AverageOldGuy
AverageOldGuy's JournalIs Jack Smith the re-incarnation of Pontius Pilate?
I swear this really happened yesterday.
I live in a rural Virginia county that votes 65 % Rep, 35% Dem in local, state, and Congressional elections and voted 70 and 72% for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
I am on a county board with two Republicans. We were meeting yesterday, I stepped into an adjoining room to take care of something while they stayed in our small meeting room. I could overhear their conversation.
These are two retired professional men -- one retired Army colonel, the other a retired business executive. They were talking between themselves about how Trump is being treated like Jesus, with Pontius Pilate bringing phony charges against him. They continued in that vein, with the comparisons of Trump with Jesus and Jack Smith to Pontius Pilate, even after I returned to the room, sat down and listened to them.
They did not ask my opinion and I did not volunteer one. These people are in a dangerous cult and "The Donald" (as they call him) is serving them Kool-Aid.
"The Young Guns" . . . or should it read "Misfire" ?
Remember this:
". . . A New Generation of Conservative Leaders" . . .
"Morning Joe"
Am I the only one who, after many months, has quit MSNBC's "Morning Joe" solely because of Joe Scarborough?
The other regulars on the show get to the point, explain the background of what's being discussed, and generally provide useful background and commentary. Scarborough, on the other hand, is all about "Uh, Uh, well, . . . " Watch the faces of the others on the show, especially Mika -- they seem to be waiting for him to STFU.
Willie Geist should have his own show.
Today, according to the email I received, I won:
-- A TEMU pallet. Three times.
-- A Braun Series 9 Pro electric shaver from CVS.
-- $500 Costco gift card.
-- $500 Kroger gift card.
-- An Apple mystery box.
-- A TactiStaff 15-in-1 hiking stick. As used by US Army Special Forces.
-- An Apple iPhone 14 Pro from AT&T.
-- A hunting bow from Bass Pro Shop. Three times.
-- $100 gift card from Southwest Airlines.
-- Another TEMU pallet.
-- $90 Hilton rewards.
-- Another TEMU pallet.
-- $100 gift card from US Postal Service.
-- Another Apple mystery box.
-- LeCreuset cook set from Costco.
-- $90 gift card from JC Penney.
All I need to do is answer a survey and provide a credit card number.
From US News and World Report:
I'm betting it's well over 85%. I go days without receiving one useful email.
Q: WTF is "TEMU"? A: Just another scam
A couple of weeks ago my email inbox and email trash inbox started receiving 10 to 20 messages per day, something about "you have won a TEMU pallet". All I had to do to claim my "TEMU pallet" was click on . . . . and I stopped reading at that point.
The TEMU emails continue to roll in, so, today I asked Google "What is TEMU?" Here's the answer from Time magazine.
https://time.com/6243738/temu-app-complaints/
Temu offers steep discounts on a slew of products, mostly shipped directly from Chinese factories or warehouses. In addition to incredibly low prices, Temu can no doubt attribute its popularity to its strategy of giving free stuff to users who promote the app on their social networks and get friends and family to sign up. (My highlight)
But the company—the U.S. offshoot of Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo—is also starting to develop a reputation for undelivered packages, mysterious charges, incorrect orders, and unresponsive customer service. Temu has already been subject to more than 30 complaints to the Better Business Bureau, and has a BBB customer rating of less than 1.5 stars.
So looks as though people are piling onto TEMU for free or cheap stuff. Please keep it out of my inbox.
Note: The parent of TEMU is "Pienduoduo". I have not seen the Chinese characters, but I'm fairly certain that the Chinese "Pienduoduo" means "cheap much much," or in English construction "Very, Very Cheap".
Does Mike Johnson believe that "God's curse on Noah's son Ham" mean that Blacks are consigned to be servants and slaves?
Does Speaker Mike “God Anointed Me Speaker” Johnson believe that Blacks are cursed by God to be servants and slaves and the to “live their days in bondage”?
Here’s an excellent article explaining the “Curse of Ham” and how how Southerners used a passage from the book of Genesis to justify slavery and, later, the Black Codes and Jim Crow law. In the mid-1950’s, I heard it preached from a Southern Baptist pulpit in South Mississippi and “Negroes are destined by God to be servants to white people” – and the congregation shouted “Amen!”.
All of which raises the question: Because Mike Johnson has demonstrated that he believes in and practices the belief that the Bible is literally true in every word, does he believe that Blacks are inferior to all others because they were cursed by Noah and God?
