Monday, August 21, 2017
Blistering!
An excerpt from the LA Times Editorial Board -
Enough is Enough
These are not normal times.
The man in the White House is reckless and unmanageable, a danger to the Constitution, a threat to our democratic institutions.
Last week some of his worst qualities were on display: his moral vacuity and his disregard for the truth, as well as his stubborn resistance to sensible advice. As ever, he lashed out at imaginary enemies and scapegoated others for his own failings. Most important, his reluctance to offer a simple and decisive condemnation of racism and Nazism astounded and appalled observers around the world.
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With such a glaring failure of moral leadership at the top, it is desperately important that others stand up and speak out to defend American principles and values. This is no time for neutrality, equivocation or silence. Leaders across America — and especially those in the president’s own party — must summon their reserves of political courage to challenge President Trump publicly, loudly and unambiguously.
Enough is enough.
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-trump-enough/#nws=mcnewsletter
Enough is Enough
These are not normal times.
The man in the White House is reckless and unmanageable, a danger to the Constitution, a threat to our democratic institutions.
Last week some of his worst qualities were on display: his moral vacuity and his disregard for the truth, as well as his stubborn resistance to sensible advice. As ever, he lashed out at imaginary enemies and scapegoated others for his own failings. Most important, his reluctance to offer a simple and decisive condemnation of racism and Nazism astounded and appalled observers around the world.
Support our journalism
Become a subscriber today to support editorial writing like this. Start getting full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks.
With such a glaring failure of moral leadership at the top, it is desperately important that others stand up and speak out to defend American principles and values. This is no time for neutrality, equivocation or silence. Leaders across America — and especially those in the president’s own party — must summon their reserves of political courage to challenge President Trump publicly, loudly and unambiguously.
Enough is enough.
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-trump-enough/#nws=mcnewsletter
Great Protest Signs
From the Huffington Post -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/boston-free-speech-rally-sign-photos_us_5998666ae4b0a2608a6ca765
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/boston-free-speech-rally-sign-photos_us_5998666ae4b0a2608a6ca765
Promoting Change
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/08/20/nfls-bennett-brothers-show-two-sides-of-activism-for-martellus-bennett-thats-political-cartooning/?utm_term=.724f6b82b693
Sunday, August 20, 2017
This Judge Speaks From Experience
An excerpt from the Guardian -
'He's trying to save lives': the ex-addict judge on the frontline of the opiate crisis
Everyone in Judge Craig Hannah’s opiate-specific court is offered a deal: complete addiction treatment and the charges against them may be reduced
By Edward Helmore
“You have to want to get help, and you have to want to help yourself,” counsels Judge Craig Hannah from his bench in Buffalo city court 11. “You can’t just keep running away from the treatment bus.”
Hannah, a pioneering jurist who oversees the nation’s first Opiate Crisis Intervention Court in northern New York, is speaking to a man who has flunked out of rehab a second time. A bed in a third facility may not be so easy to find. The addict – a “participant” in the parlance of the court – looks doubtful, and Hannah continues his pitch: “If you get on the bus, I’m going to take off my robe and come down there and shake you by the hand.
“But I also need you to hold yourself accountable,” adds Hannah, who has his own firsthand experience of drugs from earlier in his life.
Everyone who comes through the court is essentially offered a deal: complete addiction treatment, and prosecutors may look favorably at reducing the charges against them.
~~~~~~~~~~
Smith found a judge in Hannah, who knows what he’s dealing with. He is, he says, a grateful recovering addict 17 years clean from a dependence on marijuana and cocaine. It takes one to know one, and Hannah’s underlying message to participants in opiate court is of identification: “I tell them the only difference between them and me is time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/20/opioid-crisis-america-buffalo-new-york-trump-national-emergency
'He's trying to save lives': the ex-addict judge on the frontline of the opiate crisis
Everyone in Judge Craig Hannah’s opiate-specific court is offered a deal: complete addiction treatment and the charges against them may be reduced
By Edward Helmore
“You have to want to get help, and you have to want to help yourself,” counsels Judge Craig Hannah from his bench in Buffalo city court 11. “You can’t just keep running away from the treatment bus.”
Hannah, a pioneering jurist who oversees the nation’s first Opiate Crisis Intervention Court in northern New York, is speaking to a man who has flunked out of rehab a second time. A bed in a third facility may not be so easy to find. The addict – a “participant” in the parlance of the court – looks doubtful, and Hannah continues his pitch: “If you get on the bus, I’m going to take off my robe and come down there and shake you by the hand.
“But I also need you to hold yourself accountable,” adds Hannah, who has his own firsthand experience of drugs from earlier in his life.
Everyone who comes through the court is essentially offered a deal: complete addiction treatment, and prosecutors may look favorably at reducing the charges against them.
