Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Roger Stone, a confidant to President Donald Trump and former adviser to his campaign, acknowledged late Saturday that he had a “back channel” to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, amid mounting reports that multiple advisers to Trump’s campaign had undisclosed communication with Russian officials.
By the way that was not the only provocative tweet coming from Stone yesterday.
Here are a few more that Stone tweeted and deleted, and a few he did not even bother to delete.
At the Bundy camp last week, pundits and politicians descended on Bunkerville, Nevada, to throw in their American flag hats with the BLM protestors. A FOX news van had been parked by the side of the road for days. Up on the ridge, militia snipers kept a trained watch as Bundy held court, and disciples from far and wide came to share their personal theories as to why the government was enforcing a court order.
But on Thursday, we witnessed a mainstream exodus from Bundy’s flank. Sean Hannity, Bundy’s biggest booster, called his racist remarks “beyond despicable,” but maintained that they should not taint the supporters who “for the right reasons saw this case as government overreach.”
Exactly how difficult was it, though, to determine pretty early on that Bundy and his followers were using the threat of force to back up some terrifyingly misguided beliefs?
During the few hours I visited last week, this was what was said.
Some of the things the Esquire reporter saw almost defies description, but here is a taste.
Openly discussed racism:
It’s dizzying and hot at the camp, and a very friendly man named Roy, wearing an Obama t-shirt with a joker smile painted on, hands me a cold bottle. He's from nearby Mesquite and has been a close friend and supporter of Bundy's these last few years. When I tell him I’m from New Mexico, the former cop says he has a very good buddy who used to work as a sheriff in my area.
“He got in a bit of trouble,” he chuckles. “He pulled over a carload of illegals one night, didn’t have room to haul ‘em all, so he put a chain around their neck and put a padlock through it, went to the next one, then he chained ‘em to a tree!”
He buckles with laughter as the story heats up. “Then he left ‘em and went to town to get his pickup to haul ‘em all back in. So, you might imagine, that didn’t play well — ha! You’re a young’un, but everything wasn’t against the law, way back when.”
Cliven Bundy religious prophet:
The crowd, fresh off their victory at the Battle of Bunkerville, gives Bundy a standing ovation. But he doesn’t seem pleased. He reproaches the crowd for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter – which he says is being delivered through him. They failed, for example, to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service.
"The message I gave to you all was a revelation that I received. And yet not one of you can seem to even quote it.”
Cliven continues, sermon-like: "The records of our bible — how long have they been kept? Thousands of years. They’ve been turned over generation after generation, buried, and all kinds of things happen to ‘em. And yet, here, something I felt was inspired [by God] and yet we haven’t even carried it forth for even a couple of days. Shame on us.” Smattering of clapping.
He goes on to explain that, although they managed to deter the BLM, they failed to do it "within one hour," as the revelation had prophesied. So when an hour passes, he decides to get in his bulldozer and march on the BLM himself. The dozer gets stuck in the mud and he receives another revelation.
“It come to my mind real plain — the good Lord said, ‘Bundy, it’s not your job, it’s THEIR job.’ So we come back over here and heard that they had brought some cattle back. So I want you to understand,” addressing the crowd, "This is not my job, it’s YOUR job.
Wingnuts of all shapes and sizes:
Clearly the longer that any sensible person spends around Bundy and his group of radicals, the more clear it becomes that his ranch has become a kind of gathering place for all of the Alex Jones conspiracy theorists (Yesterday they went after Glenn Beck), angry racists, and trigger happy sovereign citizens types that were within walking, driving, or hitchhiking range.
If the BLM were smart they would simply sit back and let this powder keg smolder a little longer, because I think it is only a matter of time before these lunatics get bored and start looking around the ranch for someone to take their inner range out on.
Things could get mighty interesting in old Bunkerville before too long.
In the meantime, at least the citizens of Nevada know where all he crazy people are hanging out.
By now, and by god, it should have settled permanently in the consciousness of the nation what a huge and untoward gamble with the country John McCain and his campaign took in 2008 when they elevated Sarah Palin from her rightful place on the tundra to the political celebrity she currently enjoys. McCain should pay a heavy price for unleashing this ignorant, two-wheeled bilewagon on the country's politics. If you think she's a legitimate political leader, you're an idiot and a sucker and I feel sorry for you.
Yesterday she gave a wildly received speech to ring down the curtain at CPAC. The applause, as far as I know, may still be going on. It was as singularly embarrassing a public address as any allegedly sentient primate ever has delivered. It was a disgrace to politics, to rhetoric, to the English language, and to seventh-grade slam books everywhere.
