These wise words of Simone Weil (1909–1943) come to mind, "Clearly, a political party busily seeking, or maintaining itself in power can discern nothing in these cries [against evil] except a noise ... It can never be capable of the tender and sensitive attention which is needed to understand its meaning.”
This disease has metastasized to our press, our institutions and culture at large.
At this stage of The Game, one very simple question immediately keeps popping up and rearing its ugly head:
Even if Stein, West, or any 3rd, 4th, or 5th Party ~ or a so-called “independent” ala RFK, Jr ~ candidate were to somehow get elected President, what would they be able to actually, really DO in the Real World with a US Senate and House of Representatives composed entirely of politicians completely owned, operated, commanded, and controlled by the MICC, the S3CP2, Big Oil, Big Pharm and Medicine, Big Ag, and ultimately, Big Banks and Finance and the Federal Reserve?
Jill and Cornel are the only 2 running for POTUS as peace candidates. Hope they both make it on ballots of all 50 states so the people can decide at the voting both. Our system is rigged. Rigged to forever wars. The cycle: Appropriate money to foreign wars; that money buys MIC weaponry. Profits from the sale go into the pockets of those politicians seeking reelection. Add to that foreign monies from AIPAC feed the pockets of our politicians. That's the cycle of our forever wars. *out tax dollars being the chum of this feeding frenzy.
I wish Jill and Cornel well, but I fear neither has the ability to reach beyond the college campuses to all the kids not attending college or working in dead-end jobs. Very few of the young have any real prospects for the futures their parents and grandparents had, and when they all figure out they're equally screwed, then they can change the system.
But it won't be by any of the people running for the presidency this year - and that includes Jill, Cornel, or RFK Jr.
I agree, there's no way he's going to win. And he's clueless as a politician.
I'm just trying to understand why you can reduce him to a caricature as a "goofy professor," but you denounce others for doing something similar to Trump.
If you were consistent and principled, you'd have to denounce yourself, or stop using pejoratives and call people by their names.
Dennis, I've said it before and will say it again. You will probably vote for Biden or you will not vote. But you will NOT vote for a third party or independent candidate. You and everyone else who limits their choices to the democratic or republican candidates are responsible for maintaining the two party duopoly. The blame rests with you and all the others who believe and vote like you.
"What is ACTUALLY the biggest factor responsible for maintaining the two-party duopoly, is NOT HOW FOLKS VOTE, it's the fault of America's Plurality voting system and the workings of the Electoral College."
That's a cop out. The electoral college is a problem, but it is not the problem, and plurality voting is not the problem either. A third party or independent candidate could win the presidency if the majority of voters in all the states voted for him regardless of the electoral college or plurality voting. BUT THEY WON'T - AND YOU WON'T, because they and you choose not to. You made your choice freely so stop bitching and trying to blame "the system".
And on what basis do You claim that putting Trump in the White House in 2024 will "get the nation at least a little back on track"?
How much "a little back on track" did America become when Trump was running the show?
How did America's federal government Deficits go ? Or its national, sovereign Debt, or its "Defense/Security" Budgets?
And how'd "Murika" do under his command with its COVID Response? 4.2% of the World's total population suffered 15.8% of the Total COVID Cases, and 17.4% of Total COVID Deaths. Great Job, Orange Man.
But, if nothing else, he certainly did a Super GREAT job planting the seeds for America's proxy War with Russia in Ukraine. For which his owners, operators, commanders, and controllers in America's MICC and S3CP2 will be eternally grateful.
The MSM typically doesn't report on events that don't support approved narratives, or report on them when they distract from something else. So 'protests at elite universities" stories appear within days of the initial reporting of the mass graves found in Gaza. It provides cover for the politicians and news organizations.
If the definition of fascism is "... the merger of state and corporate leadership with belligerent nationalism" and Reaganomics promoted privatization of government duties and responsibilities to corporate Amerilca and then after 9/11 the Patriot Act defined an endless war on Terror what do we have?
Anybody here on BV interested in one of those office betting pools predicting when Israel will attack, destroy, and thus "liberate" Rafah?
The early line is that it will happen sometime after sundown on Tuesday, April 30 [the end of Passover], and before sundown on Saturday, May 4, the 54th anniversary of Kent State.
“A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer; but a wise man cannot ask more questions than he will find a fool ready to answer.” ~ Richard Whately
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” ~ Bruce Lee
CHARLOTTE EVANGELICAL PASTOR IN NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT, CALLED TRUMP BIBLE ‘DISGUSTING’
by Joe Marusak / Charlotte Observer 27 Apr 24
A Charlotte evangelical pastor is in the national spotlight for a fire-and-brimstone sermon denouncing as “blasphemous” and “disgusting” what’s become known as the Trump Bible.
Evangelicals are among the former president’s strongest backers, but Rev. Loran Livingston, the senior pastor of Central Church on Sardis Road condemned the Trump-endorsed “God Bless the USA Bible,” priced at $59.99.
