Donald Trump And Live Microphones

Here's a clip of Donald Trump having a conversation, in 2005, near a live microphone. At the time, he probably didn't think his words mattered very much. After all, the words were only a verbal manifestation of Trump's thoughts, and of his desires of the moment. His judgement, which was kinda bad, was obviously not important to him at the time, because he thought that as a celebrity with money, he did not need integrity or an upstanding character. Apparently, he also did not think he was under any obligation to set a good example for his children. Now that he is trying to buy the White House, he says he's sorry. Why should we believe him? If he was truly sorry for all of his character flaws, wouldn't he have brought that up before now?

Trump Learned Nothing From Watergate

In addition to his lack of empathy toward parents whose son died in 2004, while fighting in Iraq, Donald Trump has gone for the international jugular vein and invited hackers in Russia to commit espionage by hacking email accounts owned by government officials, most notably Hillary Clinton. Standing before a live microphone, he actually asked them to hack and reveal sensitive information. It's almost as if he thought that sort of thing was legal, and without any risks!

Hacking and wiretapping with the intention of influencing an election is hardly original. Trump apparently has forgotten 1972, when Nixon unlawfully recorded conversations of his political opponents. Of course, an obvious difference between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon was intelligent enough to understand that such actions are against the law, and attempted to hide his involvement when the news broke. Trump, it seems, either does not remember Watergate, or failed to learn from it.

While Clinton could have handled her email correspondence more safely while she served as Secretary of State, invoking the criminal element of another country, particularly one that is not one of our allies, is dangerous. It is also something that is no laughing matter, so if Trump is jesting, he should learn self control. Why would a presidential candidate laughingly request that others make a crime victim out of his opponent?

Crazy Kansas Catholics Excited About New Pope

Now that we have a new pope, a bunch of silly-assed, crazy Kansas Catholics seem quite enthusiastic about the whole affair. Perhaps it is something to get excited about; after all, the leader of the Christian world is no longer someone who once said "Hail Hitler" on a regular basis. Here's the thing; Pope Francis has only been pope for a little longer than a day, and he is already dogged by a scandal. It seems that in the late 1970's, he was buddies with folks from drug cartels, and found life as a Catholic priest much more manageable if the poor in his parishes were kept poor and bereft of education and opportunities in life, and if the rich got to continue corruption as usual. So word has it that he supported the kidnappings, by drug lords, of a couple of priests who insisted upon helping people from less affluent parts of Argentina. Cashing in on local and international prohibition laws....some things never change for Christians and the Catholic Church.

 

Take This Job And Shove It

For centuries, the question, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" has been asked. And now there's a new question: why did the Pope say "Take this job and shove it"? Historically, the event of papal resignation has often been coupled with scandal and bribery. In the case of Benedict XVI, there have been rumors of even more child abuse cover-ups than the public has been made aware. It has also been speculated that Benedict XVI's past in Nazi Germany in the Hitler Youth was simply too conflicting with the perceived goals of the Church, whatever those may be; but the Hitler Youth may not have been all encompassing to the extent of influencing the Pope at this point in his life. This picture was floated around Facebook a few days ago, citing another possibility!