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lees1975
lees1975's Journal
lees1975's Journal
April 8, 2024
I have no doubts that this current President, who has a remarkable string of achievements in his first term, will also be successful in his second. That depends, of course, on us giving him a Democratic majority in both houses, something that is entirely doable and looks promising. But there are a couple of things I would like to see happen in those early days of the second Biden term as President.
So the first item of business for the new Senate will be to break the filibuster. Gridlock will cease when the filibuster is gone. Republicans no longer are interested in a government that works on compromise. They are, in fact, not really interested in a working government at all. Breaking the filibuster is a way to make government work again, and since they aren't interested in bi-partisan cooperation, why should we care?
No more waiting around for a justice to kick the bucket or retire to create suspense to fill the seat. Find the most liberal judges in the federal system in the United States and get them nominated to the Supreme Court. We need at least four, why not five? And with the new court, headed in a new direction, go back and undo everything the Roberts court has done since it became a conservative majority. Everything.
Suggestions for the first 100 days of President Biden's second term.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/its-january-20-2025-president-biden-has.htmlI have no doubts that this current President, who has a remarkable string of achievements in his first term, will also be successful in his second. That depends, of course, on us giving him a Democratic majority in both houses, something that is entirely doable and looks promising. But there are a couple of things I would like to see happen in those early days of the second Biden term as President.
So the first item of business for the new Senate will be to break the filibuster. Gridlock will cease when the filibuster is gone. Republicans no longer are interested in a government that works on compromise. They are, in fact, not really interested in a working government at all. Breaking the filibuster is a way to make government work again, and since they aren't interested in bi-partisan cooperation, why should we care?
No more waiting around for a justice to kick the bucket or retire to create suspense to fill the seat. Find the most liberal judges in the federal system in the United States and get them nominated to the Supreme Court. We need at least four, why not five? And with the new court, headed in a new direction, go back and undo everything the Roberts court has done since it became a conservative majority. Everything.
April 8, 2024
Why I am not voting for Trump.
OK, that's an unusual title for a post by a Democrat here, something which should be a foregone conclusion. But this is a handy post that I can insert in social media when the Republicans and Evangelicals who are still connected to me on social media put up their right wing memes.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/why-i-am-not-voting-for-trump.html
I'm going to link this to a social media post in the hopes of clearing out some of the right wing clutter that pops up there every now and then. So I'll divide my reasons up into different categories, just to make sure there's no mistaking where I'm coming from, or why.
From my perspective as a Christian, which does have some influence over my vote, Trump loses my support on his total lack of trustworthiness. My Dad taught me to have respect for the women I dated and for the one I would eventually marry. He said that a man who would lie to, and cheat on his wife will lie to everyone else and is a deceitful, dishonest fraud.
Trump has cheated on all three wives, making him, by biblical definition, an adulterer, a cheat, a liar and a fraud. While each of his subsequent wives were "the other woman" to his previous wife, he also gleefully and proudly confessed to "hundreds" of affairs. We know of several high profile affairs, including Stormy Daniels, whom he paid off to keep silcnce in order to protect his political career. He has never apologized, shown repentance or remorse, or otherwise acknowledged his poor treatment of the women whom he married.
That kind of dishonesty and evil behavior is a disqualifier, as far as I am concerned, for a man who is seeking the highest political office in the land.
And my Dad was right about the dishonesty, cheating, lying and fraud. Trump has also disqualified himself from office as a pathological liar. That's a moral character flaw that Christians once condemned in politicians, Clinton, for example, but now seem to either gloss over and allow a pass, or they've changed their perspective, and erased the ninth commandment, along with the sixth, from the biblical text.
April 6, 2024
If the intention of those using the primary votes as a means of "getting the President's attention," or protesting his position on the Israeli-Hamas war, that's one thing. But there needs to be a whole lot more clarity from those who are doing this regarding their message, and their intentions. And if the message they are sending is an ultimatum, that if he doesn't do exactly what they think he ought to do, they will not vote for him in November, then they are making a grave mistake that they will come to regret fairly quickly if Trump wins the election in November.
Those who articulating the content of these protests are all over the place in their messaging. What is their ultimate aim? Are they genuinely interested in stopping the bombing and the attacks that are killing civilians, including women and children, in Gaza, or are they more interested in punishing the President because he's not doing what they think he should be doing? Frankly, from much of the rhetoric, including from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, it sounds more like they're interested in political gain for themselves, and they're using what's happening in Gaza as a means to get it.