His April 14 sermon has drawn millions of views on social media. The bible homepage features a photo of a smiling Trump seated at what appears to be the Oval Office desk, although the website says Trump does not profits from sales of the book. Well, maybe with his base he does, but not with Livingston.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
The Trump Bible includes copies of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Pledge of Allegiance and the handwritten chorus to the song featured at Trump rallies: country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
Don’t fall for it, Livingston warned his flock at the packed 10:30 a.m. service.
“When you don’t read and pray, you say, ‘Wow, there’s a Bible out now that includes the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, isn’t that wonderful?’ ” he said.
“No!” he shouted. “It’s disgusting. It’s blasphemous. It’s a ploy. Are you kidding me? Some of you are so encouraged by that?”
“The gospel is not an American gospel,” he said. “It is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
MIXING POLITICS AND CHURCH
“People that don’t read (the Bible) and pray will get politics mixed up with church,” Livingston said in his sermon that’s on his congregation’s YouTube site. “Some of you bring politics into the Church. You think that politics is spiritual stuff.”
“No!” he said. “Your duty is to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Livingston couldn’t be reached by The Charlotte Observer on Saturday. If you read the bible, he said, you’d also know that voting is not a “spiritual responsibility.” “My real citizenship is in heaven, from which we look for the Lord Jesus Christ,” Livingston said.
“BEND POLITICS TO THEOLOGY”
Livingston joins at least one nationally prominent Christian conservative to rebuke the Trump Bible: Andrew Walker of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, The Christian Post reported. “To put matters bluntly, a Bible like this should never have been made,”
Walker wrote March 28 in the Christian publication World, quickly adding that he’s both pro-Bible and pro-Constitution. “The Bible is not a symbol of American identity even while we proudly herald the Bible-influenced shape of American life and values,” Walker wrote.
“There is an ever-present temptation to allow one’s theology to bend to one’s politics when it is our politics that should bend to our theology.”
These wise words of Simone Weil (1909–1943) come to mind, "Clearly, a political party busily seeking, or maintaining itself in power can discern nothing in these cries [against evil] except a noise ... It can never be capable of the tender and sensitive attention which is needed to understand its meaning.”
This disease has metastasized to our press, our institutions and culture at large.
At this stage of The Game, one very simple question immediately keeps popping up and rearing its ugly head:
Even if Stein, West, or any 3rd, 4th, or 5th Party ~ or a so-called “independent” ala RFK, Jr ~ candidate were to somehow get elected President, what would they be able to actually, really DO in the Real World with a US Senate and House of Representatives composed entirely of politicians completely owned, operated, commanded, and controlled by the MICC, the S3CP2, Big Oil, Big Pharm and Medicine, Big Ag, and ultimately, Big Banks and Finance and the Federal Reserve?
Anything at all?
A compelling question indeed.
Jill and Cornel are the only 2 running for POTUS as peace candidates. Hope they both make it on ballots of all 50 states so the people can decide at the voting both. Our system is rigged. Rigged to forever wars. The cycle: Appropriate money to foreign wars; that money buys MIC weaponry. Profits from the sale go into the pockets of those politicians seeking reelection. Add to that foreign monies from AIPAC feed the pockets of our politicians. That's the cycle of our forever wars. *out tax dollars being the chum of this feeding frenzy.
**Stop this ensanity NOW**
I wish Jill and Cornel well, but I fear neither has the ability to reach beyond the college campuses to all the kids not attending college or working in dead-end jobs. Very few of the young have any real prospects for the futures their parents and grandparents had, and when they all figure out they're equally screwed, then they can change the system.
But it won't be by any of the people running for the presidency this year - and that includes Jill, Cornel, or RFK Jr.
Dennis, I'm curious: you've attacked other people for using negative words to describe Trump, but you always use "goofy professor" for Cornel West.
Are you being consistent here?
I agree, there's no way he's going to win. And he's clueless as a politician.
I'm just trying to understand why you can reduce him to a caricature as a "goofy professor," but you denounce others for doing something similar to Trump.
If you were consistent and principled, you'd have to denounce yourself, or stop using pejoratives and call people by their names.
Dennis, I've said it before and will say it again. You will probably vote for Biden or you will not vote. But you will NOT vote for a third party or independent candidate. You and everyone else who limits their choices to the democratic or republican candidates are responsible for maintaining the two party duopoly. The blame rests with you and all the others who believe and vote like you.
"What is ACTUALLY the biggest factor responsible for maintaining the two-party duopoly, is NOT HOW FOLKS VOTE, it's the fault of America's Plurality voting system and the workings of the Electoral College."
That's a cop out. The electoral college is a problem, but it is not the problem, and plurality voting is not the problem either. A third party or independent candidate could win the presidency if the majority of voters in all the states voted for him regardless of the electoral college or plurality voting. BUT THEY WON'T - AND YOU WON'T, because they and you choose not to. You made your choice freely so stop bitching and trying to blame "the system".
And on what basis do You claim that putting Trump in the White House in 2024 will "get the nation at least a little back on track"?
How much "a little back on track" did America become when Trump was running the show?
