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I speak of course, of the decision to not criminally charge Hillary Clinton, of the angst, misery, and woe of politics, of the complete despair over the fact that the law is now dead, that we are all living in Animal House and that some animals are simply more equal than others.
I must vent because it all has me oddly annoyed, annoyed because where have you all been my whole life? Like duh? Like what kind of a privileged person lives in such comfort that they would even presume the law applies to us all equally? Seriously, this is a shock to anyone?
Sigh. I must be patient here but I do not feel so patient, I feel left behind, ignored dismissed, I feel as if there really are two Americas, one belonging to the bubble people who have no flippin idea what it is like to be one of the less equal animals. I feel invisible.
Let me tell you, injustice is a way of life in my world. Nobody even pretends they’ll be treated fairly. You can’t fight city hall. The system is rigged against you. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. If you don’t have a ton of money to fight with you are finished before you start. This applies to absolutely everything, to driving down the road praying the cops don’t notice the expired tabs you can’t afford until next month. It applies to the rare creek snails now pronounced endangered that seem to suddenly share the same watershed as the home you live in. It applies to planning depts and septic inspectors and wetlands and building codes. It applies to trying to run a little tiny business to support yourself, a task so fraught with endless audits, harassment, and intimidation, you have to be half out of your mind to even try it.
The law and its inherent injustice impacts the lesser animals every step of the way, every moment of our lives. It limits our ability to move freely about society, it hampers our ability to earn a living, it seeks to rob us of our homes. Gentrification is a real a thing in the world. Ask those endangered creek snails.
It hurts our families, too. It breaks up our marriages, it threatens to take our children away from us. It labels us at risk, it stalks us, judges us, and it forces us to put our children in public schools where they can be taught the proper way to conform to a broken world.
Oddly annoyed, I wrap that around me, comforted by the proof that something is still alive within, something that can still rear up and demand to be heard. Egregious injustice has been away of life for so many people for so long, but what hurts the most is that there seems to be Americans walking about who have never bothered to look or to listen to all of those who suffer right next to them.
I’m not bitter, I’m battle-worn, learned helplessness settled in long ago, and today I simply walk in crisis mode determined to hang on, but so aware I can’t fight a tidal wave of egregious injustice that has simply ruled our lives for longer than anyone can remember. Sometimes I just want to whack people upside the head and steal their idealism.
john zande said:
Perhaps you should watch something other than Fox (cough) News. Your persepctive on things might be a little less angry, a little less conspiratorial, and perhaps, just perhaps, a little less irrational.
Just a suggestion.
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Eric said:
Which of the Corporate Media outlets do you consider objective? (Hint: which one isn’t owned outright or is subsidized by government contractors?)
BTW, in 2013, your hero Obama signed a repeal of the Anti-Propaganda Act of 1948.
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john zande said:
I’m Australian, I do not have hero American politicians.
Here in Brasil I generally watch BBC and Bloomberg.When in Australia ABC and SBS.
Let me guess, you’re an avid lover of Fox?
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Eric said:
No—I think Fox is as bad as the others. Considering its major stockholders are Wahhabi Moslems and it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch—a good friend of Hilary and Tony Blair. Most of Fox News is controlled opposition and distraction.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Of course, I almost never watch Fox news, but to say such things doesn’t lend itself well to the stereotype Zande wishes to hold dear. On the bright side, I suppose I should be grateful he still holds something about me dear, even if it is false. 🙂
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john zande said:
Colin Powell used a private email server whilst Secretary of State. Do you hate him, as well?
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dpmonahan said:
No, he didn’t.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/09/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-said-my-predecessors-did-same-thin/
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john zande said:
So he used a “private email address.” I see no great difference.
From afar, just another Republican hissy fit.
On a side note, interesting that the BENGAZZZZZI!!!!! inquiry took longer than the 911 inquiry and the inquiry into JFK`s assassination. Great use of public time and resources there. Nice job.
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dpmonahan said:
He used a private e-mail a handful of times, not habitually. Clinton systematically evaded using secure government servers to a tune of 50,000 emails.
It was illegal and highly irresponsible, and probably done to evade oversight.
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john zande said:
If it were illegal I`m sure the FBI would have pressed some charge.
They didn`t.
End of story.
