Month: November 2018

U.S. bishops big man promises

Making the grand statement last summer about “failure of leadership” by bishops in the matter of sexual abuse:

“We firmly resolve,” Cardinal DiNardo wrote, “with the help of God’s grace, never to repeat it.”

Why always the grand statement? Gets you in trouble every time, sacrificing honesty for the sake of consoling people or calming them down.

Another made that mistake in 2002, telling the faithful that “we all look to end this, for the sake of the victims, for the sake of the church, the sake of our people.”

Who said that? Cardinal McCarrick.

For a supposed enemy of the press, Trump acts oddly . . .

In his willingness to give and take with reporters. From the White House:

During today’s press conference, President Trump took 68 questions—from 35 different reporters. By contrast, former President Obama took 22 questions from 10 reporters during his press conference following the 2010 midterm elections.

CBS’ Major Garrett put it crisply: “There is more access to this president than Obama . . . We see him and interact with him and punch in questions with far more frequency.”

ABC News Political Director Rick Klein agrees, saying President Trump is “above and beyond, far and away more accessible” than our previous two presidents.

It’s something I have found obvious and striking for some time. For someone who beats up on them, he is sure good to reporters, better than others, including especially Obama, and not just in this mid-term presser business.

“Mad Maxine” Waters Vows Revenge on Lenders if Dems Take House

She black!

. . . the Mouth From South L.A., says that if Democrats take the U.S. House of Representatives next week, she will become the new chairman of its important Financial Services Committee.

And that means Mad Maxine can exact revenge against banks and insurance companies and other any other financial institution she thinks have shafted black people.

Go for it, Maxine. If you can match Trump on improving lives of black people, I’m all for you.

Pope Told Michael Moore That Capitalism Is a Sin?

Well.  Privately, of course. Moore’s account has a down-home flavor. His business is to present plausible, left-heartwarming episodes. But he’s a trickster for all that.

But this is quite plausible. Very much so.

Repent, ye capitalists. Don’t cry for Venezuela and other Latin American countries, those earthly paradises, including Cuba. Oh to be in either country, where anti-capitalism is blooming.

Michael and Francis, a partnership made in heaven.

via Pope Told Michael Moore That Capitalism Is a Sin?

Whose ego is in play when Trump busts the media? Jon Stewart knows.

From the place to go for news and views, Wall Street Journal (And elsewhere, including CNN)

Notable &Quotable: Stewart

Christiane Amanpour interviewing Jon Stewart, CNN, Oct. 30:

Amanpour: We are all caught up in this sort of daily Trump-fest. . . . We the journalists—we, I think, believe that our job is to navigate the truth and to do the fact checking and all the rest of it. . . .

Stewart: But I think the journalists have taken it personally. . . . They are personally wounded and offended by this man. He baits them. And they dive in. And what he’s done well, I thought, is appeal to their own narcissism, to their own ego. . . . The journalists stand up and say, “We are noble. We are honorable. How dare you, sir?” . . . And now he has changed the conversation to not that his policies are silly or not working or any of those other things, it’s all about the fight. He is able to tune out everything else and get people just focused on the fight. And he’s going to win that fight.

Many newsies embrace an idealistic notion of their profession — and themselves. How dare he? they say when Trump gets under their too often thin skin?