Horrible and brutal campaign to force the country into to a fanatic Christian theocracy. How is this different from ISIS? This is all being done with either a blind eye from the right wing Christian government or with the government’s permission. Is this the world we are coming to, violent thugs enforcing their ancient religions by force because being tolerant of any idea or way other than their own is unacceptable to them. Hugs
Jesus said “turn the other cheek,” but an evangelical Christian group called “Soldiers of Jesus” is taking over large swaths of Brazil, threatening religious minorities with death if they don’t convert. The Washington Post‘s Terrence McCoy has the disturbing story:
Priests have been killed. Children have been stoned. An elderly woman was seriously injured. Death threats and taunts are common. Gangs are unfurling the flag of Israel, a nation seen by some evangelicals as necessary to bringing about the return of Christ.
All of this is bolstered by a right-wing government that came into power on the backs of evangelical Christians who weren’t bothered enough by the blatant cruelty of President Jair Bolsonaro and a rise in Christian programming in the media that routinely paints non-Christians as villains. (It all sounds very familiar.)
These gangs in particular have broken into people’s homes, forcing them at gunpoint to destroy religious items that aren’t Christian. Religious leaders who practice a non-Christian faith have been forced to shut down their houses of worship or face death. So far, over 200 of these temples have been forced to close. There is no sign of this persecution stopping any time soon.
As Rev Karen Clark Ristine said, Jesus, Mary and Joseph were “the most well-known refugee family in the world. What if this family sought refuge in our country today? Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center.”
A separate nativity inside the church reunites the family. Nearly 70,000 children were imprisoned by the US government for seeking asylum in 2019.
Current conservative US Christians would call a modern-Jesus an infestation and an illegal, and the NRA would market guns to protect yourself from people like Jesus.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is withholding an additional $8 billion in unmet needs disaster relief from Puerto Rico—two times the amount the department is already illegally delaying—and Congress wants answers.
As a result, Democrats are contemplating whether Congress may need to explore more “drastic moves” to force HUD to release one portion of the money and to provide answers for the other. Lawmakers are considering suing the agency or—the more likely scenario—using the appropriations process to defund a portion of the federal agency.
HUD has illegally withheld—which the department has acknowledged—roughly $10 billion in mitigation funds from Puerto Rico for 3 months, money that is meant to beef up its infrastructure in anticipation of future devastating storms.
Thursday marked more than three months since HUD was supposed to begin the process of allowing Puerto Rico to apply for one of the withheld aid batches—about $10 billion—and 22 months since the funds were signed into law.
Pitlyk fits the mold of many of President Donald Trump’s court picks: young, white and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers’ group that has served as a pipeline for judges for this White House. Most Federalist Society-backed nominees also tend to have records of opposing abortion, LGBTQ rights and voting rights.
In private practice and in her work at the Thomas More Society, Pitlyk built a clear record of attacking reproductive rights. She defended anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, who broke federal and state laws by secretly recording and deceptively editing videos that falsely claimed to expose Planned Parenthood’s illegal sale of fetal tissue. She defended Iowa’s six-week abortion ban that was later struck down as unconstitutional. In another case, Pitlyk argued that it is “scientific fact” that “human life begins at the moment when a human sperm fertilizes a human egg.” (It is not scientific fact.)
After losing that case, Pitlyk lamented that “the trial court’s judgment treated the embryonic children as inanimate objects, not human beings with the same interests as other unborn children.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Pitlyk also filed multiple legal briefs with misinformation about fertility treatments, including the claim that children conceived by IVF have “higher rates of birth defects, genetic disorders and other anomalies.”
Remember it appears that tRump’s former lawyer went to help Franklin with possible nude pictures another person had of his wife. In other words tRump ahs blackmail on him. Hugs
Speaking to a roomful of police officers and prosecutors on Tuesday, Attorney General William P. Barr drew a parallel between protests against soldiers during the Vietnam War and demonstrations against law enforcement today. But this time, he suggested, those who don’t show “respect” to authority could lose access to police services.
“Today, the American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers. And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves,” Barr said in pointed remarks delivered at a Justice Department ceremony to honor police officers.
Barr added that “if communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”
The scandals, the leaks, the outrages, and the bizarre tweets of the last three years can distract from an important fact about President Donald Trump: He has changed policy in ways that affect the lives of millions of Americans.
But he’s gone further. While the media, understandably, focuses on Trump’s many scandals, his administration has quietly enacted a far more aggressive agenda than his Republican predecessors. Big boosts to fossil fuel production have come at the expense of an unprecedented deterioration in air quality. Tens of thousands of people have lost health insurance by administrative fiat, and millions are in the process of losing their nutritional assistance through the same mechanism. He’s remade the judiciary, installing conservative judges at twice Obama’s pace, and he’s consolidated a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that may endure for decades.
I am a 56 year old gay man who has been very lucky in life. Life is an adventure and I live it that way. I am in a long term married relationship with a wonderful man I adore. We are starting our 30th year together.
As everyone may know I support a bunch of causes. I sometimes pull stuff off the web I believe to be open to doing so. I always give credit when and where possible and I include the link to the original. If someone has a legitimate right to something posted, and you ( they ) wish it removed, simply email me at the email address above. I will removed items belonging to others that they do not wish posted here gladly, however I will not remove content simple because it is disliked or the cause it supports is against someones wishes. If your wish is to get me to removed content you simply dislike but don't own, I will not remove it. If you can show me that you do own the rights to something, I will be more than happy to remove it. Again this requires you to write me an email stating what item(s) in question, your ownership, and a request to remove it. I will respond to all such requests given sufficient time. Thanks and good surfing to you.