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dpmonahan said:
It is illegal, any idiot who can read the relevant law can see that. I suspect the FBI is nervous about attempting to fine and cancel the security clearances of their future boss.
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john zande said:
What`s the “relevant law”? Can you paste it here, please, and I’ll have a read.
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dpmonahan said:
18 us code 793 (f). I link to it on my last post on my blog, along with FBI director’s comments. I can’t copy and paste from my cell.
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john zande said:
Thanks. What does the law say? Could you paste the relevant section, please?
I believe the FBI director said Clinton didn`t break any laws… hence the recommendation.
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john zande said:
DP, can you paste the law you “say” Clinton broke, please?
I look forward to reviewing it…
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Liz said:
“He used a private e-mail a handful of times, not habitually.”
Yes. Furthermore, he was S of State over a decade ago, and security protocol has changed since then. Anyone over the age of 30 has probably observed this first hand. Anyone in their forties can probably remember when their social security number was their student number, and it was written on all of the books and displayed on the wall with their grades.
10 years or so ago, I didn’t even have an option to type in special characters on my bank account password. Just 4 letters and/or numbers in a row were considered a “safe” password. Security protocol for state secrets has changed much more than that.
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bluebird of bitterness said:
Why is Fox News always the bête noire of the left? I used to get into really long arguments with a leftie on Facebook (before he blocked me), and his sneering response to almost everything I said was some variant of “you’re just repeating what you heard on Fox News.” I patiently reminded him, over and over, that I do not watch or listen to Fox News… yet inevitably, the very next time I made any substantive point that contradicted one of his cherished leftist fantasies, he once again accused me of having gotten my information from Fox News. I finally asked him if HE watched Fox News, and he refused to answer the question — presumably because even a dimwit like him would realize that if he said no, he never watched it, the obvious next question would be, “Then how the hell do you always know exactly what they have said about every conceivable subject?”
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insanitybytes22 said:
“Then how the hell do you always know exactly what they have said about every conceivable subject?”
LOL! Now that’s a good point.
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Rebecca LuElla Miller said:
John, you said to dp, “Can you paste it here, please.” I’m a bit exasperated since they just said they couldn’t paste from their phone. It seems like a small matter, but it calls into question how you are reading others in such a discussion as this.
Becky
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Debbie L said:
John Zande – We not only don’t watch Fox, we don’t watch ANY news. Just too depressing – but I let my carefully screened friends (many are family) on FB and Twitter keep me up on the latest. Or I’ll read things sent to me by friends. This article is one that just arrived. Maybe it’ll help you see and understand why the Director of the FBI did what he did:
Why the FBI Let Hillary Clinton Off
By Ronald Kessler
Washington Times Monday, July 11, 2016
A wide swath of Americans is outraged at FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for what seems an obvious violation of criminal law.
After all, Section 793(f) of the U.S. criminal code could not be clearer: The law makes it a felony punishable with a prison term of up to 10 years to treat information relating to the national defense with “gross negligence.”
It would be difficult to imagine a circumstance that more clearly violates this statute than storing classified information on a private, unsecured server. While Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly maintained that the material stored on her server was not stamped classified, under the law, that is irrelevant. If she had communicated the information orally, she would still be violating the law.
Beyond saying that no “reasonable prosecutor” would charge the presidential candidate and that her intent to violate the law had not been established, Mr. Comey has offered no understandable explanation for his decision. In his statement at FBI headquarters and in his congressional testimony, Mr. Comey clearly chose not to go into the thinking behind his decision to exercise prosecutive discretion and how he approached what any prosecutor grapples with: Will a jury convict?
For 25 years, John L. Martin was the Justice Department official in charge of prosecuting the espionage laws, including the statute in question. When Mr. Martin took over the Justice Department’s Internal Security Section, no spies had been successfully prosecuted in a federal court for 10 years.
That was not because there were no spies. It was because agencies like the CIA and the National Security Agency had convinced the Justice Department that prosecuting spies would disclose too many secrets. In fact, Mr. Martin would say, these agencies wanted to conceal their embarrassment over their own security lapses. Powerful as they were, Mr. Martin had the intellect and courage to take on all the agencies.