~~~~~~~~~~
Smith found a judge in Hannah, who knows what he’s dealing with. He is, he says, a grateful recovering addict 17 years clean from a dependence on marijuana and cocaine. It takes one to know one, and Hannah’s underlying message to participants in opiate court is of identification: “I tell them the only difference between them and me is time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/20/opioid-crisis-america-buffalo-new-york-trump-national-emergency
Serpico Supports Kap
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Frank Serpico joins NYPD officers for rally in support of Colin Kaepernick
By Matt Bonesteel
Colin Kaepernick, whose national anthem protests during the 2016 football season were spurred by what he views as police brutality against minorities, received support from an unlikely group on Saturday: dozens of New York City police officers, who rallied in Brooklyn to protest Kaepernick’s continued NFL unemployment. Among them was Frank Serpico, the former NYPD officer whose campaign against police corruption was the subject of the enduring 1973 film, “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino in the title role.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/08/19/frank-serpico-joins-nypd-officers-for-rally-in-support-of-colin-kaepernick/?utm_term=.62917278e77a
Frank Serpico joins NYPD officers for rally in support of Colin Kaepernick
By Matt Bonesteel
Colin Kaepernick, whose national anthem protests during the 2016 football season were spurred by what he views as police brutality against minorities, received support from an unlikely group on Saturday: dozens of New York City police officers, who rallied in Brooklyn to protest Kaepernick’s continued NFL unemployment. Among them was Frank Serpico, the former NYPD officer whose campaign against police corruption was the subject of the enduring 1973 film, “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino in the title role.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/08/19/frank-serpico-joins-nypd-officers-for-rally-in-support-of-colin-kaepernick/?utm_term=.62917278e77a
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Signs of the Times
From the Boston Globe -
Some of the best signs from today’s Boston Common rallies
By the Globe Staff
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/19/some-best-signs-from-today-boston-common-rallies/c2ER3jyLOUGdCX7rxbreuI/story.html
Some of the best signs from today’s Boston Common rallies
By the Globe Staff
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/19/some-best-signs-from-today-boston-common-rallies/c2ER3jyLOUGdCX7rxbreuI/story.html
Where They Stand
From the Washington Post -
Where Republican senators stand on President Trump
By Nicole Lewis, Amber Phillips, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/senate-trump-support/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpreact-graphic-1pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.21cfe4386587
Where Republican senators stand on President Trump
By Nicole Lewis, Amber Phillips, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/senate-trump-support/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpreact-graphic-1pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.21cfe4386587
Common in Sacramento Tomorrow - Free Concert
An excerpt from CAL Matters -
From lyrics to legislation: Common comes rapping on California’s Capitol
By Laurel Rosenhall
Inmates at the state prison in Lancaster got an unusual perk this spring: a private meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown’s top aide and a Grammy-award winning rapper.
It was one stop in a larger effort that has recently brought Common—a musician who blends hip-hop beats with an activist message—close to key California decision-makers. After an artistic career that propelled him from the south side of Chicago to poetry nights in the Obama White House, the 45-year-old rapper is now working to influence state policy. A resident of Los Angeles, Common is trying to change the criminal justice system in California.
In addition to the meeting with Brown aide Nancy McFadden at the Southern California prison in March, Common met with Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol in May to talk about bills that would change California’s bail system and juvenile justice procedures. He’ll be back in Sacramento on Monday, when legislators return from summer recess, holding a free concert outside the Capitol and lobbying politicians inside.
https://calmatters.org/articles/lyrics-legislation-common-comes-rapping-californias-capitol/#nws=mcnewsletter
From lyrics to legislation: Common comes rapping on California’s Capitol
By Laurel Rosenhall
Inmates at the state prison in Lancaster got an unusual perk this spring: a private meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown’s top aide and a Grammy-award winning rapper.
It was one stop in a larger effort that has recently brought Common—a musician who blends hip-hop beats with an activist message—close to key California decision-makers. After an artistic career that propelled him from the south side of Chicago to poetry nights in the Obama White House, the 45-year-old rapper is now working to influence state policy. A resident of Los Angeles, Common is trying to change the criminal justice system in California.
In addition to the meeting with Brown aide Nancy McFadden at the Southern California prison in March, Common met with Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol in May to talk about bills that would change California’s bail system and juvenile justice procedures. He’ll be back in Sacramento on Monday, when legislators return from summer recess, holding a free concert outside the Capitol and lobbying politicians inside.
https://calmatters.org/articles/lyrics-legislation-common-comes-rapping-californias-capitol/#nws=mcnewsletter
Quote
All these folks worried about erasing history when the Confederate statues come down will be thrilled to learn about the existence of books.— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 16, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Children of Catholic Priests - Part 2
Please see the post entitled "Secrets and Sorrow" from August 16th that features the article "Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow" By Michael Rezendes for Part 1 of this extraordinary story.
~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
By Michael Rezendes
ONE BRIGHT MORNING three years ago, Vincent Doyle joined the thousands of Catholic faithful jamming St. Peter’s Square for a chance to see Pope Francis make his weekly public appearance and bestow his blessing on the crowd.
