Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Praying Hands (Betende Hände) by Albrecht Dürer.
Lance Wallnau is at it again, and I think the kindest thing one could say is that he is very confused. That’s the charitable interpretation, I have no doubt the reality is of a more sinister nature, given Wallnau’s dedication to obscurantism. This time around, he is touting the power of prayer, one of the most useless activities ever dreamed up.
“Prayer is working but I don’t think we often see the connection between our prayers and what’s happening,” Wallnau declared, marveling that he had just been at an intercessory prayer gathering in Georgia and now there has been “a breakthrough regarding our prayers in [the] exposing of the deep state” directly related to Georgia.
No, prayer doesn’t work. This is known as wishful thinking, and as we’ll see, this particular instance has the distinct odor of desperation about it. Sweaty, hanging on by the fingernails desperation.
Wallnau was referring to the arrest of Reality Leigh Winner:
“We were praying for the deep state to start to get exposed,” Wallnau said, “and indeed, in the state of Georgia, I’m so pleased to see where the first deep state arrest is happening.”
Confusion would be the kind explanation. It’s hard to say exactly how they view this situation, but the reality of it is very far away from this particular, er, viewpoint.
Wallnau said that they were also “praying about the absurd, vitriolic energy … with which the left has been savaging Donald Trump” and, as a result, Trump critics like Griffin and Maher now find themselves at the center of controversy.
Those “controversies” are pretty much yesterday’s news. Apologies were issued, one a notpology, and the other sincere. That said, Maher was not being disparaged over a criticism of the Tiny Tyrant, he said something extremely bigoted and offensive, had to do with People of Colour. Maher is always shoving his ass in his mouth over something, and he will most likely never cross a line that HBO won’t forgive. As for Griffin, in a thread elsewhere, I said that what irked me so was that she gave the Tiny Tyrant a sympathy card to play. That’s not helping. Anyroad, I don’t see how this could be the answer to a prayer. It’s not as if El Shaddai got off his arse and pinpointed tornadoes with unaccustomed accuracy at every single person on the planet who is engaged in daily criticism of the TCO (Trump Criminal Organization). Something like that would have been impressive. A couple of comedians who are known for crossing lines being smacked a bit? Sorry, but that’s pathetic.
“My contention is that when there is such sustained disrespect for authority,” he said, “especially authority that we are of the opinion that God has anointed, God has blessed, when you have that kind of obnoxiousness going on, you simply want to pray and say, ‘Lord, do something’ and I believe God has … I see that as a silencing of the left in these critics.”
Oh, if only that “god” of yours would do something about obnoxiousness, you’d have to say bye bye, wouldn’t you, Lance? Hell, he won’t even arrange for you to have a show on HBO, basic cable, or network television. Nope. Pray harder. Pray so much you don’t have time to get up off your knees. Pray so much you won’t have time to run your mouth.
“I believe this is really, in a strange way, an answer to prayer,” Wallnau said.
Oh, it’s strange alright, just not the way you believe.
Via RWW.
CREDIT: Eric Trump steps off Air Force One as he arrives Sunday, April 16, 2017, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President Donald Trump and family are returning from his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida. CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon.
After Eric Trump spent some time with Sean Hannity, spitting bitterness and claiming that democrats aren’t even people to him, as he opined over the complete lack of morality these days (the fault of liberals, natch), a report from Forbes has revealed an instance of what passes for morality in the Trump Klan.
On Tuesday, Forbes reported that Eric Trump has diverted more than $1 million donations to his kids-cancer charity to Trump golf courses. These costs were incurred during the Eric Trump Foundation’s annual golf fundraiser. But according to charity experts, “the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.”
The golf fundraiser was marketed as an opportunity for donors to have nearly their entire gift go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, since the golf and other services were provided free of charge.
A former employee of the club, however, told Forbes that beginning in 2011, the charity was charged for the use of course and other services. Ian Gillule, membership and marketing director at Trump National Westchester, said the club began billing Eric Trump’s foundation after Donald Trump “had a cow.”
