THEOLOGY LESSON

I'll bet the graveyards of heaven are really beautiful.

WHORE OF BABYLON

It's Amy Coney Barrett.  Considering that the left is going to lose influence in the Supreme Court for at least a generation, we can expect anti-Catholicism to once again become intellectually respectable.  And since these are Democrats, the same party that has no civilization, decency or honor left, we can expect the left to pretend to be "concerned" about Ms. Barrett's two Haitian adoptee children.

After all, if you're entirely willing to enthusiastically lie through your teeth in order to publicly destroy a man, using someone's children against them should be the easiest thing in the world for you.  As far as I'm concerned, the Democratic Party now has the same reputation as its former militia, the Ku Klux Klan.  And I'm not sure which direction the Democrats are headed.

JAYWALKING

Lately, it has become the fashion for much of our protesting class to block traffic in the public streets while harassing and/or threatening individual drivers.  Stupidity like this hits WAY too close to home for Jim Treacher.

 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen several instances of “peaceful protesters” (AKA rioters) testing the laws of physics by using their fragile human bodies to challenge moving motor vehicles. The vehicles always win, because that’s how reality works.

 

I don’t know why some people think it’s a good idea to do this. Okay, so you hate the police. That’s your right. This is America, and you can hate anybody you want. But your hatred and anger isn’t some kind of mystical force field. Your belief that you’re right isn’t going to stop a moving car. The matchup isn’t David vs. Goliath, it’s Bug vs. Windshield.

 

This is personal to me because I know what it’s like to get hit by a car. It happened to me 10 years ago. I was crossing a street, with the Walk signal and inside the crosswalk, when a driver made an illegal left turn into the intersection and hit me. (This was in Washington, D.C., and the vehicle was a State Department security SUV, which is a whole other story.) It shattered my knee and I needed two surgeries and 18 months of physical therapy before I could walk unaided again. I still deal with the injury every day. Every time I take a step with my left leg, I’m reminded of it. I know what happens when a moving vehicle meets a human body, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I wouldn’t even wish it on Brian Stelter.

SOCIOPATH SAYS WHAT?

Everyone who saw the disgraceful performance of the Democrats at the Kavanaugh hearings to Delaware Senator Chris Coons.  Bite me.

KNOW WHAT WOULD BE NICE?

If journalistic organizations like Reuters would employ some actual Christian since that would hopefully mean that I wouldn't have to see nearly as many useless, worthless, ignorant, and bigoted pieces like this one as I do now.

DEAR PALESTINIANS

Is it sinking in yet? Nobody is ever going to give you a state. Particularly you. 

There are many explanations for this dramatic change in the Middle East balance of power and the evolving alliance between most of the Arab-Sunni states and Israel. One could cite the end of the Cold War, the collapse of Pan Arabism, the rise of Sunni and Shiite Islamism, the growing “cold war” between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and America’s energy independence. That person might also note the impact of the strategic depreciation of the “oil weapon,” the loss of centrality of the Palestinian issue in regional and global politics. and the rising fear—shared by Arabs and Israelis—of a strategic threat posed by Iran.

From here.

GASP

JOE?

STOP. TALKING.

CRAP JUST GOT REAL

 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.  And if you think the left is batcrap now...if you think the American news media are all insufferable Democratic stenographers now.

UPDATE: Looks like the left will be playing this religious bigot garbage again.

 

"ALL THE PEOPLE" JOE?

Joe Biden says stuff.

CAN I BE HONEST HERE?

Donald Trump has done more for world peace in four years than Barack Obama EVER did in his entire worthless presidential career. And it's not even close. Damn straight Trump's earned a Nobel Peace Prize.

First, it was the United Arab Emirates and Israel making peace. Then it was Serbia and Kosovo agreeing to set aside political disputes to sign an economic deal. And now Bahrain and ­Israel are set to sign a peace treaty. The last month has been a remarkable one for the Biblical injunction to turn swords into plowshares. Most dramatically, the number of Arab countries recognizing Israel’s right to exist has doubled, from two to four, a leap that is reshaping 75 years of Middle East politics before our eyes. These breakthroughs were brokered by President Trump and his administration. It is an extraordinary record of peacemaking, yet in too many circles, it is being treated as a sideshow without significance.

UPDATE:  If this actually happens and Donald Trump doesn't win a Nobel Peace Prize, then there's absolutely no point in having a Nobel Peace Prize anymore.

HOW TO KNOW WHEN YOUR ASS HAS BEEN HANDED TO YOU

When you'd rather destroy the league you play in rather than see your hated rival win.

Trolls are a Scandinavian invention, straight from the frigid sagas of Norse mythology, but Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a Norwegian parliamentarian, swears that he is not one. Observers of his antics this week could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. On Wednesday, he announced that he had nominated Donald J. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. “Can you name a person who has done more for peace than President Trump?” Tybring-Gjedde asked me, insisting that the question was a serious one. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, agreed. ”This is a hard-earned and well-deserved honor for the president,” she said. Tybring-Gjedde defended his nomination on Fox News remotely, and to me in person at a café in Oslo. “Do we give the prize to Greta Thunberg, for screaming about the environment?” he asked. “The agreement he made between Israel and the United Arab Emirates could mean peace between Israel and the Arab world. That is like the [Berlin] Wall falling down.” Today the White House reportedly will announce that Bahrain, another Gulf monarchy, will recognize Israel.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S MORE SURPRISING

That Quin Snyder still has a job coaching basketball (the guy accomplished nothing here in Missouri). Or that job is coaching in the NBA.

