History Made: South Africa Takes Israel To Court

South Africa presented it’s case, an 84-page filing, at the ICJ for why Israel is in violation of international humanitarian law.

Gov Abbott And The Only Thing They’re Not Doing At The Border

Let’s talk about Texas and chains of command….

No end in sight as Israel-Hamas war hits 100-day mark

Media call this a war.  It is not.  It is a slaughter, it is a state-driven terrorism with the goal of genocide, against a people with no air force or anti-missile technology to help them.  They are sitting ducks in a pen, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to fight back.  The Gaza civilians, women and children are not Hamas, they have no weapons to fight with.  All they can do is suffer and die.   Israel tries to justify it saying they were attacked, Hamas started.  One boy hits another boy doesn’t give the struck boy the right to kill the other boy’s entire family and neighborhood.  Israel lies about allowing food and other aid into Gaza because it is about causing as much hurt, pain, and destruction as possible.  The Israeli government think they are above any attempts to stop them and have the right to do what ever they want to anyone they like.   We need to show them they are wrong.   Hugs.  Scottie 

With the Israel-Hamas war entering its 100th day, there is growing international concern about the increasing civilian death toll in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue the assault. Meanwhile, vigils were held in Israel in support of those who remain held hostage in Gaza. Charlie D’Agata reports.

100 days of Israel-Hamas war: AP looks at conflict’s impact on the region

Over 23,000 Palestinians dead, about 11,000 are children, most of the rest are women.  There are an estimated 2 million people homeless and displaced, with no shelter or food in the winter cold and rain.  Israel said it won’t stop, it says it will continue what it is doing all through 2024.  Their plan is for an incredible dense small area reservation tightly controlled by Israel, which hopes to force the Palestinians to become so desperate they will either overwhelm the Egyptian border or die off and leaving until there are no Palestinians left.  Israel has said they are working to force deport the all Palestinians from Gaza and the West bank.  This is a land grab genocide by Israel.   Different officials in the government admit it.  Bibi brags about knifing the US in the back as he has demanded more money, he laughs as he claims he prevented any attempt to form a two-state solution.  He is as racist against Palestinians as republicans are toward brown people.  Hugs.  Scottie

Now 100 days old, the latest Israel-Hamas war is by far the longest, bloodiest, and most destructive conflict between the bitter enemies.

NBC NEWS: Fears grow that Trump will use the military in ‘dictatorial ways’ if he returns to the White House

Fears grow that Trump will use the military in ‘dictatorial ways’ if he returns to the White House
Among those being mentioned for Trump’s secretary of defense are Christopher Miller, who served temporarily during his administration, Michael Flynn and Mike Pompeo.

Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AODmrba4rSg-F1V1NMkmpSA

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

ABC NEWS: Book ban lawsuit moves forward as Florida district removes over 1,000 titles

Book ban lawsuit moves forward as Florida district removes over 1,000 titles
More than 1,000 book titles are under review.

Read in ABC News: https://apple.news/AkY5SL2sfSpCbQ3_tRsRYoA

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

The Text Messages Between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows

Thanks to https://poodyheads.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/the-text-messages-between-ginni-thomas-and-mark-meadows/ for the link.   Hugs.  Scottie

TX GOP Chair Worked For Funder Of Extremist Group

This goes along with my last post, Christian take over of the US pushed by Churches, leaders with money, and wealthy older people who see it as a way to enforce their bigotry to remain a white cis straight 1950s society.   I really want to emphasize the hard right bigotry and hate these billionaires have and the changes they are making to society.  They fund the very rabid right wing media that is trying hard to change all of our society and political leanings, increasing hate for LGBTQIA and hate against blacks / brown people.   They push a pro Christian white cis straight male in charge of society.    Dunn & Wilks also control influential legal, policy, & advocacy organizations. One of those orgs argued in court that pharmacies shouldn’t sell birth control. The lawyer who argued that case later became a federal judge. He banned the abortion pill.   And they’ve even created their own right-wing media bubble. Dunn & Wilks fund Texas Scorecard, the top far-right publication. Wilks owns the Daily Wire and bankrolls PragerU, a right-wing “education” platform they’re trying to force into our schools.   Prager U is now being used in red state public schools as instruction materials.  Florida pushes their message hard.  There is a serious push by really wealthy old Christian bigots to turn the US into a Christian Iran, a Christian Saudi Arabia, a Christian Afghanistan.  Do we the poor majority want to allow this?  Hugs.  Scottie

