Trump: Illusion, Mist and Bought?

[Emil El Zapato]

I would consider that an understatement. He gets away with all of it. The world is Insane.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4

[Dreamtimer]

I'm Billy Graham's granddaughter. Evangelical support for Donald Trump insults his legacy.

As a proud granddaughter of the man largely credited for beginning the evangelical movement, the late Billy Graham, the past few years have led me to reflect on how much has changed within that movement in America.

I have spent my entire life in the church, with every big decision guided by my faith. But now I feel homeless. Like so many others, I feel disoriented as I watch the church I have always served turn its eyes away from everything it teaches. I hear from Christian women on a daily basis who all describe the same thing: a tug at their spirit.

I feel it every time our president talks about government housing having no place in America’s suburbs. Jesus said repeatedly to defend the poor and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to perpetuate an us-versus-them narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing.

I feel this tug every time our president or his followers speak about the wall, designed to keep out the very people Scripture tells us to welcome. In Trump’s America, refugees are not treated as “native born,” as Scripture encourages. Instead, families are separated, held in inconceivable conditions and cast aside as less than.

The gentle tug became an aggressive yank, for me, earlier this year, when our country experienced division in the form of riots, incited in great part by this president’s divisive rhetoric. I watched our president walk through Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., after the tear gassing of peaceful protesters for a photo op.

He held a Bible, something so sacred to all of us, yet he treated that Bible with a callousness that would offend anyone intimately familiar with the words inside it. He believed that action would honor him and only him. However, the church, designed to honor God, said nothing.

It seems that the only evangelical leaders to speak up praised the president, with no mention of his behavior that is antithetical to the Jesus we serve. The entire world has watched the term “evangelical” become synonymous with hypocrisy and disingenuousness.

Trump has gone so far as to brag about his plans, accomplishments and unholy actions toward the marginalized communities I saw my grandfather love and serve. I now see, through the silence of church leaders, that these communities are no longer valued by individuals claiming to uphold the values my grandfather taught.✄

At a recent large family event, I was pulled aside by many female family members thanking me for speaking out against an administration with which they, too, had been uncomfortable. With tears in their eyes, they used a hushed tone, out of fear that they were alone or at risk of undeserved retribution.✄

I chose to listen to my spirit to speak out. Not because doing so feels comfortable, but because it feels like the right way to leverage the voice God has empowered me with. Now I am asking all of you who feel as I do, to embrace your inner tug, and allow it to lead you to use the power of your God-given voice and not allow Trump to lead this country for another four years.

Source

[Dreamtimer]

The Chamber of Commerce is also getting quite uncomfortable with Trump:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is poised to endorse nearly two dozen freshmen House Democrats for reelection, triggering a revolt within the right-leaning organization and drawing fierce pushback from the group’s powerful GOP donors.

The decision represents a sharp departure for the traditionally conservative Chamber, which has spent over $100 million backing Republican candidates during the past decade, and it threatens to further complicate the party’s prospects in the November election while driving a split in the business community. ✄

The clash also provides a window into a growing rift in the business community over its place in the Donald Trump-dominated Republican Party, which has at times embraced policies the corporate world opposes. While the Chamber has almost exclusively endorsed Republicans over the past decade, it has collided with the president over everything from tariffs to immigration.

[Dreamtimer]

The business community understands the importance of all folks being able to vote:

Companies across the US pledge to give workers time off to vote

Starbucks said Thursday it will give its 200,000 U.S. employees flexibility on Election Day, encouraging them to plan ahead with managers and schedule time to vote or volunteer at polling places. The Starbucks app will also help customers learn how to register to vote, the company said.

Walmart says it will give its 1.5 million U.S. workers up to three hours paid time off to vote. Apple is giving workers four hours off. Coca-Cola, Twitter, Cisco and Uber are giving employees the day off.

The idea isn't entirely new. General Motors, Ford and FiatChrysler have given employees the day off to vote since 1999, when they agreed to the change in a contract with the United Auto Workers union. Patagonia gave its workers the day off starting in 2016.But this year, the idea is gaining steam. Six hundred companies, including Lyft, Airbnb and Paramount, have signed on to ElectionDay.org, which asks companies to give employees time off to vote or distribute information on voting, including how to obtain main-in ballots. It is not clear how many of those 600 are allowing time off versus distributing voting information.

[Emil El Zapato]

yeah, seems Starbuck's might have a conscience/conscious. I thought Bill Graham was legit but he might have been a racist, his fallen son certainly is. I just saw a post from a good friend of mine that I haven't spent much time with over the few years. He was lauding a police chief saying to looters and vandals to stay away from his community because he is advising the citizens to 'blow the looters back out of their houses'. Of course, typical of my buddy, the community intel is based on a total fantasy of the 'hordes descending'. It was initially posted by a mixed marriage couple. Black man/white woman.