“I don’t care if it’s my son or not — everybody gets billed,” Donald Trump said, according to Gillule.
The payments by the charity to the Trump Organization for its one-day tournament were also confirmed by a former member of the Eric Trump Foundation board. And the payments increased dramatically over time — from $46,000 in 2011 to $322,000 in 2015.
Eric Trump appears to have gone to significant lengths to cover up these payments. Last year, he told Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold that none of the money actually went to the Trump Organization. Rather, Eric Trump insisted, the money was simply passed from the Trump Organization to “to cover the cost of outside vendors.”
In July, Eric Trump excoriated Fahrenthold for even suggesting otherwise:
Eric Trump also criticized The Post for a recent blog post — and recent Twitter messages by this reporter — about a payment made by the Eric Trump Foundation to one of Donald Trump’s golf courses.
“It’s disgusting. It is so disgusting what’s happening,” Eric Trump said. “I’m saving dying children. We do tremendous good for people. And you’re sitting there tearing us apart.”
“I save dying children! I do! There’s nothing wrong with profiting from that! This speaks to one of the worst things about the Trump Criminal Organization – the insistence that they are prime signifiers of morality; of being truly good and decent people. Ivana Jr. wants to profit by pretending to identify with working women. The elder sons slaughter animals for fun, are up to their necks in sleazy business, and now do whatever they must to protect their sire, lying and spreading bullshit by the fucktonne.
GaucheAdjective.
1a: lacking social experience or grace; also not tactful: crude.
1b: crudely made or done.
2. not planar.
– gauchely adverb
– gaucheness noun
[Origin: French, literally, left]
(1751)
“I got out of my car, map of Glasgow in hand, and asked her for directions I did not need in an English I hoped was gauche and charming.” – Irene, Pierre Lemaitre.
From Kestrel, click for full size!
Nubian doeling back in the pens where the goats are kept prior to going into the ring.
A La Mancha doe standing at ringside. No, no one cut off her ears; they are born this way.
A contestant listens carefully to the judge’s comments at the end of his class.
Nigerian Dwarf does waiting at ringside for their turn to go in the ring and shine before the judge. They really are that little. Their backs do not come as high as my knees and I am not exactly what would be called tall.
When the judge directs you to stand in the front of the line, and no one else is in front of you… that means you just won the class. But since you are at a show, you must keep concentrating on your goat and keep her looking good.
This truly gorgeous and very personable doe went Best In Show. A well-deserved win.
© Kestrel, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, click for full size! Beautiful all, but I love how ethereal the 3rd shot is.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
A very young, lost, upset and very hungry wild turkey, who was busy getting into our trash cans in search of food. Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
I mentioned this list of stupid by Michael Snyder the other day, and it does leave people with an itch to respond thoroughly, so, the big list of stupid. Feel free to expand or leave your own answers or peeves about any or all of it. As noted previously, the list is obviously, desperately padded, because Michael really couldn’t think of much more than 5 things, but “A list of 5 things liberals hate about America” isn’t terribly catchy. A good portion of this is going below the fold, because this is going to get long. Very long.
1. The U.S. Constitution
I don’t hate the constitution. I don’t worship the damn thing, either. I do think it is superannuated, and in dire need of rewriting. A good deal of it was written with the interests of the ruling classes and slave owners in mind, and that shit needs to go. The nonsense about militias needs to go, as well, as it was to protect slave owners.
2. Liberty
Uh … I’m fine with liberty. No problem at all.
3. Freedom
Yeah, you know, don’t you, that liberty and freedom mean the same thing? Maybe I was wrong about that ‘five things’ business.
4. Success
No problem here, I court the fickle lady of success. I don’t want success at any cost, however, and my personal principles and ethics keep me on track. Sometimes, that’s a shame, because in so many cases, it would be so eeeeaaasy to take advantage of gullible right wingers.