If they really are interested in helping the people of Gaza, then they need to communicate that. There needs to be an acknowledgement, first of all, that in order to achieve this end, they absolutely know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, they must turn out, like all other Democratic constituencies must turn out in November, and re-elect President Joe Biden. Because if he is not re-elected, Gaza will become a desolate ruin, its 2 million residents will become refugees scattered all over the world, or shoved out into the Sinai to become some other country's problem, and anyone who stays behind will be bombed into oblivion. That's what Netanyahu and the far right in Israel want, and that aligns perfectly with what Trump wants.
If the primary "protest vote" to pressure Biden on Israel carries over to November, Gaza is doomed to destruction
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/democrats-cannot-afford-to-turn-israeli.htmlIf the intention of those using the primary votes as a means of "getting the President's attention," or protesting his position on the Israeli-Hamas war, that's one thing. But there needs to be a whole lot more clarity from those who are doing this regarding their message, and their intentions. And if the message they are sending is an ultimatum, that if he doesn't do exactly what they think he ought to do, they will not vote for him in November, then they are making a grave mistake that they will come to regret fairly quickly if Trump wins the election in November.
Those who articulating the content of these protests are all over the place in their messaging. What is their ultimate aim? Are they genuinely interested in stopping the bombing and the attacks that are killing civilians, including women and children, in Gaza, or are they more interested in punishing the President because he's not doing what they think he should be doing? Frankly, from much of the rhetoric, including from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, it sounds more like they're interested in political gain for themselves, and they're using what's happening in Gaza as a means to get it.
If they really are interested in helping the people of Gaza, then they need to communicate that. There needs to be an acknowledgement, first of all, that in order to achieve this end, they absolutely know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, they must turn out, like all other Democratic constituencies must turn out in November, and re-elect President Joe Biden. Because if he is not re-elected, Gaza will become a desolate ruin, its 2 million residents will become refugees scattered all over the world, or shoved out into the Sinai to become some other country's problem, and anyone who stays behind will be bombed into oblivion. That's what Netanyahu and the far right in Israel want, and that aligns perfectly with what Trump wants.
April 5, 2024
The little guys are getting sent to prison. Why isn't our Justice Department going after perps like these two Arizona Congressmen, and the other Republicans involved in fake elector schemes and the insurrection?
Do they think it will look to political?
Why aren't Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs facing prosecution with other January 6th conspirators and criminals?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/04/biggs-gosar-arizona-subpoenas-00150416The little guys are getting sent to prison. Why isn't our Justice Department going after perps like these two Arizona Congressmen, and the other Republicans involved in fake elector schemes and the insurrection?
Do they think it will look to political?
April 4, 2024
Go ahead, single-issue vote the Gaza War and see how that helps your cause.
Turning the Gaza War into a political liability for President Biden is perhaps the most ignorant, idiotic, stupid, self-defeating political act a Democrat can commit.
There's some real stupid stuff circulating around, more than likely interjected from Republican or Russian sources on the Gaza War aimed at stirring up trouble. If you're buying it, and that's going to be the single-issue that keeps you home in November, or leads you to vote for some third party candidate, and gets Trump elected, then you need to check your toilet because you've pooped your brains out somewhere along the way.
What the hell do you want him to do? He can't cut off aid to Israel with a majority Republican house. Remember, Trump got impeached the first time for messing with aid to Ukraine that Congress had already appropriated. He can't dictate foreign policy to a sovereign nation. He is putting pressure on Netanyahu, and it is having an effect, as the responses would indicate.
So do something really stupid and idiotic by staying home in protest, or voting third party and making sure the orange headed buffoon gets back in the White House. That will accelerate the bombing to make it possible for Trump's son in law to build his condo complex on the beach where Gaza used to be.
Good luck with that.
April 3, 2024
Now this man is selling Bibles. When this man does that, he is literally — as the very Bible itself says — exchanging “the truth of God for a lie,” a sin that itself is only one among a list as long as your arm. Anyone looking would know this man has repeatedly committed several of the sins we are admonished against in the Bible and still does so shamelessly to this day, while saying he has nothing for which to ask God for forgiveness.
Just in case you can’t be bothered to pause reading here to go read Romans, here are only a few of the sins people do while exchanging the truth of God for a lie: sexual immorality, envy, strife, malice, slander, deceit, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, and “they invent ways of doing evil, … they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
Has so-called evangelist Franklin Graham, who asks people to pray the words, “Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sins,” ever heard this man confess these sins which the whole world, including Graham, has seen him repeatedly commit? Has he not heard this man say he has nothing to confess? So why does Graham still support, yea, revere, this man for president knowing this man remains unrepentant?