My friend is an MBA manager type, so reasonably intelligent, but not really very smart in so many ways. He is from small town Texas. He tends to believe social media stories that make absolutely no sense. I really haven't figured out what is the separation point of intelligence and god given good sense. Kind of like the NP/NP-Complete dichotomy. When does Chaos become order and vice-versa.

[Dreamtimer]

And in Georgia:

A federal judge has ruled Georgia elections officials must count absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by 7 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2020, potentially allowing thousands more votes to count in an election likely to shatter turnout records.

Judge Eleanor Ross ruled Monday that "extending the deadline would ensure that voters who receive their ballots shortly before Election Day are able to mail their ballots without fear that their vote will not count" in her 70-page order.

Currently, Georgia voters can request an absentee ballot as late as the Friday before the election, creating a narrow window for voters to return an absentee ballot through the mail in time for the current 7 p.m. Election Day deadline.

[Dreamtimer]

Falwell's son is the latest to fall. I think you're confusing him with Graham's son.

Graham's son is highly focused on homosexuality and his beliefs that it's wrong. He was planning a UK 2020 tour but according to Wikipedia:

UK tour 2020

All venues booked for Franklin Graham's planned eight-city 2020 UK tour cancelled his booking after protests by LGBTQ+ activists, petitions and requests from local councils. Many said statements Graham had made were incompatible with their values, and that his appearance would be divisive, could be disruptive or lead to a breach of the peace. His organisation said it would seek other venues.

[Emil El Zapato]

possibly, i figured they have all gone somewhere, not a very holy place.

Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It.
If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham.

By STEPHEN PROTHERO February 24, 2018

[Aianawa]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YknxOfQEWyE

[Aianawa]

Arrives by plane at 2 hours 21 min mark

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlC-KSVRMn0

[Emil El Zapato]

"A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ - but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone - look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether." - Rod Serling

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcl5hg0fAD8

[Aianawa]

One of some of the reasons more people are enjoying roses smell again n take the rose glasses off is the China China China reality.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmlcEBAiIs

[Wind]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARDlneN_5E

[Dreamtimer]

Here's another thing Trump has done to hurt Vets and those who have served in the military.

The shrinking U.S. Postal Service payroll is imperiling a go-to career for military veterans, who have long relied on the agency for well-paid and secure jobs in public service.

Driven by years of financial strain and accelerated by operational changes imposed by newly installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the agency has steadily reduced pay, intensified workloads and shifted toward temporary workers, resulting in a higher turnover and a steadily declining workforce at one of the nation’s largest employers of vets. ✄

“We’re promoting these jobs for veterans as these stable, good jobs to make sure our disabled veterans have gainful employment because they served their country, and now we’re trying to underfund it, cut the programs, cut the way hiring processes are,” said Will Attig, executive director of AFL-CIO’s United Veterans Council. “Now, when a veteran comes home, they get hired as a temporary worker.”

“That’s kind of, in my opinion, pretty disrespectful.”

Republicans have followed the 'starve the beast' way throughout my adult life. The idea is to underfund government and the when it doesn't work right claim that's the reason to get rid of it.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and also very stupid.

And let's not forget that DeJoy engaged in felony campaign crimes and is under the process of being subpoenaed for his crimes.


Why are folks so avidly supporting criminals? It's a mystery.

[Dreamtimer]

Trump can't get away with insulting military service forever...

If pissing on McCain and the POW-MIA black flag wasn’t enough, Trump has a long history of disdain for the military:

Insulting grieving Gold Star families and War Widows? Check

Forcing children of fallen heroes to now pay a “kiddie tax” on their benefits with your new tax bill? Check

Trying to force election boards from counting ballots from active duty troops overseas? Check

Deploying troops as a midterm stunt at the border to suffer over the holidays? Check

Dismantling financial protections against predatory lenders who target the military? Check

Letting your cronies interfere with the VA? Check

Driving your own Secretary of Defense to resign over your willingness to suck up to our enemies yet attack our allies? Check.

Trying to get us into another ill-conceived war? Check.

Refusing to confront Putin over putting bounties on our soldier’s heads? Check

Surrendering a US base to Russia and abandoning our Kurdish allies to let our military fend for themselves? Check

Cutting off your kid’s child support if she decides to serve her country in the military? WHAT? I mean, Check.


President Trump’s transfer last year of $2.5 billion in military funds to pay for border wall construction was an illegal overreach of executive authority, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Friday.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdFTrson8Bs


Here's the first part of a thread from Captain Sully Sullenberger