TELL YOU WHAT

If Tulsi Gabbard had managed to take down this pot and consigned Joe to an old folks home, Donald Trump would be seriously sweating right about now. UPDATE: Seems kiddie porn isn't as big of a deal in Cali as it once may have been. Oh well.

END GAME

Jenny Poo? I get you being bitter about the Republican base no longer being willing to mindlessly accept instruction from people like you. Thing is, sweetheart, if you follow John McCain, who didn't much care for the Republican base with Mitt Romney and try to pass him off as a jen-yoo-wine conservative, Donald Trump basically becomes inevitable. But this shit crosses a line.

UPDATE: Get help, Larry.

WANT A REASON TO VOTE FOR TRUMP?

Here's a pretty good one. Trump's Supreme Court list. While I love the idea of Ted Cruz and/or Tom Cotton on the Court for several generations to come, I'm still not sure about Josh Hawley joining them. The kid had been Missouri attorney general for all of two years before he took on @clairecmc McKaskill for the Senate and dismissed her to MSNBC and I was dubious about him doing that. I'm not sure if I want him on the Court or still in the Senate.

MENTAL PICTURE

Is this going to happen?

President Donald Trump has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to broker peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates - and immediately went on a Twitter spree of self-congratulation Wednesday.

 

He was nominated by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, an ultra-conservative member of the Norwegian Parliament, who praised Trump for brokering a deal in which the UAE and Israel agreed to establish diplomatic ties and trade links and allow free travel between their countries for the first time.

 

Probably not, although Trump's done more for world peace than his predecessor ever did and all his predecessor ever did for world peace was get elected.  Although if it did actually happen, it's fun to envisage the heads of people like Bill Kristol, Rick Wilson and Mandy Carpenter exploding.

WHO'S WARGAMING THE SECOND AMERICAN CIVIL WAR?

Quick hint: it ain't the right.

“It is very obvious that Trump is laying the groundwork for claiming victory no matter what,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, and a participant in the FBT call. “Progressive groups at the end of the day believe in our democracy and, while it is not perfect, believe in building upon it and strengthening it. And we will fight to protect it from what we truly see as a president who has gone off the rails and taking this country down an authoritarian fascist path.”

Below the surface, it was even more harrowing. In the simulations, the Trump campaign was “consistently more ruthless than Team Biden,” the authors wrote. The options that Team Trump had to use or misuse included manipulating classified information, selectively releasing “classified documents for political purposes, fueling manufactured rumors,” freezing “assets of individuals and groups the president determines to be a threat,” and restricting “internet communications in the name of national security.” 

But the Transition Integrity Project noted that there would be immense pressure on Biden to fight it out if, for the third time in 20 years, the Democratic candidate won the popular vote but didn’t take office. In a simulation they ran, Team Biden “encouraged Western states, particularly California but also Oregon and Washington, and collectively known as ‘Cascadia,’ to secede from the Union” unless structural reforms were made. In exchange for Trump getting the presidency, for instance, Republicans would need to agree to abolish the Electoral College, give Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood, and divide California into five states for better Senate representation.

WHERE WE ARE

This is the situation, folks.

CALLING THEM HOME

One of the first memories of St. Louis professional sports I ever had was in 1964.  I was a little kid and dumber than a bag of hammers but I couldn't believe that my Cardinals traded one of their best pitchers, Ernie Broglio, to the Chicago Cubs for some guy called Lou Brock.

Hall of Famer Lou Brock, who died at age 81 at a local hospital Sunday afternoon after being in ill health, will be remembered for many accomplishments. He was the National League’s all-time leader in stolen bases with 938. He had 3,023 hits. He was a first-ballot electee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He was the “Base Burglar,” who came to the Cardinals in 1964 via a trade in which the Cardinals ripped off the Chicago Cubs.

If I remember correctly, Broglio's career basically died after he left here while Brock became an institution in this town.  I'm going to miss you, Lou.

NOTHING PERSONAL, LYDA

But this is kind of why those of us out here in Farm Country* would prefer to keep you at arm's length.  Well, completely separate for all time, basically.

[St. Louis] Mayor Lyda Krewson has temporarily relocated after a string of protests at her Central West End home.

The mayor on Wednesday confirmed that she and her husband, former television reporter Mike Owens, have been living at an apartment, also in the Central West End.

“We have not lived at home for 2 months,” Krewson said in a text message to a reporter. “We did it to deescalate the situation, to save police resources, and importantly because our neighbors were being disturbed and threatened.”
 

The mayor said “for me it comes with the territory.”
 

“I ran for this job — my neighbors did not,” Krewson said.

*So designated because while the only things even vaguely "agricultural" that are still out here in St. Louis County, Missouri are the odd horse ranch or weirdo who raises chickens or something, the device on the seal of St. Louis County consists of a plow.  A long time ago, that pissed off the St. Louis Post-Dispatch enough to try to change it but they couldn't pull it off.

NOT AS I DO

Sit this one out, Joe.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Remember when people actually had to accomplish something to win Nobel Peace Prizes and not just get elected to office?  Because I sure do.

Israel and Kosovo have agreed to establish diplomatic ties and Kosovo, along with Serbia, will open embassies in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday.

Netanyahu's statement came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump made a similar announcement in Washington, where he met with leaders of Serbia and Kosovo as they agreed to normalize economic ties between them.