"I won't buy his truth or his Bible!"
https://baptistnews.com/article/i-wont-buy-his-truth-or-his-bible/Now this man is selling Bibles. When this man does that, he is literally — as the very Bible itself says — exchanging “the truth of God for a lie,” a sin that itself is only one among a list as long as your arm. Anyone looking would know this man has repeatedly committed several of the sins we are admonished against in the Bible and still does so shamelessly to this day, while saying he has nothing for which to ask God for forgiveness.
Just in case you can’t be bothered to pause reading here to go read Romans, here are only a few of the sins people do while exchanging the truth of God for a lie: sexual immorality, envy, strife, malice, slander, deceit, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, and “they invent ways of doing evil, … they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
Has so-called evangelist Franklin Graham, who asks people to pray the words, “Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sins,” ever heard this man confess these sins which the whole world, including Graham, has seen him repeatedly commit? Has he not heard this man say he has nothing to confess? So why does Graham still support, yea, revere, this man for president knowing this man remains unrepentant?
April 3, 2024
Can polls be manipulated? I believe they can be. So does Jen Psaki and Nicole Wallace. So I am in good company.
At the moment, while I still believe there's been polling manipulation from somewhere on the Trump side of the campaign, because those numbers seem to be his personal nourishment and encouragement, and he exaggerates them as bragging points in his speeches, there is evidence that the polling data may be off by a fairly significant amount. Real polls are now showing up all over the place in the form of primary elections, and special elections.
It's hard to poll primaries, since candidates shift and things change quickly, but if I were going to take a look at primary results and get a perspective of "voter enthusiasm," if I were advising the Trump campaign right now, I would be panicking. In actual voter exit polls, and in the ballots Republican voters are casting, the presumptive nominee of the party, a former President and one who has been the clear front-runner since the start, is not getting anywhere close to the number of votes he needs to demonstrate a level of voter enthusiasm anywhere close to what the current President is getting.
The Trump campaign has obviously noticed it. He's now promising his Evangelical constituents the favored religion status they've always thought they deserved. Clearly, he thinks that's where he needs to shore up his support, and that's where he's leaking votes. So they believe the exit polls and are watching the primary results, in spite of claiming that they're huge victories. Haley is no longer running, and is not a threat to his nomination, but she got 12% of the vote in Wisconsin last night, in spite of his making an appearance and holding a rally at a half-filled venue in Green Bay.
I can read between the lines.
"Real" Polls, as in elections, are good news for President Biden
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/good-news-for-president-biden-in-real.htmlCan polls be manipulated? I believe they can be. So does Jen Psaki and Nicole Wallace. So I am in good company.
At the moment, while I still believe there's been polling manipulation from somewhere on the Trump side of the campaign, because those numbers seem to be his personal nourishment and encouragement, and he exaggerates them as bragging points in his speeches, there is evidence that the polling data may be off by a fairly significant amount. Real polls are now showing up all over the place in the form of primary elections, and special elections.
It's hard to poll primaries, since candidates shift and things change quickly, but if I were going to take a look at primary results and get a perspective of "voter enthusiasm," if I were advising the Trump campaign right now, I would be panicking. In actual voter exit polls, and in the ballots Republican voters are casting, the presumptive nominee of the party, a former President and one who has been the clear front-runner since the start, is not getting anywhere close to the number of votes he needs to demonstrate a level of voter enthusiasm anywhere close to what the current President is getting.
The Trump campaign has obviously noticed it. He's now promising his Evangelical constituents the favored religion status they've always thought they deserved. Clearly, he thinks that's where he needs to shore up his support, and that's where he's leaking votes. So they believe the exit polls and are watching the primary results, in spite of claiming that they're huge victories. Haley is no longer running, and is not a threat to his nomination, but she got 12% of the vote in Wisconsin last night, in spite of his making an appearance and holding a rally at a half-filled venue in Green Bay.
I can read between the lines.
April 3, 2024
Current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is an Evangelical Christian from Louisiana, a member of one of Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Lousiana. In August of 2010, he was named the founding dean of the Pressler School of Law at Louisiana College, a school owned by Louisiana Southern Baptists. The school never opened, and Johnson resigned in 2012. The college's president, Joe Aguillard, blamed the school's failure on Johnson's resignation.