By the time he retired in August 1997, Mr. Martin had supervised the prosecution of 76 spies, from John A. Walker Jr. to Aldrich Ames to Jonathan Pollard. Only one of the prosecutions resulted in an acquittal.
During his tenure, Mr. Martin never used Section 793(f). Instead, when cases involved only mishandling of classified material, he would defer a prosecutive decision and send the case back to the employee’s agency to take administrative action, such as lifting a security clearance or firing the employee.
The reason Mr. Martin felt he could not invoke Section 793(f) alone is that as a prosecutor, he had to weigh whether a jury would find a defendant guilty of a criminal violation without a showing of criminal intent, regardless of the fact that that law does not specifically require it.
In Mrs. Clinton’s case, the question was: Would a court accept a case and jurors convict if the government could not show that she knowingly mishandled specific classified items with criminal intent, as would be clear, for example, if she had lied to the FBI and attempted to cover up what she had done?
For that reason, in charging a defendant with mishandling classified information, the Justice Department has historically combined the charge with additional violations that would insure a conviction. Thus, former CIA Director David Petraeus agreed to a plea disposition after not only giving classified information to his biographer and lover but lying about it to FBI agents.
Besides the absence of criminal intent, Mr. Comey had to consider the fact that many jurors could give Mrs. Clinton a pass simply because she is a presidential candidate. And did Mr. Comey want the FBI to be responsible for throwing the presidential election process into chaos if, in the end, the prosecution resulted in a dismissal by the court, a hung jury or an acquittal?
This may sound like a double standard, but it’s a reality. The issue is much like a journalist’s approach to breaking a big story. Does he go with one source who may turn out to be unreliable or does he insist on another source and more corroboration before signing off on a story that could backfire and besmirch his reputation?
Mr. Comey likely did not want to reveal the thinking that went into his decision because it would expose the fact that a determination to prosecute by its nature is a matter of judgment. But Mr. Martin calls Mr. Comey’s decision and handling of the case brilliant and courageous.
“Taking on an unwinnable case which cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt against a high-profile defendant makes you look like you are not motivated by examining the facts and the law,” Mr. Martin tells me. “You lose credibility with the courts, Congress and the public. It undercuts the entire government and the way it treats its citizens.”
Mr. Comey’s detailed recitation of what he called her “extremely careless” handling of classified material as secretary of State will resonate throughout Hillary Clinton’s campaign. But in deciding not to take a chance on prosecuting her, the FBI director vindicated all those who believed from the outset in his integrity.
• Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the author of “The Secrets of the FBI” (Crown Forum, 2012).
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john zande said:
Thanks Debbie. I see the Washington Times (never heard of it, but see it’s also called The Moonie Times) was founded by Sun Myung Moon and is a rabid right-wing “news” outlet… More so, I see, than even Fox. It openly says Global Climate Change is a hoax, promotes pseudoscience, abstinence-only sex education, and is homophobic.
It has employed Sam Francis, a white nationalist, the lunatic Jeffrey T. Kuhner, the homophobe Peter LaBarbera, and the white supremacist Robert Stacy McCain.
In other words, I would trust this organisation if it told me the time.
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dpmonahan said:
Look below to see why seriously engaging Zande is a waste of time. Rather than consider the substance of what is said he retreats to attacking the source (my guess is he looked it up rationalwiki).
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Debbie L said:
I know I know ….. What’s the best way to argue with (fill in the blank)? DON’T
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Debbie L said:
John – I know Ron Kessler….he’s the source of the info. The rest is ancient history or does not interest me at all. I just thought you’d like to see a copy and paste of something to help you understand. Enough said…..
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newenglandsun said:
They had a shot to give us a better candidate and failed.
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KIA said:
The reference is Orwell’s animal farm
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Salvageable said:
Oh, rats…I thought she meant the movie Animal House. J.
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KIA said:
Basically reference to oligarchy
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! I did mean Animal House, Salvageable, thank you for noticing. It’s a mixed reference indeed, Orwell’s Animal Farm interspersed among a drunken frat party. Lord of the Flies meets the clowns are now running the asylum.
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janjoy52 said:
Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Everything is vanity and chasing after the wind said the preacher. There is nothing new under the sun.
But we are not under the sun. We are in the Son and He said be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Do not believe what you hear and all the forecasts. Only God not only sees the future but He makes it. Be of good cheer and be about the Kingdom. Pray for revival. New creations. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.