As Jemar Tisby explains in his series, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, the issue of slavery not only divided the nation, but it also divided denominations. The Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians all experienced division over the issue.
Tisby details these splits in the fifth chapter of The Color of Compromise. He then documents some of the theological arguments proffered for slavery’s practice. The following post is adapted from his work.
. . .
As soldiers in the Civil War waged battles with bullets and bayonets, Christian pastors and theologians fought with the words of the Bible. Southern white Christians, far from viewing slavery as wrong or sinful, generally affirmed that God sanctioned slavery in Scripture and that bondage under white authority was the natural state for people of African descent. To complicate matters, abolitionists and socially moderate Christians struggled to argue against what seemed evident to many people—the Bible never repudiates slavery. Indeed, many of the godliest people in the Bible enslaved others. So the Civil War also sparked a battle over the Bible.
. . .
Genesis 9:18–29, sometimes referred to as the curse of Ham, is one of the most cryptic stories in the Old Testament. Subject to a multitude of interpretations, this passage has been widely deployed as the biblical basis for race-based chattel slavery. In the story, Noah gets drunk and falls asleep naked in his tent. His son Ham walks in on his sleeping father and sees his father naked. Ham leaves to tell his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, yet they respond differently. Instead of gazing upon their father’s unclothed body, they quickly grab a blanket and walk backwards into his tent to cover him. When Noah wakes up and discovers what Ham has done, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan. Conversely, Noah blesses his other sons and consigns Canaan to serve them:
. . .
This passage from Genesis not only provided a basis for slavery’s existence, but it was an indication for some that God decreed a specific race of people to be cursed and live their days in bondage. Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, remarked in his well-known “Cornerstone Speech” that “the negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.”⁶
[link: https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/the-curse-of-ham-and-biblical-justifications-for-slavery|https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/the-curse-of-ham-and-biblical-justifications-for-slavery]
Thinking about Melania Trump
Hmmm. So . . . if the Trump empire turns out to be a Potemkin village and there is no money . . . what happens to her prenup and her inheritance?
I'm heartbroken for her. Just heartbroken, I tell you.
That nationwide emergency test today? You won't believe this . . .
. . . or maybe you will. Nothing is too bizarre for these wackadoodles.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-fema-test-graphene-oxide-covid-vaccine-517946413392
Social media users are raising dire warnings about upcoming tests of the national emergency warning system.
Many are imploring their followers to shut off their cellphones on the day of the test because they believe it’s part of a broader conspiracy to exert control over the population.
One popular video shows a woman claiming the test will somehow switch on technology that has been introduced into people’s bodies.
“The emergency broadcasting system under FEMA is going to be activated,” the woman explains, speaking directly into the camera. “It’s not a test. It’s going to be sending these high frequency signals into cell phones, radios, TVs. The intention of activating nanoparticles, including graphene oxide.”
In another widely shared video, a man issues a similar warning, adding that graphene oxide and other nanoparticles have been inserted into billions of human beings around the world “through obvious mediums.”
Trump releases a carefully worded, legally sound response to NY Judge Engoron's ruling
In response to Judge Engoron's ruling basically shutting down all Trump's businesses in NY and turning them over to receivership, Trump had this carefully worded, legally sound response.
“The widespread attack against me, my family, and my supporters has devolved to new, un-American depths, at the hands of a DERANGED New York State Judge, doing the bidding of a completely biased and corrupt “Prosecutor,” Letitia James."
“This is Democrat Political Lawfare (sic), and a Witch Hunt at a level never seen before. It is an attempt to badly injure the opposing Party’s Leading, by far, Political Candidate."
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before. My Civil Rights have been violated, and some Appellate Court, whether Federal or State, must reverse this horrible, un-American decision. If they can do this to me, they can do this to YOU!”
60 years ago today: Sunday, September 15, 1963; 10:22 AM
Four Alabama Ku Klux Klansmen placed a dynamite bomb under an outside stairwell of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Timed to explode about the same time as Sunday school classes were starting, the bomb killed four little girls and injured another 20:
Addie Mae Collins (14)
Cynthia Wesley (14)
Carole Robertson (14)
Carol Denise McNair (11)
All four bombers were identified by the FBI. One was tried by Alabama and convicted of murder in 1977; two were not tried and convicted until 2001 and 2002; one died in 1994, never charged.
I was a college student in Alabama at the time. A week later, the pastor of the Presbyterian church I attended preached a sermon denouncing the violence and honoring the four girls. Two weeks later, he was fired by the church's Board of Elders and Deacons; he never returned to the ministry.
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