POCKET ACES

Nailed it.

FAKE NEWS

"Sources" say that, do they, Jake?  You do know that you work for CNN, right?  Either slap a name on those "sources" or figure out some other way to get Nanner McBotox out of the headlines.  Because nobody's buying your crap anymore.

BEAR ANY BURDEN

Jim Martin is determined that the Roman Catholic Church goes Episcopalian.

ALL-IN

Nobody's buying this "public health" crap anymore, Gav.

Grace Community Church and its pastor, John MacArthur, have chosen to defy an unconstitutional order banning indoor church services in the name of fighting the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Los Angeles County has engaged in ridiculous court shenanigans to force the church to shut its doors but to no avail. So on Friday, the county’s Department of Public Works unilaterally decided to cancel the church’s lease agreement for a large portion of the church’s parking lot.

“Los Angeles County is retaliating against Grace Community Church for simply exercising their constitutionally protected right to hold church and challenging an unreasonable, unlawful health order,” Jenna Ellis, who is representing MacArthur and the church, and is a personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, said in a statement. “In America, we have a judicial system to ensure that the executive branch does not abuse its power, and Grace Community Church has every right to be heard without fear of reprisal.”

“The Democrats’ message to Americans is clear—if you don’t bow to every whim of tyranny, the government will come after you,” Ellis added. “The Church has peacefully held this lease for 45 years and the only reason the County is attempting eviction is because John MacArthur stood up to their unconstitutional power grab. This is harassment, abusive, and unconscionable.”

What with this.

And Nanner McBotox.

UPDATE: Yeah, Nanner. Senility. Run with that.

UPDATE: Stop digging, Nanner.

UPDATE: Seriously, Nanner.  Just stop.

UPDATE: Don't even try it, Dyl-Dyl.

@jack?

I got run off Twitter a while back.  Never did discover the reason why but I can sort of figure it out as long as the platform keeps letting crap like this slide.

WALK-OFF

The Prof goes yard.

Instead [Trump] brought up all these positive, successful pro-Trump minority people and told his followers “look, these are our kind of people and we’re glad to have them.” And he reached out to others.  Instead of meeting hate with hate, he met hate with . . . love.  You might almost say ‘love trumps hate.’  Or maybe ‘Trump trumps hate, with love.’  And he did it without being smarmy or rolling over with some kind of sad ‘Republicans can be woke too’ carnival.  He crushed the Democrats on this, and he did it with positivity and inclusion.  I don’t think there’s another political figure today who could have done that, and only a few who might have tried. And it’s the only response that could have pulled the rug out from under the race war the Democrats seem unaccountably to want.

I know that you're not supposed to say or think things like this and I yield to no one in my sneaking admiration for all the many and varied aspects of Democratic criminality but I can't help but wonder if the Democrats realize how badly November's going to go for them.

YEAH, WHATEVER

It's not like I give a crap anymore.

CLARIFICATION

Is that what this is, Teddy?  In that case, Portland can burn to the ground as far as I'm concerned, it's remaining businesses filing peaceably out, leaving a smoking hole behind them.

Entertain your own damned hippies, Teddy.

SEPPUKU

I grew up with one so I used to want to see another NBA team in this town.  I don't anymore.

It's like I've always said.  I've never seen the sense in paying for Episcopal sermons when I can go to a nearby Episcopal Organization outlet and see one for free whenever the mood strikes me.

UPDATE: Sigh.  At least I've still got MU.

APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY

NOW do you understand the Billy Graham/Mike Pence unwillingness to be alone in a room with a woman you're not married to??

As Republicans hold a convention that portrays President Trump as all but a living god, one of his most important supporters from the religious right is experiencing a precipitous fall from grace. Like a scene from a satire attacking the hypocrisy of organized religion, Jerry Falwell Jr. is being brought down in a sex scandal.

Uh huh.

Falwell — the son of the man who helped turn White evangelical Christians into a potent political force, and one of Trump’s most fervent advocates on the Christian right — has now resigned as the president of Liberty University after a social media post showing him with his pants half unzipped and his arm around a young woman went viral.

So is this an embarrassment to Trump, that one of his closest allies on the religious right is being so publicly shamed? Don’t bet on it. The truth is, while White evangelical leaders may still gather around to lay hands on Trump, he doesn’t really need them. He has their followers in a grip that won’t ever be loosened.

Paulie?  Let me see if I can spell this out for you.  For those of us evangelical Prots who support the president, Donald Trump is NOT a prophet.  He is not the second coming of Elijah.  He is America's First Government Employee, its First Civil Servant. 

And that's all he is.  Or ever will be.

Don't try this at home, as they say.

FINDING THE RANGE

How to know you've hit home.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED

In case you're interested in why more and more of us are going to stop paying attention to Chinese Flu-related "public health" regulations, here 'tis.

Musical performers and celebrities coming to New York for the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) will not be subject to the state's 14-day coronavirus quarantine mandate, according to a New York Post report.

“The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Citywide Events is working in close coordination with the production to ensure guidelines are being followed,” a City Hall spokesperson told the newspaper.

"[Performers] will only interact with other members of the cast and crew and will quarantine when not working,” the spokesperson added.

THE STREAK

Jeff Goldstein has been on fire lately.  Start here.

THERE'S TOUGH

And then there's tough.

CONSENSUS

There is no sentiment expressed here with which I take issue.

SCHADENFREUDE

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't giggling like an idiot.  Moobs comes out for Biden.

