During June White House meeting Donald Trump let his racist flag fly.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Late to his own meeting and waving a sheet of numbers, President Trump stormed into the Oval Office one day in June, plainly enraged.

According to six officials who attended or were briefed about the meeting, Mr. Trump then began reading aloud from the document, which his domestic policy adviser, Stephen Miller, had given him just before the meeting. The document listed how many immigrants had received visas to enter the United States in 2017. 

More than 2,500 were from Afghanistan, a terrorist haven, the president complained. 

Haiti had sent 15,000 people. They “all have AIDS,” he grumbled, according to one person who attended the meeting and another person who was briefed about it by a different person who was there.

Forty thousand had come from Nigeria, Mr. Trump added. Once they had seen the United States, they would never “go back to their huts” in Africa, recalled the two officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss a sensitive conversation in the Oval Office. 

As the meeting continued, John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, and Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, tried to interject, explaining that many were short-term travelers making one-time visits. But as the president continued, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Miller turned their ire on Mr. Tillerson, blaming him for the influx of foreigners and prompting the secretary of state to throw up his arms in frustration. If he was so bad at his job, maybe he should stop issuing visas altogether, Mr. Tillerson fired back. 

Tempers flared and Mr. Kelly asked that the room be cleared of staff members. But even after the door to the Oval Office was closed, aides could still hear the president berating his most senior advisers.

Of course the White House denied that this incident ever happened: 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, denied on Saturday morning that Mr. Trump had made derogatory statements about immigrants during the meeting. 

“General Kelly, General McMaster, Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Nielsen and all other senior staff actually in the meeting deny these outrageous claims,” she said, referring to the current White House chief of staff, the national security adviser and the secretaries of state and homeland security. “It’s both sad and telling The New York Times would print the lies of their anonymous ‘sources’ anyway.”

Yeah okay, but that denial might have a little more credibility if it did not come from the same White House that stated emphatically that Trump's inaugural crowds were the largest ever, and that the Mueller investigation will exonerate Trump by Christmas.

Besides this sounds so much like something Trump would say that I am surprised Alec Baldwin has not already used it in an SNL skit.

However on the plus side we are now learning that Trump is not only racist toward Mexicans and Muslims.

On the negative side he is apparently racist against everybody who is not lily white or some shade of orange.

New report finds that yes religion is the source of most of today's terrorism.

Courtesy of the Guardian: 

Religious extremism has become the main driver of terrorism in recent years, according to this year’s Global Terrorism Index. 

The report recorded 18,000 deaths in 2013, a rise of 60% on the previous year. The majority (66%) of these were attributable to just four groups: Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida. 

Overall there has been a fivefold increase in deaths from terrorism since the 9/11 suicide attacks. 

The report’s authors attribute the majority of incidents over the past few years to groups with a religious agenda. 

Before 2000, it was nationalist separatist terrorist organisations such as the IRA and Chechen rebels who were behind the most attacks. The number of incidents from nationalist separatist groups has remained relatively stable in the years since while religious extremism has grown. 

The prevalence of Islamist groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria is the main driver behind these trends. 

This report is interesting because it flies in the face of  arguments given by Islamic apologists, like Reza Aslan, who argue that religion is NOT the trigger for extremist views or violence.

And in fact making this connection was what got Bill Maher into so much trouble recently.

However I would be quick to mention that just because it seems that Islam is the religion of choice for most terrorists today, there is still plenty of terrorism in the name of Christ as well.

And it could be argued that in the not too distant past Christian terrorism terrorized communities around the world for many hundreds of years before it was brought under some semblance of control by more civilized minds.

As Steven Weinberg once said, "Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Sarah Palin attacks President Obama over #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Well of course she does.

Courtesy of Tundra Twit's Facebook page: 

This photo...

...says it all about the Obama administration’s reliance on junior high-like tweets and tickles in place of a foreign policy rooted in peace through strength. Diplomacy via Twitter is the lazy, ineffectual, naïve, and insulting way for America’s leaders to deal with major national and international issues. It’s embarrassing. Under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton’s State Department repeatedly refused to recognize Boko Haram as terrorists despite their conventional, predictable Islamic terrorist rants, training, and mission. Now, in a life or death situation, nearly 300 kidnapped Nigerian girls are in the hands of these terrorists awaiting rescue. 

And what is the Obama administration’s weapon of choice in this battle for these young girls’ lives? Hashtagging tweets on social media! I kinda-sorta doubt a tweet will intimidate the kidnappers much. So, if you’re going to jump in and do something about these Islamic terrorists at all, then do it right, do it firmly, and kick their ass. 

Like the patriot writes in this photo, winning takes Warriors. If you intend to rescue these innocent girls whose only “crime” was seeking an education despite the threats of insane Islamic terrorists who drag women back to the Stone Age (see, Liberals, THAT is the real “war on women” so quit making it up that conservatives wage it), then you need to send a message to the world that our United States military is the strongest force to protect the good guys, and the most deadly against the bad guys. Pretty simple, the world needs to know America is still on the side of the good guys. 