Be still and know Who is God.
Whatever is true, noble right, pure, lovely and admirable…..
♡♡♡♡
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fromscratchmom said:
Amen
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insanitybytes22 said:
Oh amen! Double amen, triple even. We can’t go wrong by keeping our eyes on Him. 🙂
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The V Pub said:
What is even sadder is that Hillary supporters will consider this a victory, when in fact it’s a loss for everyone.
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insanitybytes22 said:
I know, right? How crazy it all is! “Well, my candidate managed to skate on federal charges,so there!” It’s almost comical if it weren’t all so true.
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Salvageable said:
The next time any of us are in traffic court, we should adopt the Hillary defense. Yes, it was incredibly careless, very stupid, and against the law… but I didn’t intend to break the law, so I really shouldn’t have to pay the fine. J.
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ColorStorm said:
Mr Comey in effect sez of Ms. Clinton:
–Yes, there is undeniable proof that our dept. has merely scratched the surface of your treachery, lies, deceit, and that America’s secrets have been compromised, as any sane person knows this. BUT, I find you innocent and do not recommend that criminal charges be filed. It is clear that your idiot actions (whether intentional or not) have proven you guilty above the shadow of a doubt,, and foreign agencies or govts probably have intel that they should not have. You ma’am cannot be trusted. Your judgment, similar to your part time husband, is rather pathetic. Every sane person knows this.–
Uh, sir, one question. In light of your findings, WHAT charges DO you recommend be filed? In addition, a reasonable person must consider at what level possible extortion has occurred….or threats of death. (Yes govts. do such things)
For anybody to doubt that the law was raped to protect a certain woman and/ or party………..aw nevermind.
But good rant btw ms bytes, and rightly so. And for anybody to mix up grace with law, I got news for ya. The policeman can certainly say ‘I forgive you for going 65 in a 15 mph school zone,’ while he writes a ticket for 225 dollars.
So while Ms Clinton received a mere slap on the wrist, others guilty of doing far less are currently behind bars.
‘A long train of abuses’ comes to mind from a certain document, with the Clintons in the caboose with all the corrupt baggage.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Sheesh ,it’s all so maddening, Colorstorm! I do know people literally in jail for silly things that all began with expired car tabs, a missed court date, fines they couldn’t pay. We used to quip with a bit of gallows humor, “you’d think they violated state secrets or something.” The overkill of justice on the little people can take your breath away sometimes.
On the bright side, I now have a new blessing, “May the Lord grant you as much grace and mercy as the FBI did for Hillary Clinton.”
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ColorStorm said:
Ha good stuff, love that closing line, and may I add to that blessing making it a daily double:
May the Lord bless her……..and keep her………..far, Far, FAR from the presidency and all things distinctively American. 😉
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insanitybytes22 said:
Ha! May the Lord forgive me of my irreverent humor faster than Hillary Clinton can wipe a server. 🙂
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SandySays1 said:
It was interesting to see how open corruption like the Clinton/Lynch meeting is condoned by individuals as long as it furthers their ideology. We may have seen individual freedom die yesterday in favor of the nanny state lead by super elites that are above the law.
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Eric said:
It’s amazing too when you recall how Hilary went after Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. And how other whistleblowers wound up dead; or how people like Bradley Manning was tortured and John Kirakou was imprisoned—these guys for exposing government crimes.
I can’t believe all these Trump supporters either: they still believe that a government who routinely does things like these is actually going to give us fair elections LOL
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insanitybytes22 said:
I know, right? Edward Snowden sits in exile in Russia while Hillary runs for president. I really don’t see much difference between those two crimes. Actually, Snowden had some altruistic motivations and deliberately released only that which he thought was necessary. She allegedly was just careless. I have no idea which leak was more harmful.
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john zande said:
What whistleblowers wound up dead?
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Eric said:
John:
Since the 1990s, we have had numerous political figures and investigative reporters who have died under very suspicious circumstances, and always at critical moments. I’m not talking here about speculative things like the Kennedy Assassination. The sheer number of ‘accidents’ ‘suicides’ and other suspicious deaths that occur regularly among people who are about to testify or are investigating the government is consistent with what one would expect among organized crime figures.