One of the most revolting things about Joe Biden’s candidacy is his dishonest insistence that Donald Trump called white supremacists “fine people.” Democrats have successfully used this hoax to brainwash large parts of the American public into believing that Trump and his supporters are racists and anti-Semites. One wonders, therefore, how much consternation there is in Biden campaign headquarters now that Richard Spencer, one of America’s best-known neo-Nazis, is all in for Biden.
 
Richard Spencer is an unapologetic neo-Nazi. He’s frequently seen giving Nazi salutes, quoting Nazi propaganda, and making openly anti-Semitic statements. He thinks Haitians should be re-enslaved and that racial minorities should be removed from America. Not surprisingly, his wife has accused him of verbal and physical abuse. He is a terrible human being.
 
To sum it up, Richard Spencer is a vile racist and anti-Semite. President Trump strongly denounced Richard Spencer and all other white supremacists. Nevertheless, Joe Biden continuously lies about Trump’s denunciation, pretending that Trump is allied with white supremacists, as are Trump’s supporters.

And now for the punchline.

"I plan to vote for Biden and a straight democratic ticket. It’s not based on 'accelerationism' or anything like that; the liberals are clearly more competent people."

Joe?  DNC?  Reaction?

THE LEAST OF THESE

This is why we don't vote for Democrats, Kammi.

AUGERING IN

Joe tries out a hot new campaign slogan.

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI

Remember when Trump's impeachment and removal MIGHT BE THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING THAT CAN SAVE THIS REPUBLIC?

CUZZZZZZZZZZ...I do.

CHECK YOURSELF

If your psychotic hatred of a US president makes you believe that publicly and savagely criticizing the guy's wife over a garden doesn't make you look like a blithering idiot.  Admit it, Howie.  You don't really mean a word of it; you're just flailing for reasons to rip the guy.  If Michelle Obama had redesigned the Rose Garden in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, you'd be swooning over it and calling her a national treasure or something.

There's a reason (well, lots of them) why nobody respects your "profession" anymore, Howie.

DRAMA QUEEN

Dial it down, Eikey.

STILL WAITIN', GAV

Why is it a health threat when Christians assemble together but not when Marxists do?

Why didn’t the city merely enforce the health order and issue the fines? Perhaps Los Angeles’s lawyers are afraid they will lose the lawsuit. If the city issues fines and arrests MacArthur and his congregation, not only would that provide a concrete and visceral example of the county’s oppressive crackdown on religious freedom but it would also increase the amount of damages awarded to MacArthur and GCC if they prevail in the case.

The lawsuit paints a damning picture of the despicable double standard in California’s coronavirus restrictions. According to the lawsuit, the American people have witnessed that “the onerous restrictions imposed on them by public officials to allegedly fight the COVID-19 pandemic simply do not apply to certain, favored groups. When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political’ or ‘peaceful’ protests purportedly against racism and police brutality, these protestors refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protestors.”

Give us all a break, Gav.

GOTCHA

I see, AP.  The Episcopal Shriners Democrats didn't REALLY leave the phrase "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance.  They just said it twice instead of four times and both those times were when no one was looking.  I understand completely.

Want to know something?  Wouldn't bother me too much if the Democrats didn't use the word "God" at all.  Since the Episcopal Shriners Democrats view terms like "God" and "Jesus" and "Holy Spirit" exactly the same way as the Episcopalians do, as professional jargon, go ahead and leave them out.  You're not fooling anybody anyway.

JERSEY ELECTION FRAUD?

Stop yanking my chain.

A New Jersey election has been invalidated by a judge, and a new election has been ordered to be held, due to rampant mail-in voter fraud.

On Wednesday, State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela ruled that the election for a Paterson City Council seat had been irreversibly tainted. A new election has been ordered to take place in November.

QUICK REMINDER

"Uncle Teddy" killed a woman.

ELDERLY HIPPIES?

That's seriously the approach you want to take, Dems?

The closing song, “For What It’s Worth,” was written by Stephen Stills as a member of Buffalo Springfield — later of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fame — in 1966 — 54 years ago — in response to Sunset Strip curfew riots; a series of early counterculture-era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Strip in Hollywood, California.

The history of the song matters, of course, because the Democrat Party has not only backed the continuing unrest in the now 85 days since George Floyd’s death; they’ve all but donned cheerleader uniforms, grabbed the pom-poms, and joined the rioters in the streets.

Me, I would have gone with the Velvet Underground or something.

SHOWS WHAT I KNOW

I thought the CWE was basically Lib Central in this town but maybe not.

The St. Louis couple who brandished guns to protect their home from rioters will reportedly participate in next week’s Republican National Convention and support President Trump.

Patricia and Mark McCloskey, whose home defense went viral and drew threats of prosecution from the city’s Democratic chief prosecutor, will make an appearance during the virtual weeklong event, party officials told The Washington Post.

CLAIRE?

When's the last time you actually used a mail box for anything at all?  Asking for a friend.

#HawleyKickedYourAssForAReason

HANDY ANDY

The first of what will unfortunately be far too many Chinese Flu books is coming out soon and guess who's writing it.  Here's a hint.  Elderly corpses stacked like cordwood.

PROOF-TEXTING

Dave French is Gravely Concerned again.

I don't know, Dave.  How about you finally confront the voice from Scripture that says "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" and admit that you object to Donald Trump because you find him personally distasteful and for NO OTHER REASON.