 
 

January 13, 2024

The Texas Tribune reports:

For more than three months, Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi has vigorously attacked critics of Defend Texas Liberty, and rebuffed calls to distance the state party from the powerful group over its ties to white supremacists. As he did so, Rinaldi was also working as an attorney for one of the group’s two billionaire funders, Farris Wilks, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Since 2021, Wilks has given nearly $5 million to Defend Texas Liberty, which last year was the state party’s largest financial supporter. With Rinaldi’s help, the group has sought to purge the Texas GOP of more moderate voices by bankrolling far-right causes and primary candidates. Publicly, Rinaldi has also been silent about Defend Texas Liberty as the Tribune extensively reported on ties between the group and other white supremacists and Nick Fuentes acolytes.

Read the full article. There’s much more. Give the tweets below a minute to fully load because they illuminate how deep this goes. The final tweet links to a grimly fascinating deep dive into Defend Texas Liberty’s leader.

 

 

Dunn and Wilkes made their billions from fracking.

Y’know that old saw that goes, “If you enter a room and there are 12 Nazis having dinner at the table and you sit down to join them, there are now 13 Nazis at the table”?

Rinaldi, Dunn, Wilks, Strickland and the rest of these guys are the ones who catered the meal.

Two billionaires funding right wing hate groups and Nazis. And both are pastors.

Who said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then it is for a Richmond to enter the kingdom of heaven?

Who said the greatest commandment after loving God was loving your neighbor?

Who said not to store up treasures on earth?

no one of any importance whatsoever to modern fundamentalist Christianity. One could almost wish that they succeed turning Texas into a theocracy and the right wing state. Maybe they can leave the union.

I think it reveals that they don’t even believe their religious nuttery. They just want to use superstition and money to control EVERYTHING, and they also think they’re so smart that no one will pick up on the hypocrisy

The problem is they won’t leave the Union. They will just continue to spread their shit and disease to the rest of America. It’s happening now

Actually, they are heretic “Christians”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Wilks’ parents founded their own church (cult?), which denies Christian doctrines like the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, and gives primacy to the Hebrew Scriptures. While they seem to recognize Jesus as a prophet of some sort, they don’t seem to be bound to follow his teachings.

Is there a republican who is not an extremest at this point?

If they’re not actively Nazis, they’re Nazi adjacent or Nazi tolerant.

They are all Nazis.

And look! Wilks is the pastor of his own church cult.
Currently the Assembly of Yahweh (7th day) is a conservative Jews for Jesus-type congregation. It teaches that “the true religion is Jewish (not a Gentile religion)” and its members celebrate the Old Testament holidays rather than those related to the New Testament. The congregation considers the Old Testament historically and scientifically accurate.

So, a white supremacist group is funded by white supremacist billionaires. And the TX GQP chair closely worked with one of them.

That perfectly explains why the Texas GQP refuses to disassociate from Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis.

I’m beginning to think the klan has been very active in Texas for a very long time.

Sheesh. 😯

I’d take all of the left’s so-called “radicals” over ANY of the right’s extremists or Christian Nationalists.

 

 

 

Sen. Josh Hawley Goes Full Christian Nationalist

By my dogs that love gravy, we must stop this Christian attack on the secular state of our country.  This people are desperately misinformed yet have worked their way into power and money.   They want a minority Christian rule over the majority using moral police and a Christian Taliban.  This is a full out take over of the US by a driven religious group who are starting from the wrong premise and building a movement out of it.  We have already seen how they want to base our laws on medical care on their religion, even if they don’t know what their religion says about the subject.   I am talking about banning abortion, but also marriage, adoption, gender affirming care for trans people, and yes even what materials can be read by your students and what can be taught them.   Hugs.  Scottie  


January 13, 2024

Sen. Josh Hawley writes for First Things:

America as a Christian nation—that’s a heretical notion by today’s lights. We are a secular country, the experts have insisted—demanded—for decades. But that was never true. The Founders read Roman historians, yes. Some were influenced by Enlightenment philosophies.

