11/5/19: Tuesday, 11,258 scientists
from 153 countries sign an open letter, warning the other 7.6 billion people
riding around on the only globe any of us have, that we’re all in trouble.
____________________
“Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.”
Open letter signed by 11,258 scientists,
warning of the dangers of climate change
____________________
They explain:
Scientists have a moral
obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it
like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators
presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from
around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a
climate emergency.
The climate crisis has arrived,
and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe
than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity
[emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].
The science they lay out in support is complicated and extensive. Their warning is easily grasped.
“HOLY SHIT!” is what they’re saying.
Profound and sometimes wrenching social change may be forced upon us in years to come.
How to achieve those changes will be cause for serious debate.
Or we can do what President Trump does and ignore the problem
completely and go play golf.
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The man in the cart really loves golf. |
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IN OTHER NEWS, Iran announces it has started up advanced new centrifuges. This means the Iranians can more quickly produce material to construct an atomic bomb. Some experts fear they can have a nuclear weapon within a year.
Iran has also announced that it doesn’t really want to build a bomb. What Iran wants is “full implementation of the nuclear deal.” That is: the deal that was signed by the United States under Barack Obama, and by Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran.
That was the deal Trump tore up.
Nice move, slick.
*
IMPEACHMENT is in the air. That means we can count on Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tx.) to say something asinine. On the floor of Congress, he warns that Democrats are “about to push this country to a civil war if they were to get their wishes.”
Yes, if Trump were to be impeached and removed from office it would be time for all Trump fans to grab their guns and start blazing away at anyone not sporting a red MAGA cap. “And if there’s one thing I don’t want to see in my lifetime, I don’t want to ever have participation in,” Gohmert says, “it’s a civil war. Some historian, I don’t remember who, said, guns are only involved in the last phase of a civil war.”
As a good liberal blogger, I think I’ll just google: “Bill Clinton supporters threaten civil war if president is impeached.”
Yeah.
Nothing.
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No one talked about civil war. |
*
HAS ANY PRESIDENT ever been involved in as many court battles in office (and before) as Trump?
Monday, the Second U.S. District Court of Appeals rules that a lower court order, requiring the president’s accountants to turn over his tax and business records, as part of an investigation into possible campaign law violations and fraud, should stand. Next stop: The U.S. Supreme Court.
The president’s lawyers had argued that a president – any president – is immune from any and all types of investigation while in office.
Another
court win for the people
of the United States could be shaping up. Lev Parnas, who had been toiling away
with Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine – only to be arrested – has signaled through his
lawyer that he will comply with a subpoena from the House Intelligence
Committee.
According to Joseph A. Bondy, his new lawyer (Parnas had to fire his old attorney), “Mr. Parnas was very upset by President Trump’s plainly false statement that he did not know him.” Parnas has claimed to have had extensive business dealings and contacts with the president. So, if the House wants documents, Parnas will produce them. If they want testimony, Parnas will speak – the only caveat being that he will retain his right to plead the Fifth.
Meanwhile, former Trump campaign gadfly, Roger Stone, is also battling federal charges in court. Stone has been accused of perjury, witness tampering, and general skullduggery. A good liberal never shouts, “Lock him/or her up!” till the evidence is heard and a jury has rendered a verdict.
Still,
something tells me both Parnas and Stone may soon be joining the Team Trump
Felons’ Club.
*
WE ALSO LEARN TUESDAY that Mr. Trump has added another grifter to his team. Paula White will now be offering advice as part of a White House “Faith and Opportunity” initiative.
My comments here are not meant as an attack on religion, generally, or Christianity, in particular. A good liberal supports the right of Christians to worship as they please. Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, and Mormons are also cool.
Send those “First Fruits” to Pastor White.
It is not an attack on religion, however, to point out that Pastor White is exactly the kind of charlatan one would expect to find joining Team Trump. First, she’s been married three times, which is kind of a thing with Trump and his crew. Second, as a disciple of Jesus, she goes in big for the perks that come from preaching the Gospel. At one point, she and her second husband lived in a Tampa Bay mansion worth $2 million. They also owned a condo worth several million more – in Trump Tower New York City. Ms. White is much like Trump when it comes to diligent pursuit of Mammon. She preaches the “prosperity gospel,” which holds that God wants his faithful to find wealth and health. One way to prove one’s faith is to send “First Fruits” to Ms. White.
God be praised!
And
bank accounts!!
“Each January,” she wrote in one missive to fans, “I put God first and honor Him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice,” she admitted. “But it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And God always provides!”
