guillaumeb
guillaumeb's JournalExclusive poll: Most Americans say religion will live on
From the article:
To read more:
https://www.axios.com/millennials-organized-religion-generation-ac6a43d5-2f14-4092-bc67-0032d071e8cf.html
What progressives need to defeat Trump: populism and religion
From the article:
There is plenty of evidence to support the view that religion and populism are bad enough in themselves and even worse when combined. The so-called “Christian-Democracy” of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, widespread support of Donald Trump by white evangelicals in the United States, the Hindu nationalism of Modi, and the Islamo-Kemalism of Erdoğan are all examples that seem to prove the point. Perhaps as a result, most journalistic and academic work on populism focuses on nationalistic, often anti-democratic strains that conflate the people of God with a Volk or nation imagined in homogeneously ethnic or racial terms.
As true as this all is, there is no inherent relationship between religion and anti-democratic forms of populism.
In fact, historically, it was the interaction of religion and democratic populism that generated some of the most vital moments of democratic change in the modern era. And there’s reason to believe they could do so again today.
To read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/24/religion-populism-progressives-trump?fbclid=IwAR3sdgdQpUKluWYmkYwxuasyDtlqPDbI9E5y8S7gRBNMougc5ON9hDMhSFA
Xenophobia 101:
Strangers represent danger.
Strangers do not look like us.
Strangers do not talk like us.
Strangers want to take our things.
Strangers are less than human, not like us.
Strangers are stealing our jobs.
By the above xenophobic logic, anything we do to strangers is excusable.
And by our, and us, the GOP means white people.
There is no evidence for the existence of God.
A common assertion, and thinly dressed in the language of logic and science, but a meaningless assertion.
When anyone talks of evidence, what exactly do they mean?
If they are looking for evidence, what is the nature of the entity known as God?
What characteristics would God have, and how would they manifest in the observable universe?
And, how does the initial statement fit with the multiverse theory advanced by Stephen Hawking, among others?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/07/17/what-is-and-isnt-scientific-about-the-multiverse/#55332da925c4
Accepting for the moment the possibility that this observable universe is only one part of the multiverse, how would the initial assertion that there is no evidence play out?
Let us use a parable to consider the argument:
Think of this universe, the one we live in, as one room in a house. A room with no currently observable doors or windows. A room from which, at this point, we cannot leave.
What could we reasonably say about the other rooms?
What could we say about what exists in the other rooms? Or does not exist?
What could we say about how our universe is affected by other universes?
Philadelphia unites against the alt-right
From the article:
The “Sports, Beer, and Politics” group on Facebook planned to meet up at Independence Hall Green next to the Liberty Bell for what it called a “We the People” event featuring conservative speakers. Before the page was removed from Facebook, the group described itself as a “patriot group” whose members liked to laugh at “fairies” and “social-justice warriors,” while supporting Trump and loving America.
To read more:
https://socialistworker.org/2018/11/26/philadelphia-unites-against-the-alt-right
We should be glad that only 2 dozen racists came out to meet over 1,000 anti-racists, but we should also realizre that Trump emboldens racists to be open about their hate.
The connections between Trump and truth.
Both words start with "tru".
Both words have 5 letters.
Both are words of 1 syllable.
And that exhausts the connections.
But in Trump's defense, he cannot ever tell the truth because his life is built upon lies.
Concepts like truth, and sacrifice, and patriotism, and love for others are foreign to him. He can, at best, fake these things, but that is all that it is, all that he is.
Trump is his own walking perjury trap at this point.
He literally has no choice.
He has told so many lies about so many things, that silence is his only defense.
But his own record will slowly be exposed, by Mueller and the coming House investigations.
As I told many of the people that I represented in over 30 years as a union rep, the problem with lying is that if any facts come out the lie will be revealed.
And we are seeing this right now.
But like most liars and crooks, Trump can only blame others for his own problems.
Here Are Details of Adam Schiff's Plan to Destroy Donald Trump
Or more precisely, to allow Donald Trump to destroy himself.
From the article:
To read more:
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/11/24/here-are-details-of-adam-schiffs-plan-to-destroy-donald-trump.html
Trump is his own worst enemy. His criminality and gross stupidity are destroying him, not any outside actors. This should be a bi-partisan affair, but the GOP is so complicit in Trump's criminality that we cannot rely on them to act in good faith againzt this clear and President danger.
The "Problem Solvers Caucus"?
My own Congressperson, Dan Lipinski, is a member of the "Problem Solvers Caucus".
Lipinski was primaried in 2018 by a very progressive candidate named Marie Newman.
Newman beat Lipinski in the suburban areas, but Lipinski won by virtue of name recognition in Chicago.
Lipinski is the son of former Congressperson turned lobbyist William Lipinski. The elder Lipinski was a long time Chicago politician who ran for Congress, and later made certain that his son would be picked when Lipinski the Elder left Congress to make money as a lobbyist.
My issue with this so-called Problem Solvers Caucus is with their apparent lack of historical knowledge.
Did any of these problem solvers happen to notice that the GOP controlled Senate filibustered bills over 400 times in an effort to shut down the Congress, and President Obama?
Did any of these problem solvers notice that every time the GOP controls the House, only Bills with GOP sponsors are considered?
Did any of these problem solvers notice that to the GOP, the word compromise means "adopt the GOP agenda"?
Sorry problem solvers, you are blind or you are ignoring the reality that the modern GOP has no interest in compromise.
Muhammad and Rumi on Sexual Harassment
From the article:
prevails over the wise man,
while the raw and ignorant prevail over her.”
Those men who lack tenderness and affection
are animals, not men.
From Rumi:
She is not that kind of beloved most imagine;
she is a ray of God.
She is not just a created,
she is creative.
To read more:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingtradition/2017/11/muhammad-rumi-sexual-harassment/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Muslim&utm_content=49
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