But the Bible has been the main source of our national ideals. From the age of the New England Puritans to the Great Awakening that prepared the ground for revolution, Scripture has molded our common life from the first. Consider:

Our ideal of the individual has Christian roots. So too does our constitutionalism. Our great traditions of progressive reform were animated by an ardent Christian spirit—as was conservative resistance to their excesses. Even in our most bitter conflicts, Christian culture has been America’s common ground.

Read the full essay.

It goes on for several thousand words.

 

From the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams

“the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
 

I’m really starting to HATE christians. I’ve known very few who actually walk the walk, and you sure don’t need a religion to do the right thing. In fact religious people will do the WRONG thing because of their religion.

I avoid them completely. Conversation starters like ‘tell me about your relationship with Jesus’, or any phrase that includes ‘sharing the good news’ have me running for the hills. There are good christians out there, they just don’t announce it to everyone because they are too busy being good christians. Wish there were more of them.

 

Of all the bullshit lines I’ve got hit with, my fave was “What’s YOUR form of worship?” asked in a tone making it very obvious her assumption was that of course no one is without a form of worship.

it’s interesting — even Joe Scarbourough, brought up S. Baptist has been saying for awhile now how that church, and other evangelical ones coopted the abortion issue in the Carter presidency … and turned those churches into the political (.. i’ll call them “clubs” ) that they are —devoid of any real Christian meaning.

Yes, it was the 1973 Supreme Court decision on tax exemption of religious organizations (Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v Nyquist) that got all of this rolling. It has always been about money and power.

That’s b/c the republican establishment knew that their platform of tax cuts for millionaires/billionaires along with corporations was a losing strategy. They knew that by renewing the horrid “southern strategy” that nixon made use of while allowing evangelicals a voice in dictating social wedge issues (abortion, gay rights), republicans would remain popular amongst low-info as well as suburban voters.

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And make the churches pay for it!

It’s for its own protection, after all.

Minor quibble: That wall was built over 200 years ago.

Ya, and they’ve been trying to tear it down ever since!

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I’m just going to post this. Someone might have done this before me but just in case…..

Like their elections, if they don’t get the desired result they get so over. Because only 4 of the founding fathers clearly pointed out that there should be a separation of church and state ,They have taken it upon themselves to say “ not a majority “ so we will force our agenda

[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

James Madison

James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin’s Letter, Yates’s Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of ’98-’99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.204

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia: From 1730, to 1740; and from 1768, to 1772”, p.140

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion. John Adams

Article 1 of the Treat of Tripoli.

If you want to see what a “Christian America” that Josh Hawley talks about looks like, look no further than Mississippi, where Evangelical Christianity is thoroughly infused in it’s government. It been that way for a long time. As I mentioned below, it’s also dead last or near dead last in every economic and social measurement, including high poverty, poor education, terrible health care outcomes, infant mortality, low wages… you name it. Josh Hawley and his fellow Christianists want to replicate Mississippi all over America.

 

Missouri, which Hawley represents, isn’t much better.

Yes. It is unclear to me how the state districts are gerrymandered, but I am sure that they must be. MO never seems to have any competitive state-wide offices, though. This is a big change from past decades.

Those people from red counties are happy enough to come to the blue big city hospitals for their medical care.

Tate Reeves doesn’t want to accept federal funding to feed free lunch-eligible children a lunch during summer break. Super Christian – let them go hungry. That’s Mississippi.

my response to his X: “Dear Josh — read the US Constitution, read Geo Washington’s Letter to the Touro Synagogue, and read the Treaty of Tripoli (circa 1802)

you are Wrong, you are a coward, and you are the worst sort of traitor to the United States of America …’

A truly Christian economy is void of money and not made it the sole motivation of one’s existence. Greed is a sin. A good job is helping the poor and welcoming those in need to one’s home to house and feed without the intention of enslaving them for the free labor.
What kind of fucking Christian is he?

A true Christian economy would not charge interest, for starters.

And there would be jubilee every few years to forgive debt.
How many Rethugs are loath to forgive their children’s education debt?
How many of them work hard to give bankers the upper hand in all negotiations.

“Christian” is a meaningless label. People hide behind it for causes both noble and vile.