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It seems Pope Francis needs to brush up on his Tertullian!

It has been reported (in The ChristLast Media, I must note) that the current Pope does not like the phrase "lead us not into temptation...

"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture." -- Pope Sixtus III

Friday, May 19, 2017

If they held a Baby-Eating Festival, would anybody notice or care?

Ha! That's a trick question, kiddies. Every day is a Baby-Eating Festival wherever disordered sexual desire is sold! (Which is, like everywhere!)

"But. Fyodor, puppies are sooooooo cute and kids are such a pain in the neck."


From ohmidog!:



It might not be permanent, and it might not be too strictly enforced, but Chinese authorities have banned dog meat sales at this year’s upcoming Yulin dog-eating festival, according to two U.S. nonprofit organizations.

Thousands of dogs are slaughtered, cooked and served each year at the annual Lychee and Dog Meat Festival festival in Yulin to mark the summer solstice.

This year, though, amid growing protests and international opposition, the Yulin government has, at least reportedly, banned the city’s dog meat vendors from selling the meat for one week starting June 15.

That’s according to several animal welfare organizations who say they’ve received “word” — if not documentation — of the ban.

The 10-day festival is slated to begin on June 21.

The Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project and Humane Society International (HSI), both based in the U.S., said in a joint statement that they’d confirmed the ban through unidentified local contacts.

“Even if this is a temporary ban, we hope this will have a domino effect, leading to the collapse of the dog meat trade,” Andrea Gung, executive director of the Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project, said in the statement.

The organizations attributed the change to Yulin’s new Communist Party secretary, Mo Gongming, who reportedly wants to improve Yulin’s national and international image.

The ban will carry penalties, with fines of up to $14,500 and jail time for violators.

Yulin officials are not verifying the report, but they say they’ve never officially sanctioned the festival in the first place, and some apparently decline to acknowledge it exists.

“There’s never been a dog meat festival in Yulin,” the Los Angeles Times quoted a municipal official as saying this week.

While some media outlets are reporting the festival has been cancelled, that doesn’t appear to be the case, National Geographic reports.

“The Yulin dog meat festival is not over just yet,” Peter Li, a China policy specialist at Humane Society International, said in a statement. “But if this news is true as we hope, it is a really big nail in the coffin for a gruesome event that has come to symbolize China’s crime-fueled dog meat trade.”

People in parts of China, as well as other Asian countries, have prized dog meat for centuries, though its consumption has been on the decline as pets become more popular, especially among younger people. Some older residents still consider it a delicacy with health benefits.

The dog meat festival, on the other hand, is relatively new, having started in 2010 and quickly become an object of international scorn.

The festival’s dog meat sales have dropped each year since 2014, according to Li. He expects, even with the ban, such sales will be going on during the festival.

“It won’t be public resistance … they’ll probably do it secretly,” he said. “They’ll probably sell it at night, or they’ll supply dog meat to restaurants. They just won’t sell it at the market.”

While he hadn’t seen anything documenting the ban, the organization heard about it from local dog meat traders, as well as three visitors to a local market, he said.

Most Chinese people would like to see an end to the festival, according to a survey cited by China’s official New China News Agency.

“It is embarrassing to us that the world wrongly believes that the brutally cruel Yulin festival is part of Chinese culture,” Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association charity, a Chinese animal welfare group, told the agency. “It isn’t.”

(For more stories about the dog meat trade, click here.)

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

So, Shep Smith's a homosexual, Roger Ailes is dead, and Bob Beckel got fired for being a racist. Sounds like just another day at Fox News.

I like to call Fox News the "conservative from the waist up network". All we needed was another sexual harassment charge today and it would be one of those increasingly common Gargantufectas of perversion.

Of course, Rash Dimbulb is sticking up for poor old Roger, who fell in his bathtub and bled to death internally. Why wouldn't he? He and Ailes made each other millions and every Fake Conservative (including those whose" principles" don't seep below their belts) knows that money is thicker than morality.

La Dimbulb is still on his "establishment" rant and it appears he will continue it until it stops making him wads of cash.

Do you know what "THE ESTABLISHMENT" is, kiddies? No, it isn't the rich and powerful. It is not the super-smart and the beautiful. It is not even those who consider themselves our moral and intellectual superiors.

I figured it out by considering what all our overlords have in common. I was tempted to say "FASCISM!" but I had to admit many of our betters are indeed apolitical. Some are left and some are right. Many of them hate each other. (Or do they just appear to in order to fool us rubes?) They are white, black, yellow, and mixed. Some are "gay" (but not happy) and some are straight. Many are crooked. Some are "born again". Some are atheists. All are sinners, of course, but that doesn't narrow it down at all because we all are.

What do Ailes, Dimbulb, Spill Clinton, and Anthony Weiner (just to name a few disparate "leaders" of our times) have in common?

EUREKA!

