August 1, 2016

Pope: "If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence.”

While in Poland, Francis made an unscheduled stop at a church in Krakow to implore God to protect people from the "devastating wave" of terrorism in many part of the world.

Francis replied that "it's not right to identify Islam with violence. It's not right and it's not true."

He added: "I believe that in every religion there is always a little fundamentalist group."

"I don't like to talk of Islamic violence because every day, when I go through the newspapers, I see violence, this man who kills his girlfriend, another who kills his mother-in-law," Francis said, in apparent reference to crime news in the predominantly Catholic country of Italy. "And these are baptized Catholics. If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence."

Noting he has spoken with imams, he concluded: "I know how they think, they are looking for peace."



http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/pope-talk-violent-terrorist-islam-41035349

August 1, 2016

Hillary steps on Trump's bump

https://twitter.com/justinjm1
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html

August 1, 2016

You could emphasize it more, Mr. McCain, if you withdrew your endorsement of him.

McCAIN: "I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump's statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates."

https://twitter.com/markmobility/status/760093251219124224
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/289962-mccain-i-cannot-emphasize-enough-how-deeply-i-disagree-with-mr

August 1, 2016

Their son died serving the country. You don't get to attack them.

...............

You will never win a fight savaging the parents of a dead soldier. So it's a fight you simply don't engage in. A smart terrible person would get this and say something along the lines of the quote I noted above. Trump doesn't seem terribly bright. But this isn't about intelligence as we test it with logic puzzles. Realizing that this would be the only way to respond requires a level of self-awareness a narcissist lacks and a degree of impulse control Trump simply does not have. Empathy or any moral consciousness would get you there too. But remember, we're focusing here on the difference between a smart terrible person and a dumb terrible person both of which lack those qualities.

When Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala appeared at the Democratic convention they attacked and shamed Trump. He no doubt experienced it that way and the chorus of approbation the Khans received from virtually every part of the political spectrum deepened his sense of humiliation and loss of status and standing. As I've noted in so many contexts, the need to assert dominance is at the root of all of Trump's actions. His whole way of understanding the world is one made up of dominators and the dominated. There's no infinite grey middle ground, where most of us live the vast majority of our human relationships. That's why even those who are conspicuously loyal are routinely humiliated in public. In that schema, Trump simply had no choice but to lash out, to rebalance the equation of dominance in his favor. It's an impulse that goes beyond reason or any deliberation. That's what left so many would-be or maybe allies flabbergasted at how or why he would have walked straight into such a buzzsaw of outrage.

For a narcissist like Trump, the rage and emotional disequilibrium of being dominated, humiliated is simply too much to bear. He must lash out. What he said in one of his tweets responding to the Khans is perhaps the most telling. "I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond?" The use of the adverb "viciously" is a good tell that Trump is a narcissist. But setting that aside, most people would know that the answer is "No, you're not." Certainly you're not allowed to respond in the sense of attacking back. Their son died serving the country. You don't get to attack them. Someone with a moral consciousness who is capable to empathy would understand this through a moral prism. A smart terrible person would understand it as a matter of pragmatism. Smart terrible people spend time to understand human behavior, even if the moral dimension of it is invisible to them or a matter of indifference. Just as importantly, they have impulse control.

A smart terrible person can be an effective, even a good leader, if the interests of the country line up with his or her personal interests. I'm not advising it. But it's possible. Indeed, history shows various examples of it. But a dumb terrible person is almost always dangerous. Trump's mix of rage and insecurity are so unbridled that it is not simply that he is unable to protect others from their impact. He cannot even protect himself from the damage they create.



MORE:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/understanding-the-trump-khan-war

August 1, 2016

Trump strategist Roger Stone floating idea that Captain Khan was actually a terrorist

:large

https://twitter.com/LOLGOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/01/roger_stone_says_khizr_khan_is_a_muslim_brotherhood_saboteur.html

August 1, 2016

ISIS Joins Trump in Dishonoring Humayun Khan’s Sacrifice

The Republican nominee continued his war on the parents of a U.S. Army captain while the Islamic State called the Muslim war hero an apostate—and attacked Hillary Clinton.

ISIS joined Donald Trump on Sunday in dishonoring the sacrifice of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan.

The newest issue of the so-called Islamic State’s propaganda magazine Dabiq said the Muslim war hero died as an “apostate” when he was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004 after ordering soldiers under his command to stand back as he moved foward to investigate the vehicle.

Khan was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. ISIS published a picture of his headstone and captioned it, “Beware of dying as an apostate.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/31/isis-joins-donald-trump-in-dishonoring-humayun-khan-s-sacrifice.html