(Certainly, God always provides for White, so long as her credulous followers fall for her shtick.)
The results, White promised, would be “miraculous,” whether followers sowed a month’s pay, a week’s pay, or a day’s pay. “First Fruits has impacted my life personally and the lives of countless others!” she wrote. “First Fruits is more than just an offering … it’s a principle.”
“I don’t
want pie in the sky by and by,” she likes to tell congregants. “I want some ham where I
am.”
As White tells it, her life is proof God rewards those who worship Him. She has gone from “a pit to a palace,” from childhood poverty to phenomenal success all by bilking suckers. (She doesn’t say that, of course.) Then again, there was a detour in 2012, when the ministry she and her second husband ran filed for bankruptcy. Allegedly, they stiffed the Evangelical Christian Credit Union for $29 million in loans, which I think we can all agree would not please Jesus.
Still, it’s easy to see why the president might want to have White around, particularly now that he’s facing impeachment. According to her interpretation of the Bible, you can’t oppose him anyway.
Even in the early days of Trump’s presidency, she was arguing,
He is authentically – whether
people like it or not – has been raised up by God. Because God says that
he raises up and places all people in places of authority. It is God who raises
up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of
God, you are fighting against the hand of God.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, once questioned White and her Gospel interpretations. Since getting to know her in the wake of Trump’s election, he’s become a fan. He, White, and other members of the “Faith and Opportunity” initiative are working with Trump and his staff. “We’re there to influence public policy and move this nation forward,” Perkins says, “where faith is openly welcomed, so that you don’t have to hide the fact that you’re a person of faith.”
Well, then, more power to Perkins and all people of faith in the world, including Druids. But can someone explain? If God raises Trump up, and we can’t “fight against the plan of God,” doesn’t the logic hold for every ruler, past, present, and to come? Here, you have Ms. White restating the theory of “divine right of kings.” In the 1600s and 1700s, Christian kings often argued that absolute power was vested in their hands and the common folk had no right to complain.
God chose them to rule.
That doctrine, of course, was refuted by, among others, the Founding Fathers of this nation, in 1787.
Also, what’s the address if I want to send in “First Fruits?”
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/408647796738859/
F**king mountain men!
White isn’t the only minister warning that if the president is impeached, all the fiends in hell will break loose. Pastor Rick Wiles has explained that Trump fans are “guys who knew how to fight.” And they are “going to make a decision” and go to war for Trump and Jesus and fat tax cuts for billionaires and a really big wall. “Veterans,” he said, would rise up. And “cowboys!”
And f**king “mountain men!!”
Wiles did not use the “f-word,” but, really, he should have.
Like Louis Gohmert, he sounds nuts.
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Cowboys are coming! |
BLISTERING BOOK REVIEW: David Robinson’s review of Pastor White’s most recent book, in Christian Today, offers proof that it’s not just liberals who think she’s a fraud. Robinson describes Something Greater as “cringe-worthy” in its narcissism. The book is “profoundly dishonest” and “shallow.” White shows a total lack of “self-awareness.” Her materialism and spending on herself, he finds “grotesquely sinful.”
Robinson lambasts Pastor White for what a non-religious person might see as garden-variety greed.
The obsession with money,
wealth, power and influence is a real problem in the Church. We seem to think
that Jesus did not mean it when he said we cannot serve both God and Mammon
(Matthew 6:24).
But that does not stop Paula
from manipulating people. In a recent telethon she devoted her
preaching to convincing them to send money to help Jim Bakker build a new TV
studio. “Right now,” you can watch her
shout, “someone is about to send you [she means Rev. Bakker] that $1 million
cheque in the name of Jesus, you [the viewer] just have to be obedient, whether
it’s $100,000 or $10,000 you send.”
She says that there is a
“Department of Treasury in Heaven” which will write up your name. It’s just a
straight-out blasphemous lie.
“The self-justification for greed is breathtaking,” Robinson says. White’s book, he says, is “Trumpesque” in its focus on cashing in – with the help of Jesus – and in how White focuses on White as the center of the universe.
“After spending time around Donald Trump,” White writes at one point in her book, “I find myself inspired by his vision, thought process, keen insight, and overall discipline. He’s a brilliant thinker who tends to walk several steps ahead of the masses. I want to share his wisdom with the world in my own way.”
Send $19.44 to Amazon right now and get your copy of
White’s book. I am thinking, if you read it, and send her “First Fruits,” you
will soon find your pockets crammed with cash.
