Dueling headlines: Uranium One and Frederica Wilson

Bookworm Room

"Perhaps the most shocking thing of all about the Uranium One corruption scandal is the drive-by media’s deliberate effort to hide the story from the public."

 

"The following headlines are only a slight exaggeration. I’ve used “The Hill,” which broke the Uranium One story, as a representative of those few outlets covering a fact-filled report painting a picture of a staggeringly corrupt Obama administration, which knew that Hillary was selling off America’s national security for her own benefit, and not only did not stop the deal, but took great care to hide it.

The Hill: FBI insider reveals that Uranium One deal resulted from extortion and bribery                                                                 MSM: Rep. Frederica Wilson *– “Donald Trump said a Green Beret deserved to die”                           The Hill: Former Sec’y of State Hillary Clinton approved Uranium One deal after Russians put millions in the Clinton Fund      

             MSM: “Trump said ‘Suck it up’ to Gold Star widow,” claims Frederica Wilson             The Hill: Obama administration approved Uranium One dealdespite FBI info about extortion and bribery                                    MSM: Lying Trump denies that he said a Green Beret deserved to die                                                                                                                      The Hill: Bill Clinton was having private meetings with Russians during Uranium One sale negotiations                          MSM: Donald Trump lied about other presidents nevercalling Gold Star families                          The Hill: When FBI discovered a Russian spy ring, Sec’y of State Clinton rushed spies back to safety in Russia                            MSM: General Kelly sold his soul to Donald Trump                  The Hill: Clinton Foundation took millions from Russians during uranium negotiations                MSM: General Kelly is the face of an imminent right-wing military coup                The Hill: Russia now controls 20% of America’s uranium                   MSM: Frederica Wilson: Kelly is a racist because he’s Irish guy who calls blacks “empty barrels”                           The Hill: Hello! Thanks to Clinton/Obama corruption, Russia now controls 20% of America’s uranium                      MSM: “Donald Trump forgot my husband’s name,” says grieving Gold Star widow              The Hill: Is anyone listening? Clinton took massive bribes; Obama knew; and the administration still gave 20% of our uranium to Russia                        MSM: Gold Star widow: “Trump said it’s fitting husband died in Africa, because that’s where all colored people belong.”                       The Hill: This is serious, folks. We’re tell you about major corruption affecting American national security.                 MSM: Frederica Wilson: “I’m putting together a bill to burn Trump and Kelly at the stake on C-SPAN . . .  Much more here.

 . . . "What’s new about the current report is (a) and FBI insider is confirming that Schweizer’s educated guesses were accurate; (b) that the Obama administration knew this because of FBI reports, but chose to ignore and hide the reports; and (c) that Hillary sent Russian spies back to Russia, with no strings attached, to limit her potential exposure." . . .

* The aforementioned Rep. Wilson and her documented positions on US servicemembers

Is the Gospel No Longer Enough for Black Christians?

Just Thinking…for Myself

"Applying biblical truth to social, political, and theological issues in our world." 

"Located on one of the most historic streets in the United States, particularly for black Americans, Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta, stands the venerable Big Bethel AME Church.

“ 'Big Bethel”, as it is affectionately and reverently known, was founded in 1847, the same year educator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass began publishing his anti-slavery newspaper The North Star, and the slave Dred Scott filed a lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court claiming his temporary residence in a free territory should have made him a free man.

"It didn’t.

"But, I digress.

"For all its notoriety as the oldest predominantly black congregation in Atlanta, Big Bethel is equally renown, if not more so, for a simple two-word message which, for nearly a century, has stood conspicuously affixed atop the church steeple against the backdrop of an ever-expanding Atlanta skyline.

"It reads: Jesus Saves.

"The message that “Jesus Saves” has been the clarion call of black Christians in America since their earliest exposure to Christianity in the 1600s. It is this unwavering, and perhaps unfathomable, faith in the redemptive power of the gospel that was the impetus for slave-poet Jupiter Hammon, the first black person in America to publish a work of literature (1760) and whose entire earthly existence was as a slave, to attest:" . . .

N.J. high school football refs walk off field in protest after players take knee during anthem

MyCentralJersey

Via Weasel Zippers

"A father and son who were part of an officiating crew assigned to work a New Jersey high school football game walked off the field in protest after members from one of the teams took a knee during the national anthem Friday night.

"Ernie Lunardelli, the head linesman, said he and his son, Anthony, a line judge, stood on the field with their hands on their hearts while the anthem was played prior to Monroe’s home game against Colts Neck and that both left the field immediately after the anthem because they saw four Monroe players take a knee.

“Anybody that disrespects the flag, in my eyes, it’s not right,” said Ernie Lunardelli, a veteran scholastic football official in his 18th season. “What they are doing with this kneeling and everything, they have the right do to that, but the national anthem has nothing to do with them kneeling. The flag has got nothing to do with why they are protesting. If they want to protest, let them protest, but don’t disrespect our country, the flag and the armed forces.”