Pretentious jackass.

UPDATE: Let's just cut the crap, shall we, Dave?

YEAH, OKAY, "BISHOP"

It's "Christian" to wish for somebody else's death so run with that, crapweasel,  "Bishop."

CONSPIRACY THEORY

Apparently this is a thing now.

Seems Donald Trump is gutting the Postal Service so he can win the election in November.  You know, because of THE PANDEMIC, nobody's going to want to go out to a polling place but everyone's going to want to mail in their votes instead.  Or something.  There have been pictures of mailboxes being hauled away in trucks and people pretending to be all alarmed and stuff.

But it got me to thinking.  I can't remember the last time I used a mailbox for anything.  Used to use them all the time when I was a kid.  There was one within easy walking distance of my house that I patronized on a regular basis.  But I just stopped using them.  I can't remember the last thing I had to mail to someone.

I don't pay my rent or my bills through the mail anymore.  I don't have to.  I have apps on my phone that instantly take care of that stuff (I don't even want to think about it if anything ever happened to that phone.  My whole life is in that thing).  I couldn't tell you the last thing I wrote a check for; I'm not even sure I can still do it right.

And these days, I rarely use cash for anything except the laundry.

I suppose there are security protocols that could be put in place to allow online voting at some point down the road.  But we're not there yet.  So if you want to make sure your vote counts, here's an idea.  Wear a mask, find out where your polling place is and vote there.

Then go home.

AND NOW...IDIOTS

Off the top of my head, I'd say for the same reason why this is covered by the First Amendment even though you didn't hand write it on a piece of paper and tack it to a church door.

You're rarely as smart as you think you are.

OPTICS

Pull the trigger, Gav.  John MacArthur dares you.

On Thursday, Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, Calif., filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-Los Angeles), and other state and local officials, claiming that coronavirus orders prohibiting in-person worship services while officials encourage politically-favored protests violate the California Constitution. After Newsom ordered churches to shut on July 13, Grace Community Church announced it would remain open.

On July 29, the City of Los Angeles sent a cease-and-desist letter, threatening Grace Community Church and MacArthur with a daily fine of $1,000 or arrest. The letter gave him one day to respond. On Sunday, August 2, health officials came to the church, asking to inspect the premises. The church declined to let them in without a warrant and told them to speak with the church’s counsel. At that, they left.

The lawsuit argues that the American people have witnessed that “the onerous restrictions imposed on them by public officials to allegedly fight the COVID-19 pandemic simply do not apply to certain, favored groups. When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political’ or ‘peaceful’ protests purportedly against racism and police brutality, these protestors refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protestors.”

That's going to be a great look for the Democrats, Gav.  Arresting church-goers while giving a pass to the lefties and the Marxists.  Tell Joe and Kammi to start thinking about how they're going to talk their way past those ads.  Because you know those ads will be coming, Gav.

RHETORICAL QUESTION

Unlike his predecessor, President Trump actually accomplished something that advances the cause of peace.  So one assumes that we can look forward to his Nobel Peace Prize.  Can't we?

UPDATE: When even Tom Friedman is impressed...

UPDATE: This agreement has this going for it.  The "Palestinians" are pissed.

“The Palestinian leadership rejects and denounces the UAE, Israeli and US trilateral, surprising, announcement,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. That was just one indication of how welcome, how much of a breath of fresh air, the agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel really is. The Palestinian leadership has encouraged the murder of Israeli civilians and boasted of the ultimate destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jews. If Abbas and company are unhappy, the free world should be happy.

Maybe, just maybe, the Muslim world is starting to grow up.

DUMPSTER FIRE

I don't know what's going on with the McCloskey case here in the STL but it sounds like if Kimmy has a functioning brain cell left in her head, she'll drop this the day before yesterday.

The lead St. Louis police detective investigating the McCloskey case refused to sign at least two versions of court documents prosecutors drafted, according to a review of those documents obtained by 5 On Your Side.

In addition, police contend at least one person in the crowd was armed and another was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, after analyzing videos taken June 28, when the couple confronted protesters with guns.

THEY MAY HAVE BURNED BIBLES

But they didn't really...you know...BURN Bibles.

KNOW NOTHINGS

Kammi is Joe's veep selection.  Good luck putting a "Catholic" spin on that.

Someone might want to remind Joe Biden, who’s just picked progressive California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, that his vice-president-to-be believes Catholics are unfit to serve in our nation’s courts.

In late 2018, while evaluating the nomination of Brian Buescher to serve as a district judge in Nebraska, Harris posed a series of questions insinuating that his involvement in the Knights of Columbus — a charitable Catholic fraternal organization — disqualified him from serving on the bench.

Just go Episcopalian, Joe.  It would be a lot easier for you.

MAYBE IT'S ME

But I have to figure that losing your black female police chief is not a metropolitan talking point.

KATIE BEAR?

Get used to something, sweetheart.  You're not out because of "misogyny" or whatever other little leftist buzzword you think will impress stupid people.  You did the help.  You're not supposed to do the help.  At all.  And I don't care if you think it was "consensual."  Ain't no such thing if you're the boss and somebody else isn't.  Even Nanner McBotox understood that.

STELTER THEATRE

It has to suck to be Brian Stelter.  What you have to tell yourself just to get up in the morning.

QUICK QUESTION

Are there lots of feral hogs in German parks?  Seems like that might be a problem.

#BratwurstOnTheHoof

And don't get me started on the naked guys.