 If you’re going to get involved anyway, Mr. President, learn to understand this and believe it, then announce it: Victory is only brought to you “courtesy of the red, white and blue.” It’s certainly not won by your mere “unfriending” the bad guys on Facebook. Leading from behind is not the American way. 

- Sarah Palin

The first thing to point out is that the #BringOurGirlsBack campaign is NOT the official response to the Nigerian girls kidnapping. The President sent seven military advisers to help search for the girls and provide assistance to President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

We have also sent drones to help search for the girls. (That must be why there were none left to attack the Operation American Spring protesters today. Don'tcha know?)

As for a military solution to this problem, it is pretty clear that Palin does not recognize the fact that we cannot simply swoop in with out military when ever any problem erupts around the world and immediately solve it overnight.  (Has this woman never seen Black Hawk Down?) Nor do the MAJORITY of Americans want us doing that.

And by the way, considering the mindset of these Boko Haram Islamic militants, it is almost certain that they will immediately kill these young women the minute that American troops make land fall.

As for the #BringOurGirlsBack campaign, what it has done is drawn focus to this issue and helped to apply pressure, not just to the Nigerian government, but to other government as well, which are now also offering support.

And look who DOESN'T think this is all a waste of time.

We gotta always protect our children. All cultures. #BringBackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/EdeumjmZ5F
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 11, 2014

It can’t happen soon enough. #BringBackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/Jf97fQUd7N
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) May 8, 2014

https://t.co/oAz2N9byDQ #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS Following people who RT this. Include the hashtag. Please do this.. pic.twitter.com/NCrxlJYMVy
— cody saintgnue (@CODYSAINTNEW) May 10, 2014

Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2014

#BringBackOurGirls #BringOurGirlsBack child abduction, forced marriage & excluding education from girls is wrong! pic.twitter.com/P86MNoxdmL
— Smita J (@smitaj55) May 8, 2014

By the way WHY is Palin so far behind the rest of the Right Wing attack dogs?

After all they have been mocking this campaign for several days now.

In fact some have already started mocking them back.

Ann Coulter gets turned into a joke after mocking the #BringBackOurGirls campaign: http://t.co/o1Y3pPrhMu pic.twitter.com/09SmvUdiZK
— E! News (@ENews) May 13, 2014

Here's a tip by the way.

This is NOT about taking cheap political shots at your ideological enemies. And doing so makes you look like a craven bitch.

This is about trying to help, and demonstrate solidarity, with some very frightened young women, in one of the few avenues open to us.

So yes in the end this might not do a great deal, but at least these people were doing SOMETHING.

And doing something is always better than using your time and energy to undermine the efforts of those who try.

Child bride in Nigeria uses rat poison to kill her husband and three of his friends.

10 year old Yemeni girl celebrating the granting of her divorce from her adult husband.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

A child bride forced into marriage in Nigeria killed a groom and three of his friends with a poisoned meal, police said Thursday. 

Fourteen-year-old Wasila Umaru was married last week to 35-year-old Umaru Sani, according to assistant superintendent Musa Magaji Majia. 

Over the weekend, the groom invited a dozen friends to celebrate at his Ungwar Yansoro village, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the northern city of Kano. 

The teenager told police she bought rat poison at a village market and used it to prepare a dish of rice. 

"The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love," Majia told The Associated Press. 

The groom and a friend died the same day, and two other victims died later in the hospital. 

Umaru is cooperating with police and likely will be charged with culpable homicide, according to Majia. 

Child marriage is common in Nigeria and especially in the mainly Muslim and impoverished north, where the numbers increase in times of drought because a bride price is paid and it means one less mouth to feed. Fifty percent of Nigerian girls living in rural areas are married before they turn 18, according to the U.N. children's agency. That's a lot of child brides in a country of some 170 million people of whom half are under 18.

Before I start let me point out that the young girl in the picture above is NOT the girl in this story, however she is yet another child, this one from Yemeni, who was forced into a loveless marriage as very young girl.

Fortunatley for her she was granted a divorce, the girl in this story was not given that option.

This is a particular problem in areas with large Islamic populations, partly due to the fact that their prophet, Mohammad, took his own child bride, who was only six years old at the time. (Though to be fair he showed great restraint in not taking her virginity until she as 9 years old.)

Of course this is a despicable practice that the world should condemn, and influential nations should refuse to deal with countries where it is still practiced.

It might have made sense in ancient times for girls to marry young, since life expectancies were short, and infant mortality was high, but we live in a different time today.

Today it should be viewed as an aberration and religion should not be used to justify its continued practice.

In my opinion that fourteen year old girl was a victim, and should be released as having responded to an extreme situation in the only manner left open to her. I would not even suggest jail time, as she has clearly already served her sentence.