But there's a little bit of a back story here. The Pressler School of Law is named for Paul Pressler, a now-retired Texas appeals court judge, known as one of the "architects" of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, a ten-year denominational political effort to "restore" the denomination to its "conservative roots" by political maneuvering to elect a series of presidents with appointive powers to ensure that only theological conservatives who believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible would be appointed as trustees to the denomination's entities and seminaries. This would ensure that the professors who were hired, and the missionaries who were appointed, all held the doctrinal belief in biblical inerrancy and infallibility.
--------------
I'm not aware of a direct connection between Johnson and Pressler, though Johnson served as a trustee of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at the same time Pressler was active in denominational bureaucracy. Southern Baptist leaders are finally coming to accept evidence from at least two lawsuits pointing to Pressler having been involved in incidents of sexual abuse of young men, including from the youth group of the church that he had once led, and associates from the law firm in which he was a partner with an attorney named Jared Woodfill.
Johnson has kept silence on his tenure at the Baptist law school, and hasn't commented on the evidence of sexual abuse coming from the settled lawsuits against Pressler. That seems strange, for a high profile politician like Johnson, whose conservative views are far right hard line, especially against LGBTQ persons. I would think he'd want to clear his record of any possible association with the Pressler name, especially considering the nature of the allegations, the evidence which includes the leadership of Pressler's church, First Baptist of Houston, acknowledging his inappropriate behavior and taking disciplinary action which eventually caused him to join a different church.
House Speaker Johnson was Dean of a law school named after a Baptist leader and alleged male sexual predator
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/house-speaker-mike-johnson-served-as.htmlCurrent Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is an Evangelical Christian from Louisiana, a member of one of Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Lousiana. In August of 2010, he was named the founding dean of the Pressler School of Law at Louisiana College, a school owned by Louisiana Southern Baptists. The school never opened, and Johnson resigned in 2012. The college's president, Joe Aguillard, blamed the school's failure on Johnson's resignation.
But there's a little bit of a back story here. The Pressler School of Law is named for Paul Pressler, a now-retired Texas appeals court judge, known as one of the "architects" of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, a ten-year denominational political effort to "restore" the denomination to its "conservative roots" by political maneuvering to elect a series of presidents with appointive powers to ensure that only theological conservatives who believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible would be appointed as trustees to the denomination's entities and seminaries. This would ensure that the professors who were hired, and the missionaries who were appointed, all held the doctrinal belief in biblical inerrancy and infallibility.
--------------
I'm not aware of a direct connection between Johnson and Pressler, though Johnson served as a trustee of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at the same time Pressler was active in denominational bureaucracy. Southern Baptist leaders are finally coming to accept evidence from at least two lawsuits pointing to Pressler having been involved in incidents of sexual abuse of young men, including from the youth group of the church that he had once led, and associates from the law firm in which he was a partner with an attorney named Jared Woodfill.
Johnson has kept silence on his tenure at the Baptist law school, and hasn't commented on the evidence of sexual abuse coming from the settled lawsuits against Pressler. That seems strange, for a high profile politician like Johnson, whose conservative views are far right hard line, especially against LGBTQ persons. I would think he'd want to clear his record of any possible association with the Pressler name, especially considering the nature of the allegations, the evidence which includes the leadership of Pressler's church, First Baptist of Houston, acknowledging his inappropriate behavior and taking disciplinary action which eventually caused him to join a different church.
April 2, 2024
I stopped listening to WCPT, which is the progressive talk radio station in Chicago, on my morning commute because the host, Santita Jackson, daughter of Rev. Jesse Jackson, started pushing for third party candidates, and got a bee in her bonnet about everything she perceived Biden wasn't doing for the far left. She missed the point when it came to understanding that if Democrats waste their votes on minor, third partiers who will do absolutely nothing except fail to get elected, Trump wins and her causes not only lose, they lose big and will likely be wiped out. I tried calling one morning with that thought in mind and as soon as I went there, I got shut down and, click, that was it. So I stopped listening, and I sent an email to the station telling them so.
A couple of months later, when I got in the car, I had been listening to Devil's Advocate the evening before, a show out of Madison, Wisconsin that they carry, and I heard a new voice, Richard Chew, who has taken the approach that every community constituency, whether Asian, Latino, Black, Muslim, or liberal white, needs to unite behind Biden and make sure he is re-elected if they want to see anything change for them, and that the idea of being a "conservative" black, or latino, or whatever, is ridiculous in light of Trump's very visible racism and contempt for any of them. He will not do anything they want, and will likely work to make them the second class citizens that the far right thinks they are. This morning, he was particularly on point. So, WCPT, I'm back during that morning commute.