LINCOLN PROJECT?

Just...don't.  Don't waste our time.

We know that Catholic priests have refused Communion to the old fraud more than once.  Might be his infanticide enthusiasm, I'm not sure.  I mean, if you're perfectly cool with suing the Little Sisters of the Poor into violating their consciences...

You might have been able to get away with "devout Episcopalian," as worthless as such a phrase would be and is.  Or "enthusiastic Shriner."  You know, outreach to the Muslim community or something.  But we're not stupid and it would be nice if, for once, you could pretend that you actually believed that.

Chances are, we're going to disappoint you big-time in the fall but still...

THE ROWAN WILLIAMS LAW

You're a piss-poor communicator if people are constantly explaining What You Really Meant.

ONE FOR TWO

We're giving Kimmy four more years.

The prosecutor who charged a now-infamous St. Louis couple for pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion last month has won her primary election for a second term.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner — who President Trump accused of “extreme abuse of power” — triumphed over her challenger in the Democratic primary on Tuesday evening by a 61-39 margin.

Oh well.  I guess that since Kimmy botched the Greitens case as badly as she did, she should get the opportunity to have the McCloskey business blow up in her face.  Only fair.

WOW

This.  Is.  HUGE.

Cori Bush, a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay Tuesday in Missouri’s Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.

Bush’s primary win essentially guarantees her a seat in Congress representing the heavily Democratic St. Louis area. Missouri’s 1st Congressional District has been represented by Clay or his father for a half-century. Bill Clay served 32 years before retiring in 2000. William Lacy Clay, 64, was elected that year.

She's a radical leftist?  No change; so were Lacy and his old man.  But the First District was a Clay family seat forever and this win indicates that the Democrats better not take anything for granted.  It doesn't mean much in Missouri itself.  The First District is one of the two places in this state where Democrats still matter (the other's Kansas City).

But try to imagine Ted Kennedy losing a Massachusetts senatorial election.

CORRIGENDUM

The Babylon Bee

Dear Sirs:

In a recent story, you claimed that Episcopal churches have begun employing cardboard parishioners to appear fuller than they actually are.  As an Episcopalian from my birth in 1955 until 2003, let me assure you that nothing can be further from the truth; Episcopal churches are just as full today as they ever were and they have suffered no ill effects whatsoever from the various Anglican controversies over the last several decades.  You may be confused by the fact that for many years now, it has been the fashion among Episcopalians, young and old, to attend church services disguised as empty pews.

Yours very sincerely,

Christopher S. Johnson

JENNISAURUS JEN

Jenny Rubin looks into a mirror, sees herself and realizes that she's going to have six more election cycles of losing.

I'M GOING TO NEED A RULING, DALE

NO WAY IN HELL, ANDY

But thanks for playing.

Besides, I don't know why you'd need any money at all to rack up another 6,000 elderly corpses stacked like cordwood.

MCJ TRAVEL TIP

Add Minneapolis to your no-way-in-hell list.

YA THINK?????

Maybe, just maybe, Dave's starting to figure it out.

SOMETIMES TWITTER DOESN'T SUCK

You will not find a better illustration of Where We Are than this.

JOSEPH GOEBBELS, YOU HAVE A CALL ON THE WHITE COURTESY PHONE

MCJ TRAVEL TIP

Avoid Seattle, Washington for the foreseeable future.

Well, it may be time to deploy the military to Seattle after all because what local lawmakers are doing is nothing short of allowing the city to be engulfed in violence and anarchy. They’re moving to abolish the police. It’s not defunding. It’s a total dissolution. Non-profit programs and “community-led activities” will replace policing. Why? Well, according to the resolution, the Seattle Police Department perpetuates racism and violence. Oh, yes, and it’s a vehicle of white supremacy. It's typical 'woke' nonsense, and it's a cancer that's killing America.

JOURNALISMING

Two questions, Brian Stelter.  Does CNN know that Florida has a quarter of the deaths that New York does?  And does CNN know the difference between news and editorials?

#BeijingNewsNetwork  #DemocraticPartyStenoPool

THIS JUST IN

"Science" is anything people in power want it to be and Anthony Fauci is a hypocrite.

THIS...IS CNN

You spelled "women" wrong.

YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS

Yet another St. Louis-area prosecutor is in trouble.  This time with the left.

Activists were quick to denounce Democratic St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell after he announced Thursday that he would not bring charges against Darren Wilson.

Bell, the county’s first black prosecutor, ran on a progressive platform of criminal justice reform and many expected him to charge Wilson, a former Ferguson police officer, for shooting and killing Michael Brown on August 9, 2014.

After five months of review, however, Bell announced that he had not found enough evidence to bring charges against Wilson. “I can’t ethically charge him,” Bell said. “It would violate the ethical standards of my profession.”

Enjoy all those home visits you're going to get from all those pissed-off lefties, Wes.  But you know who else came to the same conclusion Wes did?

Former President Barack Obama’s Justice Department, under former Attorney General Eric Holder, investigated the case and did not find enough evidence to bring charges.

Damn.  I don't think there's enough microwave popcorn in this entire state.

TELL YOU WHAT

We'll let up when you start being journalists and stop being Democratic Party stenographers.

Deal?

THE KIMMY FOLLIES

The Gift That Keeps On Giving may have just done something MONUMENTALLY stupid.

Attorneys representing Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who displayed firearms after a group of protesters broke a gate and approached their private property, want St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner disqualified from the case after she cited her prosecution of the pair in a fundraising email for her re-election campaign.