"Anthony Lunardelli, who graduated from Monroe in 2008 and played football at the high school, said he perceived kneeling during the anthem as a sign of disrespect.

“ 'They’ve got a right to protest and so do we,” Anthony Lunardelli said. “That (taking a knee during the anthem) is not how I was brought up, and that’s not how I was raised. I’m not criticizing their right. That’s just my viewpoint.”

READ: Amid anthem controversy, NJ football teams honor those who protect, serve

"Four Monroe players first joined the growing number of gridiron players at all levels nationwide who are protesting racial inequality and police brutality when they took a knee prior to a Sept. 28 game at New Brunswick." . . .

Dave Barry's 2016 year in review, before 2017 gets here.

Quoting Mr. Barry:

In the future, Americans — assuming there are any left — will look back at 2016 and remark: "What the HELL?" They will have a point. Over the past few decades, we here at the Year in Review have reviewed some pretty disturbing years.

For example, there was 2000, when the outcome of a presidential election was decided by a tiny group of deeply confused Florida residents who had apparently attempted to vote by chewing on their ballots. Then there was 2003, when a person named "Paris Hilton" suddenly became a major international superstar, despite possessing a level of discernible talent so low as to make the Kardashians look like the Jackson 5. There was 2006, when the vice president of the United States, who claimed he was attempting to bring down a suspected quail, shot a 78-year-old man in the face, only to be exonerated after an investigation revealed that the victim was an attorney. And, perhaps most inexplicable of all, there was 2007, when millions of people voluntarily installed Windows Vista.

Yes, we've seen some weird years. But we've never seen one as weird as 2016. This was the Al Yankovic of years. If years were movies, 2016 would be "Plan 9 from Outer Space." If years were relatives, 2016 would the uncle who shows up at your Thanksgiving dinner wearing his underpants on the outside.

Why do we say this? Let's begin with the gruesome train wreck that was the presidential election. The campaign began with roughly 14,000 candidates running. Obviously not all of them were qualified to be president; some of them — here we are thinking of "Lincoln Chafee" — were probably imaginary. But a reasonable number of the candidates seemed to meet at least the minimum standard that Americans have come to expect of their president in recent decades, namely: Not Completely Horrible.

So this mass of candidates began the grim death march that is the modern American presidential campaign: trudging around Iowa pretending to care about agriculture, performing in an endless series of televised debates like suit-wearing seals trained to bark out talking points, going to barbecue after barbecue and smiling relentlessly through mouthfuls of dripping meat, giving the same speech over and over and over, shaking millions of hands, posing for billions of selfies and just generally humiliating themselves in the marathon group grovel that America insists on putting its presidential candidates through.

And we voters did our part, passing judgment on the candidates, thinning the herd, rejecting them one by one. Sometimes we had to reject them more than once -- John Kasich didn't get the message until his own staff felled him with tranquilizer darts. But eventually we eliminated the contenders whom we considered to be unqualified or disagreeable, whittling our choices down until only two major candidates were left. And out of all the possibilities, the two that We, the People, in our collective wisdom, deemed worthy of competing for the most important job on Earth, turned out to be ... ... drum roll ... ... the most flawed, sketchy and generally disliked duo of presidential candidates ever!

Yes. After all that, the American people, looking for a leader, ended up with a choice between ointment and suppository. The fall campaign was an unending national nightmare, broadcast relentlessly on cable TV. CNN told us over and over that Donald Trump was a colossally ignorant, narcissistic, out-of-control, sex-predator buffoon; Fox News countered that Hillary Clinton was a greedy, corrupt, coldly calculating liar of massive ambition and minimal accomplishment. And in our hearts we knew the awful truth: They were both right.

It wasn't just bad. It was the Worst. Election. Ever. And that was only one of the reasons why 2016 should never have happened. Here are some others:

• American race relations reached their lowest point since ... OK, since 2015.
• We learned that the Russians are more involved in our election process than the League of Women Voters.
• For much of the year the economy continued to struggle, with the only growth sector being people paying insane prices for tickets to "Hamilton."
• In a fad even stupider than "planking," millions of people wasted millions of hours, and sometimes risked their lives, trying to capture imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones, hoping to obtain the ultimate prize: a whole bunch of imaginary Pokemon Go things on their phones.
• A major new threat to American communities -- receiving at least as much coverage as global climate change -- emerged in the form of: clowns.
• In a shocking development that caused us to question our most fundamental values, Angelina and Brad broke up even though they are both physically attractive.
• We continued to prove, as a nation, that no matter how many times we are reminded, we are too stupid to remember to hold our phones horizontally when we make videos.
• Musically, we lost Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen; we gained the suicide-inducing TV commercial in which Jon Bon Jovi screeches about turning back time.

Did anything good happen in 2016? Let us think. OK, the "man bun" appeared to be going away. That was pretty much it for the good things.

And now, finally, it is time for 2016 to go away. But before it does, let's narrow our eyes down to slits and take one last squinting look back at this hideous monstrosity of a year, starting with ...

End quote, so keep reading. You have a long way to go. The Tunnel Dweller