I got an email addressed to “Calling all Christians.” Ooo, I’m a Christian! I had better read this!
“Right now, we must pour every ounce of our energy into Georgia’s runoff election on December 6th.” Okay, the GA runoff is important.
“A 50-50 Senate is very different from a 51-49 Senate because, as we’ve seen time and again, just a single vote can be the deciding factor on issues that matter deeply to Christians.” Sure!
“And that includes stacking our federal courts with far-Left radicals who will serve for life…” Wait, what?
“Over these next couple weeks, My Faith Votes will be mobilizing pastors and their congregations to vote, blanketing all 159 counties with handwritten letters to Christian voters, covering the entire state of Georgia with prayer from across the nation, and more.”
Oh, “Christians” are supposed to vote for the guy who lies about his position on abortion and his status as a law enforcement officer, among many other things. And muse when he rambles, “I don’t want to be a vampire anymore. I want to be a werewolf.” I can see praying for him, though.
And Christian voters are NOT supposed to choose the actual Georgia pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, once home to the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
But there is more of the email I TOTALLY agree with. “Our country is in a different place than it was just a few years ago, and we can no longer laugh off such radicalism.”
Meanwhile
Another email notes: “Roger — Raphael Warnock DESPERATELY needs your help to win the Georgia Runoff Election and protect the Senate Majority.”
Wow, what a dilemma. Should I support the candidate that My Faith Votes supports, even though the football player’s bona fides in the areas of character and competence are…. somewhat lacking? Or should I back the minister who has, in his two years, “served the Peach State with integrity, honor, and dignity”?
The news distresses me. It has been true for a long while, yet even in a barrage of bad news, these trends got under my skin.
ITEM: “A North Carolina Republican congressional candidate floated a proposal to create a community review process that would determine whether survivors of rape and incest can get abortions.
“Bo Hines, the GOP candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, wants to outlaw all abortions unless the mother’s life is at risk.
“‘He wants victims of rape and incest to be allowed to get an abortion on a case-by-case basis through a community-level review process outside the jurisdiction of the federal government,’ local news outlet WRAL reported.”
If you think a serious attempt at national legislation to ban abortion is impossible, that sounds like the conversation that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned before it was.
Anne Frank
ITEM: “Johnny Teague, who is running for Congress in a district that represents Houston, Texas, actually wrote a book in 2020 entitled ‘The Lost Diary of Anne Frank.’ In this book, which Teague claims is based on extensive and verifiable research, Anne Frank continues her diaries while under capture in Auschwitz, and her words now claim that she had accepted Jesus as her lord and savior – before eventually dying in the gas chambers.
“Let’s get one thing straight. This whole concept is pure, unadulterated horse…”
The number of antisemitic comments surged in 2021, and this is another banner year. It’s not just Kanye West or whatever he’s calling himself. Newsmax notes that ‘Antisemitism’ shot to the top of Google searches ahead of the midterms.
Alan Singer, a Long Island professor I’ve met, and a confirmed atheist, wrote I Am A Jew to take on the bigots.
“It’s this no-matter-what vote that’s really turning America into idiocracy. But it may be even worse than that. Whereas bad character and behavior used to be a political handicap, today it actually seems an asset.”
I watched Jordan Klepper Fingers the Midterms – America Unfollows Democracy last week. A scary half hour. Probably the weirdest bit was someone who insisted to Klepper that actor James Woods had replaced Joe Biden. What?
Crime
ITEM: Bail Reform: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (watch this!)
If you’ve seen Republican National Committee attack ads this political season, bail reform has been touted as the reason for increased criminality. This is despite the fact in almost all of the cases of violent crime cited, the alleged perpetrator was not out on bail.
The Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, falls squarely in that category. Frank Robinson noted why one ought not to vote for him. And my already-cast vote was definitely an anti-Zeldin ballot.
I’ve even seen it online, but also on the network news spewed by folks such as Congressman Michael McCaul that Paul Pelosi’s assault is a sign that bail reform is terrible, even though the alleged assailant hadn’t even been arrested.
ITEM: This brings me to the item that triggered the post, the attack on Mr. Pelosi, which has garnered all sorts of BS conspiracy theories. One guy, djt, asserted that the window in the Pelosi home was broken from the inside, which he knows because… IDK.