The McCloskeys attorneys included in Wednesday’s motion two fundraising emails from Gardner’s reelection campaign that clearly referred to the McCloskey case, according to court documents reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“You might be familiar with the story of the couple who brandished guns during a peaceful protest outside their mansion,” a July 17 campaign email states, according to court documents.

The email went on to say that “President Trump and the Governor [Mike Parson] are fighting for the two who pointed guns at peaceful citizens during the Black Lives Matter protests” and later included a request for campaign donations, the court documents show.

Read the whole thing.

"Peaceful protest," Kimmy?  "Peaceful citizens?"  Give me a break.  A man here has died during this crap.  And it looks as if you just botched another case.

Idiot.

UPDATE: The AG's officially in.

The police have been unable to truly bring order to the situation. The McCloskey response was not illegal. It was not out of control. It was right. And yet, they faced the legal wrath of God from St. Louis Prosecutor Kim Gardner who charged them with brandishing. Their weapons were seized by police. Well, now Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt is stepping to stop what pretty much is a politically motivated legal action against the McCloskeys.

The wheels are already starting to come off Kimmy's debacle.

UPDATE: More here.  Kimmy?  If I'm you, I drop this immediately.  Your reputation is already pretty much in the toilet.

UH OH

Kim Gardner may have been a bad girl.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the controversial prosecutor who has selectively enforced the laws she prefers, has become the darling of the progressive left. She was elected in 2016 as a reform candidate after the Black Lives Matter movement was born in the wake of the Ferguson riots. Now, an explosive new report says Kim Gardner has taken many lavish trips on the dime of Soros-backed organizations, and may have broken the law by not reporting them.

A News 4 investigation has found that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has been flying all around the country and the globe with organizations who want to reform the criminal justice system.

However, it appears she has violated the law, by not reporting the trips.

Sources tell News 4 Gardner is a frequent flyer. At times during her tenure as prosecutor, sources say, she has often been gone from her office a couple of times every month, jetting around on someone else’s dime.

Social media snaps show Gardner posing for pictures in Portugal, listening to conversations in New Haven, Connecticut, smiling with other prosecutors in Houston and linking arms in Selma, Alabama.

They are trips she apparently took in 2018 and 2019, but did not disclose on travel reports, as required by law.

Sources tell News 4 that some of the trips were paid for in full, or in part, by an organization called Fair and Just Prosecution, a group that professes to support progressive prosecutors. The organization has repeatedly applauded many of Gardner’s actions, including the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey for brandishing guns in the Central West End last month.

Further details as they become available.  Thanks for the heads-up, Katherine.

FINAL STAGE TDS

Slapsie Maxie thinks that a governmental decision that resulted in the deaths of thousands of New York's most vulnerable citizens was a mere "blunder."  But Andy got the important stuff right.

FIND THE LADY

Seems that 95% of the Chinese people also think that three-card monte is a real game.

END OF THE LINE

Daniel Turner is finished with Washington, DC.

During the last night in my condo in DC, I had to walk my dog an extra lap around the block because a crazy person was outside screaming obscenities. I wasn’t afraid. I just didn’t feel like getting into it with him or having to listen to his story—his “Let me just tell you something,” attempt to get money from me. It was 1 A.M., and I was tired from a night out—but more so, just tired in general. Tired of it all.

I did my part, too. My role in the fabric of urban society, overlooked but essential, was to spend my money. Eat, drink, shop, spend, tip, pay. And man, did I pay: taxes, rents, then a mortgage and HOA fees. I paid taxes on things the government deemed “bad” for me, like alcohol and cigarettes;  taxes on services which organized labor deemed “bad” for them, like rideshare. I paid gas tax, cable tax, cell phone tax, and, of course, income tax. Lots of income tax.

Now, we have riots, vandalism, and looting. “Protesters” set fire to an historic church and tear down statues. The protests, they say, must disrupt the status quo—and egging them on are media personalities like CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who said live, on the air, “please show me where it says protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful?”

The pact we made to live here has broken. What am I paying for?  A defunded police force? More murder? More violence? Do the property taxes I’ve faithfully paid for years not protect the CVS I can see from my bedroom—a building which recently had every window smashed and was looted because of “justice”?  When the metro was lousy, we turned to Uber. When the schools were failing, parents turned to charter schools. When one area turned bleak another neighborhood popped up. But when chaos and destruction permeate, and an exhausted people asking for relief are told their indifference–not violent looters—is the true culprit, then there is no alternative but to leave.

Read the whole thing.

I think that over the next few years, lots more people are going to be asking themselves that same question.  What am I paying for?  If the police stand aside and let Marxists destroy my business, if Democrat politicians piously intone how "important" it is that we "understand" all this, then I don't see any reason to keep shelling out money for absolutely nothing.

With the exception of the first few months, I've lived my entire 64 years in the St. Louis, Missouri area.  But if I could figure out a way to move to Oklahoma, western Kansas or eastern Colorado, I'd be out of here tomorrow.  I don't have any attachment to this place.  And I think that in the future, you'll see a whole lot more people, as Jesus put it, counting the cost.

WHY WE FIGHT

Jeff Goldstein sums it up.

GAUNTLET?

Thrown down.

Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, which is pastored by influential theologian and author John MacArthur, announced Friday that it would continue holding in-person services, saying state mandates restricting worship are an overstep of government authority and thus they have no duty to follow them.