Unlike most of those standing in the searing Roman sun, Doyle was headed to a front-row seat in a reserved section very close to where the pope would emerge, and he was already silently rehearsing an urgent message in the pontiff’s native language.
“I am the son of a Catholic priest in Ireland,” he repeated in Spanish, praying he would not become tongue-tied or overcome with emotion when he met the Holy Father.
Doyle learned at the age of 28 that the beloved godfather he grew up calling “J.J.” — a Catholic priest from a rural diocese in central Ireland — was, in fact, his biological father.
J.J. had died years before, leaving Doyle with many unanswered questions. But, after discovering his true father and meeting a woman whose father was also a Catholic priest, one question in particular would drive him: Just how many children of Catholic clergy are there?
Though there had been notorious scandals in the 1990s involving Irish clergy who fathered children, there was little reliable information on the larger subject of priests and their offspring, Doyle found. So he came up with his own solution: He built a website he called Coping International and invited anyone who was the daughter or son of a priest to contact him.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/17/father-father-priest-son-takes-his-case-directly-pope/g8ObYa0NATZy3itVSzdflM/story.html
~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
By Michael Rezendes
ONE BRIGHT MORNING three years ago, Vincent Doyle joined the thousands of Catholic faithful jamming St. Peter’s Square for a chance to see Pope Francis make his weekly public appearance and bestow his blessing on the crowd.
Unlike most of those standing in the searing Roman sun, Doyle was headed to a front-row seat in a reserved section very close to where the pope would emerge, and he was already silently rehearsing an urgent message in the pontiff’s native language.
“I am the son of a Catholic priest in Ireland,” he repeated in Spanish, praying he would not become tongue-tied or overcome with emotion when he met the Holy Father.
Doyle learned at the age of 28 that the beloved godfather he grew up calling “J.J.” — a Catholic priest from a rural diocese in central Ireland — was, in fact, his biological father.
J.J. had died years before, leaving Doyle with many unanswered questions. But, after discovering his true father and meeting a woman whose father was also a Catholic priest, one question in particular would drive him: Just how many children of Catholic clergy are there?
Though there had been notorious scandals in the 1990s involving Irish clergy who fathered children, there was little reliable information on the larger subject of priests and their offspring, Doyle found. So he came up with his own solution: He built a website he called Coping International and invited anyone who was the daughter or son of a priest to contact him.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/17/father-father-priest-son-takes-his-case-directly-pope/g8ObYa0NATZy3itVSzdflM/story.html
He Has Already Resigned
An excerpt from the NY Times -
The Week When President Trump Resigned
By Frank Bruni
As the worst week in a cursed presidency wound down, I spotted more and more forecasts that Donald Trump would resign, including from Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump and presumably understands his tortured psyche.
They struck me not as wishful or fantastical.
They struck me as late.
Trump resigned the presidency already — if we regard the job as one of moral stewardship, if we assume that an iota of civic concern must joust with self-regard, if we expect a president’s interest in legislation to rise above vacuous theatrics, if we consider a certain baseline of diplomatic etiquette to be part of the equation.
By those measures, it’s arguable that Trump’s presidency never really began. By those measures, it’s indisputable that his presidency ended in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, when he chose — yes, chose — to litigate rather than lead, to attend to his wounded pride instead of his wounded nation and to debate the supposed fine points of white supremacy.
He abdicated his responsibilities so thoroughly and recklessly that it amounted to a letter of resignation. Then he whored for his Virginia winery on the way out the door.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
The Week When President Trump Resigned
By Frank Bruni
As the worst week in a cursed presidency wound down, I spotted more and more forecasts that Donald Trump would resign, including from Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump and presumably understands his tortured psyche.
They struck me not as wishful or fantastical.
They struck me as late.
Trump resigned the presidency already — if we regard the job as one of moral stewardship, if we assume that an iota of civic concern must joust with self-regard, if we expect a president’s interest in legislation to rise above vacuous theatrics, if we consider a certain baseline of diplomatic etiquette to be part of the equation.
By those measures, it’s arguable that Trump’s presidency never really began. By those measures, it’s indisputable that his presidency ended in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, when he chose — yes, chose — to litigate rather than lead, to attend to his wounded pride instead of his wounded nation and to debate the supposed fine points of white supremacy.
He abdicated his responsibilities so thoroughly and recklessly that it amounted to a letter of resignation. Then he whored for his Virginia winery on the way out the door.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
And Then There Was One
From the Washington Post -
Pence is the last man standing in this photo (besides Trump himself)
By Callum Borchers
 |
| This Jan. 28 photo shows President Trump speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office, surrounded, from left, by then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Pence, then-chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, then-press secretary Sean Spicer and then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) |
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/18/mike-pence-is-the-last-man-standing-in-this-photo-besides-trump-himself/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.8ef577a76f45
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