A couple of recent ones that come to mind are Huffington Post reporter Michael Hastings and 9/11 ‘truther’ Philip Marshall. But there have been many more. Early in the Obama Administration I recall former Senator Ted Stevens dying in a plane crash as he was investigating the government agency which approved the derrick that collapsed causing the BP oil spill. A Pentagon official who’d handled Bush’s funding in Iraq was found shot dead in a garbage dump. Right before Bush left office, there were several alleged suicides—the so-called ‘DC Madam was among those. The Diebold executive who shredded Cheney’s e-mails died when his private plane exploded on the runway. Others happened during the Clinton years as well.
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Liz said:
Hillary broke the laws regarding security information, and ran the state department disgracefully ineptly.
Comey said as much in his statement to the press, while exonerating her:
“To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now. As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.”
He is essentially saying that someone else in a similar position would be subject to punishment, but not her. One set of rules for the elite, another for other folks.
BUT that said, good grief Eric please tell me you’re not a 911 conspiracy theorist. It’s pretty clear from everything I’ve read on Marshall he was a nutter. I don’t just know a handful of pilots, I know hundreds of them from all walks of life…passenger planes (I know a pilot who was on the schedule to fly one of those planes that day) to military pilots. There was no conspiracy.
I wish I had time to go into this, but the movers are knocking on my door.
Here is a short interaction I had with a “truther” a while back (was it really 9 beeping years ago?! good grief I’m gettin old). At the end she attempted to sock puppet but accidentally wrote her own name. That was pretty funny.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PUM8aXt0yRwJ:www.rokdrop.net/2007/01/north-korean-super-notes-made-by-the-cia/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari
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Eric said:
Liz: I’ve not read Marshall’s work; I only know that he was a ‘truther’. At the time of his alleged murder/suicide, he claimed to be in the possession of documents related to 9/11. He supposedly used a silencer to commit suicide—a bit unusual and whatever documents he claimed to have had, have disappeared.
Speaking for myself though, I think that most conspiracies that really happened over 9/11 were bureaucrats and officials conspiring to cover up their own negligence and incompetence for letting the attacks happen.
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atimetoshare.me said:
What I can’t understand is how the average person can be taken in by this corruption. It really has nothing to do with media coverage. I think we have become a nation of unknowing sheep being led to the slaughter. Heaven help us all.
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Eric said:
I think a lot of it is denial. They don’t want to believe it.
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atimetoshare.me said:
I agree, but I also believe that government has it hand
On every aspect of our lives.
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SLIMJIM said:
I feel the same.
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Fromscratchmom said:
It’s a shame the state of public discourse isn’t it? The assumptions, implied ad hominem and further unintelligent tangle on top of both of in so many trite things that people say. A perfect example, and it always makes me laugh: people jump to their personal angst about Fox News and assume I’m a fan. It’s crazy, the foolish places people go because of agenda and ideology. It’s a broken world p, full of broken people who embrace broken thinking. Lord deliver me from ideologues, and from Fox and all the mist of the rest of the media too!
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Fromscratchmom said:
Hey, IB, I read an interesting piece today…touches on both politics and a particular “teaching” I thought you might agree is not biblical. 😉
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/08/donald-trump-man-of-faith
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insanitybytes22 said:
Oh, fascinating! Thank you for that article, much appreciated.
Also, I had no idea Trump did not drink coffee. No wonder I distrust the man 🙂
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"A" dad said:
Mark 10:42-44
42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
Keep on serving Memi! ; – )
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Pingback: My Article Read (7-6-2016) – My Daily Musing
Wally Fry said:
I wonder if SoM still has room in his bunker?
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! Probably, if we bring the spam and chocolate. 🙂
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Tricia said:
We are of the same mindset on this for sure IB. Its not that we don’t already know there are separate sets of laws for the “bubble people”, but the blatant display of it lately is just too much.
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Dennis said:
Unless you are watching the History channel , Discovery, or Hallmark, your stuck with what they want you to see and hear. We have invited the major networks to our meetings before, but since our meetings pertain to { protecting our hard earned pension }- automatically the networks turn a deaf ear to our invites.
Michigan Committee to Protect Pensions- Dennis Germain-Director.
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