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

LONDON — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday declared a new chapter in U.S.-European relations after contentious meetings with President Trump last week, saying that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.”

Offering a tough review in the wake of Trump’s trip to visit E.U., NATO and Group of Seven leaders last week, Merkel told a packed Bavarian beer hall rally that the days when Europe could rely on others was “over to a certain extent. This is what I have experienced in the last few days.”

It was a stark declaration from the leader of Europe’s most powerful economy, and a grim take on the transatlantic ties that have underpinned Western security in the generations since World War II. Although relations between Washington and Europe have been strained during periods since 1945, before Trump there has rarely been such a strong feeling from European leaders that they must turn away from Washington and prepare to face the world alone.

 

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The “Shover in Charge” pushes past the PM of Montenegro

MoonHowler

Trump once again proves what a rude, ugly person he is as he shoves past the Prime Minister of Montenegro, just so he can be in the front center position.  He even poses once he has secured the position.

Something is just wrong with a person who behaves in this manner.  It appears his only concern is himself and his own ego.

I would love to have heard the verbal exchange, although I am sure it was cringe-worthy.

Comments from around the world.

Draconian budget proposals aimed at the poor

MoonHowler

 

Washingtonpost.com:

President Trump’s proposal to cut federal spending by more than $3.6 trillion over the next decade — including deep reductions for programs that help the poor — faced harsh criticism in Congress on Tuesday, where even many Republicans said the White House had gone too far.

While some fiscally conservative lawmakers, particularly in the House, found a lot to praise in Trump’s plan to balance the budget within 10 years, most Republicans flatly rejected the White House proposal. The divide sets up a clash between House conservatives and a growing number of Senate Republicans who would rather work with Democrats on a spending deal than entertain Trump’s deep cuts.

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McCarthy speaks what no one else has the guts to say

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

KIEV, Ukraine — A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

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Sean Spicer loses it–again

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally seemed to reach a breaking point Tuesday when it comes to questions about President Trump and Russia.

Spicer got testy in an exchange with American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan after Ryan announced a premise that Spicer disagreed with: that the White House has a Russia issue to deal with. By the end, Spicer accused Ryan of pushing her own agenda and even instructed her not to shake her head at him.

“No, we don’t have that,” Spicer said when Ryan cited the White House’s Russia issue. When Ryan continued with her question, he cut in again: “No, no. I get it. But I’ve said it from the day that I got here until whenever that there’s not a connection. You’ve got Russia.”
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