"Therefore, in response to the recent state order requiring churches in California to limit or suspend all meetings indefinitely, we, the pastors and elders of Grace Community Church, respectfully inform our civic leaders that they have exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction, and faithfulness to Christ prohibits us from observing the restrictions they want to impose on our corporate worship services," MacArthur wrote.

Go ahead, Gav.  Arrest them.  I dare you.

For those of you who don't keep up with such things, John MacArthur is an extremely influential voice in evangelical circles.  I consult his Bible commentary all the time and I have to think that the possibility of MacArthur and other members of his church being hauled off to jail, particularly while leftist riots are allowed without any sanction at all, is only going to write a few more Trump ads for the fall election.

UPDATE: They mean it.

“We cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship or other regular corporate gatherings,” the church, led for the last half-century by Pastor John MacArthur, explained in a statement on its website. “Compliance would be disobedience to our Lord’s clear commands” to meet together for worship. “The church by definition is an assembly,” the pastors and elders of the church explained. “That is the literal meaning of the Greek word for ‘church’—ekklesia—the assembly of the called-out ones.” As a result, “no earthly state has a right to restrict, limit, or forbid the assembling of believers.”

“Therefore, in response to the recent state order requiring churches in California to limit or suspend all meetings indefinitely, we, the pastors and elders of Grace Community Church, respectfully inform our civic leaders that they have exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction, and faithfulness to Christ prohibits us from observing the restrictions they want to impose on our corporate worship services,” they wrote.

Once to every man and nation and all that.

UPDATE: PLEASE do this, Gav.  It would make me so happy.

JOURNALISMING

I don't know how much money this kid ended up getting but between this, the CNN settlement and all the others still in the pipeline, I have to figure his old man's got to be pricing a new Lambo right about now.

GO FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM

If you live in or near the District of Columbia and a friend phones and says he has Football Team tickets and do you want to go, there's a good chance he means the local NFL outlet.

REALLY, JOE?

They all look alike to me?  Really want to play that card, old man?

PRIORITIES

Is Kimmy setting herself up for yet another magisterially epic fail?  Of course, it's not like this area has any problems or anything (SPOILER ALERT - There's a reason why lots of us around here can't remember the last time we saw the Cardinals play in person).

JOHNSON TRAVEL TIP

If you're ever in St. Louis and you have a car, pop by Lone Elk Park, my favorite spot in St. Louis County.  It's in the southwestern part of the County just off Interstate 44 near Valley Park.

There's an elk herd out there.  I guess they came from the park's founding.  I may have details of this story wrong but it seems that when the County decided to turn that place into a park (it had been an artillery range during the war and you can still see concrete forms of some kind all over the place), it thought it had eliminated all the wildlife from the area.

Only to find that there was one, lone elk still wandering around out there.  So I guess they changed their minds and found our boy some companionship.  And they're still out there.  Last time I was out that way, there was a fifteen- or sixteen-point buck in charge of all the ladies but I don't know if he's still around or not.

You can see wild turkey and white tail deer there (you can see white tail all over St. Louis County these days; right now, I'm just waiting for the black bears to come in because they're overdue).  There's also a bison herd out at Lone Elk, that, like the elk, is basically used to all the cars that drive through.  I took this out of my car window several years ago.

He was that close.  Was I nervous?  A little.  But I figured I was okay since I was smart enough not to get out of my damned car.

LOST CAUSE

Kimmy pulls the trigger.  So to speak.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has filed charges against a St. Louis couple who confronted protesters with guns in June, 5 On Your Side has learned.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Central West End couple who confronted protesters June 28 with a rifle and a gun in Mayor Lyda Krewson’s neighborhood, have been charged with unlawful use of a weapon/flourishing.

The unlawful use of a weapon charge is a class E felony, which can carry a sentence of up to four years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Sources tell 5 On Your Side Gardner's office will be issuing a summons for the couple to appear in court.

In a statement announcing the charges, Gardner said the McCloskeys waved their weapons in a "threatening manner" at "peaceful, unarmed protesters."

"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in a nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis," she wrote. "The decision to issue charges was made after a thorough investigation with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department." 

That gun might have been the reason things stayed peaceful, Kimmy.  After all, a man here died during this thing.  But how confident is Kimmy in her case?  This confident; she's basically walked a lot of it back.

But Gardner said she is "open" to recommending the McCloskeys participate in one of her diversion programs designed to "reduce unnecessary involvement with the courts."

UPDATE:  Stock up on the microwave popcorn because this is going to get really good.  Missouri's AG moves to dismiss.  More here.

I HAVE TO BE HONEST WITH YOU

I'll pay my own money to become a certified astrologer before I'll accept this crap as scientific.

KIMMY?

Nobody here respects you right now.  Why give us more ammo?

The governor of Missouri does not expect the armed St. Louis couple who defended their home to go to jail, and he would be willing to pardon them if it came down to it.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey garnered internet fame, condemnation, and praise after photos and videos of them defending their home went viral. Approximately 500 protesters marched into a gated community in the wealthy Central West End neighborhood on June 28. The two St. Louis attorneys were prepared to protect their mansion and were caught on camera wielding guns.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the prosecutor who is handling the case, said, "We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated."

While there have yet to be charges filed against the couple, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said he would pardon the McCloskeys if they are charged for brandishing firearms at a group of protesters outside their home.

UPDATE: By-the-bye, if you're thinking about moving here...