A lot of the noise is on Twitter. I understand there has been a recent change in ownership. These are just some of the reasons why the news distresses me. Finally, a poem: A ‘plague on both houses’—still ends up a plague.
Rebecca Jade, Death Cafe, and the embarrassing Herschel Walker
Angela Lansbury was in the movie Mutiny (1952), set during the War of 1812. She’s on the cover of Movie Love #16, only rarely offered by Heritage Auctions
The Onion advises the Supreme Court’s ‘total Latin dorks’ on parody
Decomposing HUMAN remains can legally be used as compost from 2027 thanks to new California law aimed at tackling climate change
Someone is pretending to be me, and Internet Trolls Have Tormented This Sci-Fi Writer for Years—and He Can’t Stop Them
Cheating scandal at an Ohio tournament rocks the competitive fishing world
NY-CT Border Disputes and The Kidnapping of Freedom-Seeker Peter John Lee
Against All Odds – Building Albany’s Free Black Community in the Early 1800s
The U.S. Just Renamed 650 Sites Around the Country—Here’s Why It Matters
MAD magazine’s oldest active artist is still spoofing what makes us human. Sergio Aragonés has drawn for the publication since he arrived in New York from Mexico 60 years ago. At age 85, he’s contributed to its 70th-anniversary issue: “Drawing has become like walking.”
Charles Fuller, Playwright, and Screenwriter Behind A Soldier’s Play, Dies at 83
Robbie Coltrane, Comic Performer Who Played Hagrid in Harry Potter Movies, Dies at 72
Now I Know: When a Lot of Wine Had to Defend Itself in Front of the Supreme Court, and How a Lot of Typos Led to Late Emails and The Intentionally Bad Song That Accidentally Worked and We Are All Invisible Pinocchios
POLLY TICKS
The Making and Remaking (and Remaking) of MAGA Heir Ron DeSantis
What is a MAGA Republican? and Racism, Lies, and Hypocrisy Are Now Seen as Electable Qualities in GOP Candidates
Herschel Walker says forget about him holding a gun to his wife’s head because Jesus and Does anything matter?
Democrats Warn That Republicans Will Turn US Into a Fascist Hellhole If GOP Prevails in Midterms
Speaking Out Against Hate: SPLC Intelligence Project Director tells a congressional panel that white supremacy threatens communities, education, and democracy
Inside the S–tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition
Why ‘Veep’ and ‘The West Wing’ Plotted a Crossover Reunion (Hint: to Save Democracy)
Someone named Gregory purchased http://www.governorgregabbott.com/ and built for him his very own (not very complimentary) website. “More content is on the way.” He also bought the following: EliseStefanik2022.com KevinMcCarthy2022.com TheLaurenBoebert.com GymJordan2022.com SenatorRonJohnson.com SenatorMarcoRubio.com OfficialSCOTUS.com DevinNunes2022.com
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Bolsonaro, Brazil’s terrible leader
Loretta Lynn, Feisty First Lady of Country Music, Coal Miner’s Daughter, dies at 90. Living in her America. Over her long career, she documented the highs and lows of rural life in an incredibly complex emotional register.
Official release date of Rebecca Jade’s newest album, A Shade of Jade
For more than 40 years, taxpayers funded the FBI’s fruitless surveillance of Aretha Franklin
Linda Ronstadt on Her New Memoir, Feels Like Home, and Her Mexican American Heritage
Questlove and Black Thought Know Much More Than Music
DEATH CAFE in Albany, NY
The parking lot in the back of the Library and the street parking meters are free on Saturdays.
Learn more about this international movement at DeathCafe.com
Folks will break into small groups of 4-6, as always. Please wear a mask inside until you are seated with your small group, and your group chooses to be masked or not. Homemade treats and cold and hot water for tea; feel free to bring your own mug and/or beverage.
As always – it is not a support group. We just talk about whatever our group chooses and respect each other’s views. Please RSVP by emailing to DeathCafeAlbany@gmail.com
I got an email addressed to “Calling all Christians.” Ooo, I’m a Christian! I had better read this!
The news distresses me. It has been true for a long while, yet even in a barrage of bad news, these trends got under my skin.
Some Controversial 
The parking lot in the back of the Library and the street parking meters are free on Saturdays.