THE INTERNATIONAL CHILD RAPING ORGANIZATION, CATHOLIC CHURCH: “Priest Facebook Lives Aborted Fetus to Campaign for Trump” / The Jimmy Dore Show / Jimmy Dore ☮

A priest displayed a basket containing an aborted fetus on Facebook to promote his “pro-life” principles in support of Donald Trump. A majority of Catholics voted for Donald Trump.

PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “Dr. Jill Stein Has a Departing Gift For Trump and Clinton” / The Humanist Report / Mike Figueredo ☮

The election might be over now, but the Green Party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, left Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump with one last departing gift before ending her campaign. It’s great.

PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “As Dems Self-destruct, Harry Belafonte’s MLK Story Resonates Louder Than Ever; America’s Moral Decay Has Been Made Worse by Obama and Hillary” / The Jimmy Dore Show / Jimmy Dore ☮

Sitting between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Harry Belafonte recounted a moving interaction he had with Dr Martin Luther King about how the Democratic party is its own worst enemy.

Harry Belafonte, speaking at a town hall meeting in 2005 with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, pointed out that moral decay is front and center as victims of poverty are repeatedly hurt by the system.

PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “Tear It Down: Why Every Person at the DNC Should Be Fired” / Common Dreams / Cenk Uygur ☮

dnc-houseVoters couldn’t have been clearer in this election—they can’t stand the establishment.

There is a common stereotype that Democrats are by their nature weak and feckless. There was nothing weak about FDR. There was nothing weak about the New Deal or his audacious plan to pack the court. Ralph Nader wasn’t weak when he got Nixon to establish the EPA and OSHA. There was a time when liberals roared like lions.

So, what happened in the meanwhile that turned them into the perpetual losers they are today? Money in politics.

Now, a lot of people know that the Republican Party has been corrupted by their donors and that’s why they defend such outlandish positions as money being speech and corporations having inalienable human rights. But not a lot of people recognize what the money funded on the Democratic side—a political party meant to lose, built to lose.

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h/t: truthdig

RURAL, WHITE, CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM: “On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t the Problem” / Forsetti’s Justice / MUST READ ☮

White Christian Fundamentalism

As the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides-”Democrats failed to understand white, working class, fly-over America.”  Trump supports are saying this.  Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this.  Even  some Democratic leaders are saying this.  It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete bullshit. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to throw attention away from the real problem.  The real problem isn’t east coast elites don’t understand or care about rural America.  The real problem is rural America doesn’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out.  They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because the don’t want to admit it is in large part because of choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.

I grew up in rural, Christian, white America.  You’d be hard-pressed to find an area in the country that has a higher percentage of Christians or whites.  I spent most of the first twenty-four years of my life deeply embedded in this culture.  I religiously (*pun intended) their Christian services.  I worked off and on, on their rural farms.  I dated their calico skirted daughters.  I camped, hunted, and fished with their sons.  I listened to their political rants at the local diner and truck stop.  I winced at their racist/bigoted jokes and epitaphs that were said more out of ignorance than animosity.  I have also watched the town I grew up in go from a robust economy with well-kept homes and infrastructure turn into a struggling economy with shuttered businesses, dilapidated homes, and a broken down infrastructure over the past thirty years. The problem isn’t that I don’t understand these people.  The problem is they don’t understand themselves, the reasons for their anger/frustrations, and don’t seem to care to know why.

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