This ambulatiory bag of rank resentment pulled out all the tricks. The cheap shots; "Aw, John, why the long face?" to the Secretary of State. The sneering, wheedling playground taunting -- "You can't make a phone call without Michelle Obama knowing, 'This is the third time this week you dialed Pizza Hut Delivery'" -- and a full panoply of funny voices that are the trademark of dipshit comics in every two-drink minimum club in America. We got "hope and channng-ey," and how "some members" of the GOP establishment are saying to us, "Hush, America. Go to sleep, little lambs." And, in what is being celebrated as the piece de resistance , she turned Green Eggs And Ham into an extended taunt.
If you laughed, you're an idiot and I feel sorry for you.
"This ambulatory bag of rank resentment " Boy wish I would have thought of that.
Right now Palin is getting spanked all over the internet for her crazed rhetoric, and taunting of the liberals, the media, and our President.
There are few who have anything positive to say, except of course those on the Right Wing fringe.
Clearly they are so desperate for attention from the mainstream media that they would support televised self-immolation if they thought it would get national coverage and somehow reflect poorly on the President.
The funny thing about CPAC this year was that each speaker seemed to be trying to out crazy the next crazy who might follow them to the podium.
"We don't trust government, because government itself has proven unworthy of our trust. We trust ourselves and we trust what we know in our hearts to be right. We trust our freedom. In this uncertain world, surrounded by lies and corruption everywhere you look, there is no greater freedom than the right to survive and protect our families with all the rifles, shotguns, and handguns we want.
Paul Ryan told a story about a kid who did not want to be on the school lunch program, and instead wanted to eat his lunch from a brown paper bag, that turned out to be plagiarized from a book written by a woman who actually works to feed hungry children in America.
So in this kind of atmosphere is it any wonder that Palin also had her ghostwriters plagiarize the Dr. Suess story that she claimed to have made up for Trig's benefit?
However here's the thing, one might be excused for pandering to the mental patients if one wants to get them to share their medication, put you in charge of the communal remote control, or believe you when you say you are the REAL Napoleon Bonaparte.
But pandering to the fringe should exclude you forever from actually seeking higher office in this country.
In that way perhaps Palin was among the most honest of the speakers. She knows full well that she is never going to return to public service, she just needs somebody to tune into her upcoming reality show and to keep sending their children's college money to her PAC.
And by honest I mean honestly willing to string along a group of morons too ignorant to recognize when they are being manipulated by a person who cares NOTHING about their values, their religious beliefs, or their desires for the future of the country, but is willing to fake it for attention and cash.
The way that Republicans attack women is so offensive to me. And the way they talk about religion is offensive. I may not be a practicing Jew, but why we gotta talk about Jesus all the time? And it's baffling to me how a poor person in Georgia can say, "I'm a Republican." Why?
Good question.
You know one of my guilty pleasures was to watch a certain TV program called the "70's Show."
At first it was just because I of course am a product of the seventies, and it was fun to relive those years and remember how ridiculous we all were. (They actually did a pretty good job of using popular catchphrases, like "What a burn," and demonstrating how he dressed and acted.)
But then I started to really like the main actor Topher Grace, and his character's relationship with the other actor's on the show. (Especially the dad, Red Forman. I LOVE that guy!)
To honest at first I found Mila's character, Jackie, to be completely annoying, but after awhile she grew on me.
However since Kunis has left the show she has demonstrated herself to be an incredibly gifted actress and I will now choose to see movies solely on the fact that she is in them. (She has also voiced the character of "Meg" in the Family Guy which has cemented her nerd goddess credentials.)
I have also listened to her voice her political points of view a few times and find her intelligent and well read on a variety of issues. (In other words somebody the complete opposite of her character on the 70's Show.)
Part of why I am posting this is that a years back there were several YouTube videos created comparing conservative women to liberal women, using Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter as examples of the "Sexy" conservative gals, and of course making the case that liberal women were unattractive and stupid.
Well apparently Mila Kunis is VERY liberal and is now considered the sexiest woman in the world.
And HERE was the woman that inspired that conservative vs liberal comparison four years ago today.
I believe the word here is "checkmate."
And by the way let me just say that, as a rule, liberals appreciate women for more than their looks and ability to shut up and make babies for us.
We also appreciate them for their intellect, and gladly join the fight to help protect their equal rights and control over their own bodies.
For any of you who believe that nobody who looks like Mila Kunis could possibly be intelligent as well, I urge you to read her full Esquire interview at the link, or if you don't have the time perhaps you can watch this video of her scolding a reporter for asking why her co-star in "Friends with Benefits," Justin Timberlake, is not focusing on his music career rather than trying his hand at acting. (Oh and did I mention that she answered that reporter's somewhat rude question in Russian?)
Beautiful, intelligent, feisty, and oh so liberal.