How did America's federal government Deficits go ? Or its national, sovereign Debt, or its "Defense/Security" Budgets?
And how'd "Murika" do under his command with its COVID Response? 4.2% of the World's total population suffered 15.8% of the Total COVID Cases, and 17.4% of Total COVID Deaths. Great Job, Orange Man.
But, if nothing else, he certainly did a Super GREAT job planting the seeds for America's proxy War with Russia in Ukraine. For which his owners, operators, commanders, and controllers in America's MICC and S3CP2 will be eternally grateful.
You love to piss, moan, bitch, and complain about America's Electoral College system of selecting its next President, Mr Merwood.
How much pissing, moaning, bitching, and complaining did You do about it in 2016 when that was how Your Boy Trump got his four years on the throne?
Or did that not become a problem until 2020 when Biden pulled a Trump of his own, and got elected that way [along with winning the popular vote].
The MSM typically doesn't report on events that don't support approved narratives, or report on them when they distract from something else. So 'protests at elite universities" stories appear within days of the initial reporting of the mass graves found in Gaza. It provides cover for the politicians and news organizations.
Antisemitism laws is what has brought us this new Holocaust.
For the law to be equal for everyone you can not have a law which protects one group and discriminates against the rest.
If the definition of fascism is "... the merger of state and corporate leadership with belligerent nationalism" and Reaganomics promoted privatization of government duties and responsibilities to corporate Amerilca and then after 9/11 the Patriot Act defined an endless war on Terror what do we have?
The choice is clear for '24-
Vote Blue fascist
Or
Vote Red fascist
The choice is yours.
What do you expect? NBC (and most of MSM) has become little more than the Pravda of the Soviet era.
Yup. As I said, I expected my fair share of abuse, and I got it.
It's weird that Haaretz is more objective than any US media.
Regarding foreign news, I think you are probably right, but for domestic (Russian) news, I suspect they follow the party line pretty closely.
Anybody here on BV interested in one of those office betting pools predicting when Israel will attack, destroy, and thus "liberate" Rafah?
The early line is that it will happen sometime after sundown on Tuesday, April 30 [the end of Passover], and before sundown on Saturday, May 4, the 54th anniversary of Kent State.
“A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer; but a wise man cannot ask more questions than he will find a fool ready to answer.” ~ Richard Whately
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” ~ Bruce Lee
CHARLOTTE EVANGELICAL PASTOR IN NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT, CALLED TRUMP BIBLE ‘DISGUSTING’
by Joe Marusak / Charlotte Observer 27 Apr 24
A Charlotte evangelical pastor is in the national spotlight for a fire-and-brimstone sermon denouncing as “blasphemous” and “disgusting” what’s become known as the Trump Bible.
Evangelicals are among the former president’s strongest backers, but Rev. Loran Livingston, the senior pastor of Central Church on Sardis Road condemned the Trump-endorsed “God Bless the USA Bible,” priced at $59.99.
His April 14 sermon has drawn millions of views on social media. The bible homepage features a photo of a smiling Trump seated at what appears to be the Oval Office desk, although the website says Trump does not profits from sales of the book. Well, maybe with his base he does, but not with Livingston.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
The Trump Bible includes copies of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Pledge of Allegiance and the handwritten chorus to the song featured at Trump rallies: country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
Don’t fall for it, Livingston warned his flock at the packed 10:30 a.m. service.
“When you don’t read and pray, you say, ‘Wow, there’s a Bible out now that includes the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, isn’t that wonderful?’ ” he said.
“No!” he shouted. “It’s disgusting. It’s blasphemous. It’s a ploy. Are you kidding me? Some of you are so encouraged by that?”
“The gospel is not an American gospel,” he said. “It is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
MIXING POLITICS AND CHURCH
“People that don’t read (the Bible) and pray will get politics mixed up with church,” Livingston said in his sermon that’s on his congregation’s YouTube site. “Some of you bring politics into the Church. You think that politics is spiritual stuff.”
“No!” he said. “Your duty is to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Livingston couldn’t be reached by The Charlotte Observer on Saturday. If you read the bible, he said, you’d also know that voting is not a “spiritual responsibility.” “My real citizenship is in heaven, from which we look for the Lord Jesus Christ,” Livingston said.
“BEND POLITICS TO THEOLOGY”
Livingston joins at least one nationally prominent Christian conservative to rebuke the Trump Bible: Andrew Walker of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, The Christian Post reported. “To put matters bluntly, a Bible like this should never have been made,”
Walker wrote March 28 in the Christian publication World, quickly adding that he’s both pro-Bible and pro-Constitution. “The Bible is not a symbol of American identity even while we proudly herald the Bible-influenced shape of American life and values,” Walker wrote.
“There is an ever-present temptation to allow one’s theology to bend to one’s politics when it is our politics that should bend to our theology.”
Source: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article288076880.html#storylink=cpy.
i'd love to read some GOD BLESS THE USA Bible Scholar's reaction and response to Mr Hedges' Sermon.
Even better would be a SOCIAL TRUTH Tweet Storm from The Donald, his HimSelf, eh?