And THANK YOU!
Here's a link for those of you who don't live where you can get a progressive, sensible, real media radio station.
https://heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820/#google_vignette
Here's a media personality who gets it!
https://heartlandsignal.com/programs/chewviews-with-richard-chew/I stopped listening to WCPT, which is the progressive talk radio station in Chicago, on my morning commute because the host, Santita Jackson, daughter of Rev. Jesse Jackson, started pushing for third party candidates, and got a bee in her bonnet about everything she perceived Biden wasn't doing for the far left. She missed the point when it came to understanding that if Democrats waste their votes on minor, third partiers who will do absolutely nothing except fail to get elected, Trump wins and her causes not only lose, they lose big and will likely be wiped out. I tried calling one morning with that thought in mind and as soon as I went there, I got shut down and, click, that was it. So I stopped listening, and I sent an email to the station telling them so.
A couple of months later, when I got in the car, I had been listening to Devil's Advocate the evening before, a show out of Madison, Wisconsin that they carry, and I heard a new voice, Richard Chew, who has taken the approach that every community constituency, whether Asian, Latino, Black, Muslim, or liberal white, needs to unite behind Biden and make sure he is re-elected if they want to see anything change for them, and that the idea of being a "conservative" black, or latino, or whatever, is ridiculous in light of Trump's very visible racism and contempt for any of them. He will not do anything they want, and will likely work to make them the second class citizens that the far right thinks they are. This morning, he was particularly on point. So, WCPT, I'm back during that morning commute.
And THANK YOU!
Here's a link for those of you who don't live where you can get a progressive, sensible, real media radio station.
https://heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820/#google_vignette
April 2, 2024
As the news about the "Trump Bible" spreads, someone posted on social media that there's some real irony in Trump selling Bibles containing American foundational documents that he completely ignored while planning and conducting an insurrection against the United States, in order to deny the peaceful transfer of power, provided for in one of those documents. He's put everything he ignores into one volume.
Well, I thought that was funny.
Then there's the thought that Christians raise millions of dollars every year to have Bibles printed in order to distribute them as widely as possible, translated into as many languages as possible, and that any genuinely Christian billionaire would be giving Bibles away, not selling them. But here we have Trump, who is a make-a-buck opportunist when it comes to selling just about anything, profiting off the King James translation, because it is copyright free, and using the proceeds to pay legal expenses, including for defending him against rape, insurrection, stealing classified documents, intimidating election workers and trying to steal a presidential election. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of authoritative words in that Bible against everything he is using it to try to defend.
If you need a Bible, you can get a nice one for free, from just about any church in America. If you buy this one, you're helping make a mockery out of the faith you claim to believe in. Frankly, this borders on blasphemy. It is, at the very least, peddling the gospel for profit, something Jesus condemned, in his words which are recorded in that very Bible.
The Trump Bible is just another mockery in a long line of mockery of Christianity by MAGA
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/maga-trump-made-mockery-of-christianity.htmlAs the news about the "Trump Bible" spreads, someone posted on social media that there's some real irony in Trump selling Bibles containing American foundational documents that he completely ignored while planning and conducting an insurrection against the United States, in order to deny the peaceful transfer of power, provided for in one of those documents. He's put everything he ignores into one volume.
Well, I thought that was funny.
Then there's the thought that Christians raise millions of dollars every year to have Bibles printed in order to distribute them as widely as possible, translated into as many languages as possible, and that any genuinely Christian billionaire would be giving Bibles away, not selling them. But here we have Trump, who is a make-a-buck opportunist when it comes to selling just about anything, profiting off the King James translation, because it is copyright free, and using the proceeds to pay legal expenses, including for defending him against rape, insurrection, stealing classified documents, intimidating election workers and trying to steal a presidential election. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of authoritative words in that Bible against everything he is using it to try to defend.
If you need a Bible, you can get a nice one for free, from just about any church in America. If you buy this one, you're helping make a mockery out of the faith you claim to believe in. Frankly, this borders on blasphemy. It is, at the very least, peddling the gospel for profit, something Jesus condemned, in his words which are recorded in that very Bible.
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Gender: MaleHometown: Tucson, Arizona
Current location: Chicago, Illinois
Member since: Wed Dec 25, 2019, 01:02 AM
Number of posts: 3,888