5. Big Trucks
What are we talking here? Semis? They’re needed for transport, and while I wish there were better methods of transport, eh, not something I get all frothy about. Now, if we’re talking monster trucks and SUVs, yeah, I have a problem with them, as in most of them are not fucking needed by the jackasses driving them, they pollute and increase dependence on fossil fuels. Smart cars and bicycles for everyone!
6. Capitalism
I don’t like capitalism gone amok, like it has here in uStates. Most everything is more important than money. Don’t get me wrong, I like money, I keep chasing it, trying to convince I would give it a very good home. That said, the pursuit of money to the exclusion of all else is a formula for a rotting society, and that’s what we are seeing right now.
7. Free Markets
Oh, aarrggh, blecch. People who parrot ‘free market’ generally don’t have the slightest fucking idea of what they are talking about, witness all the witless libertarians tossing this about as if they were erudite. Tell you what, Michael, when you can prove, to my satisfaction, that you understand what free market means in the wider context of economics, we can talk.
8. Wealthy People
Okay, you almost have something here. I don’t hate any of them, but I’ll cop to despising and loathing. Filthy rich people tend to be plain filthy, in respect to ethics or principles. They freely indulge in their hatred of the masses, and they will fuck any and all over in the name of another thin dime to add to their pockets. Yes, there is the occasional filthy rich person who manages to hang onto things like sense and empathy, but they are a rare breed. Filthy rich people tend to all come to one end: their money leads them to an addiction to power.
9. Economic Prosperity
Oh, FFS, how many of these are we going to have? I’m pretty sure most people, including myself, enjoy economic prosperity. That said, you don’t get that when you’re busy funneling all available monies into the pockets of filthy rich people and corporations.
10. The Rule of Law
Oh, do I sense a lover of technicality here? Laws are fine. Well, most of them. Many of them are in dire need of revisiting and rewriting. Laws might be important, but justice is more important, every time.
Twitter Audit.
Bots have always been a problem. They are now a much bigger problem, on Twitter in particular. Too many people are gullible, and far too many people simply do not take minutes out to fact check things. Fact checking can be tedious, but it’s part and parcel of being informed these days. Twitter bots have gotten a bit more sophisticated, not much, but enough to fool people, and that’s really all they need to do. This makes it much more difficult to refute all the fakery and Trakery™ out there. Bots can also outperform people, so there’s much more nonsense than valid information on the loose.
A bot will write on Twitter in clunky English, reciting paragraphs of propaganda or fake news in compartmentalized tweets, often featuring rudimentary linguistics and nondescript profiles. Unlike computer programs, frustrated citizens and real people online engage with the context of specific posts, respond to counterpoints and typically use profiles that reflect human personalities. “They’re yelling fools,” Philip N. Howard, a sociologist at the Oxford Internet Institute, told the New York Times, “and a lot of what they pass around is false news.”
But bots—including those designed to support the Trump presidency—are continuing to invade social media and create chatter at such a rapid speed, that the differences are becoming blurred for many users attempting to keep a grasp on reality in 2017.
[…]
But as of recently, many of those bots appear to have one common and undeniable goal: to protect and defend the 45th president of the United States.
[…]
The Trump bots are active virtually 24/7, and especially during times when the president is furiously tweeting.
“A bot army can be utilized for a number of dishonest purposes, chief amongst them, misrepresenting public sentiment about whichever topics the controller has interest in,” Brad Hayes, fellow at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab’s Interactive Robotics Group, told NY Daily News Saturday. “If 3 million people started tweeting in favor of or against a particular topic, would it shift public perception? What if those same 3 million people targeted every source you use for information? It’s fair to say that this kind of written ‘show of force’ can certainly alter perceptions.”
There’s much more at Raw Story.
From Giliell, click for full size! Love those bubbles.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
What an awesome beastie! From Charly: Dramatic looking but harmless insect. And it was moving all the time, wandering out of focus and turning around at the precisely wrong moment – like they all do. Pictures made with the help of a diy flash-light diffuser. Click for full size!
© Charly, all rights reserved.