It is our ancient enemy DISORDERED SEXUAL DESIRE!

Why do Repansycans only pay lip service to ending abortion and cave to homosexual pressure groups so easily? Why don't Democrasses do anything to really protect women? Why do they all want to fuck underage boys and girls?

Because FUCKING IS MORE IMPORTANT TO THEM THAN ANYTHING ELSE!

Not sexual intercourse, kiddies, but fucking. Not the glorious gift of God that brings beautiful new souls to the world. Nope. Just fucking. Getting one's rocks off. Blowing one's load. Literally, orgasm über alles.


How many "wives" has Dimbulb had? How many children? How many fat white chicks with low self-esteem did Clinton rape? How many women had to fight off Ailes and O'Reilly? Whither Weiner's wiener? And how could I forget A Cockjerk Orange now winging its way to the Land of Saud with its latest "wife" in tow?

And this is a very small list of the putatively heterosexual ones. The mind boggles.

Why? Because orgasms are fun and they are good and they don't hurt anybody. (Except when they do, of course, but we aren't allowed to talk about that.)

And, of course, EVERYONE knows ORGASM = LOVE!

You didn't know fucking had a PAC and it's called THE ESTABLISHMENT?

Take a look around you, kiddies. See the lives destroyed by infidelity, adultery, fornication, abortion, single-parent homes, kids abused by "parents" who aren't related to them, the genocide of abortion, divorce because she's old now and I can afford to pay her off and get a younger "wife", pornography, the sex trade, widespread impotence due to chronic masturbation, and last but not least, a murder-suicide epidemic because "She said she loved me and now she wants to fuck somebody else? I'll show that bitch and her little brats and her boyfriend what a real man is!"

So endeth the rant for today, kiddies. But that does not mean it is going away.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.




Thursday, May 18, 2017

The Civil War continues apace...

I hope hostile aliens from Pluto aren't watching this nonsense. We look like imbeciles who would be easily slaughtered...and probably should be. 


From abcnews.go.com:

New Orleans begins takedown of 3rd Confederate-era monument ...




From CNN:


PGT Beauregard Confederate statue comes down in New Orleans





From Washington's other newspaper:

Who was Confederate Gen. PGT Beauregard and why was his statue ...



TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.




Frank Bruni loves snitches. (Sometimes.)

My dumbass paisan at The Old Gray Whore is part of the selective morality crowd. He's not wrong in this instance, mind you, but you know he's never, ever seen any fascism out of his left eye.



Frank Bruni: Trump's Leaky Fate - The New York Times


For a president so given to fantasy and fond of alternative facts, Donald Trump has been right about one thing all along: His government is a shockingly leaky vessel.

Thank heaven for that.

It’s not judges or senators who will save us from the worst of Trump, which is most of Trump. His undoing will come from within. Be as cynical as you want about Washington — I certainly indulge myself — but there remain insiders with consciences, and some of them actually work for the president. They’re willing to work against him if circumstances warrant it. Circumstances have been warranting it, and here we are.

What we’re witnessing is astonishing. I don’t mean Trump’s actions — including the reports that he divulged highly classified information to Russian visitors and had asked James Comey to lay off Michael Flynn — though those absolutely qualify. I mean how reliably these details reached journalists. I mean how reliably Trump’s outrageous behavior always reaches journalists, as government officials use the very media that he demonizes to expose his malfeasance, ridicule his cluelessness, warn Americans about his intentions and head him off at the pass.

This much leaking this soon in an administration is a powerful indication of what kind of president we have. He is so unprepared, shows such bad judgment and has such an erratic temper that he’s not trusted by people who are paid to bolster him and who get the most intimate, unvarnished look at him. Some of them have decided that discretion isn’t always the keeping of secrets, not if it protects bad actors. They’re right. And they give me hope

In one of those nifty and incredibly revealing confluences of news developments, the story about Trump’s dangerously loose lips with the Russians came out on the same day that the hosts of “Morning Joe” spoke of Kellyanne Conway’s privately admitted disgust for Trump, at least back during the campaign.

Frankie, my boy, I think the proper term for La Conway is "power-whore".

It’s getting worse and worse. Last week in particular demonstrated that. He gives his lieutenants lies to peddle, creates avoidable messes and then rails if underlings don’t grab their mops and clean up with sufficient cheer and success. Aides will suck up a whole lot for proximity to power, and partisans will make enormous compromises in the name of the team. But at the end of the day, they’re human. They have limits, dignity and the mobile phone numbers of dozens of reporters.

Trump should understand that. He’s always telling us how smart he is but showing us the opposite, and as our parents always warned us, actions speak louder than words.

There are people around Trump who see him for who and what he is. There are people who work in his administration not because they have high hopes for him but because they have modest hopes that they can bend things in a better direction or mitigate damage. None of them were setting themselves up to be moles. But some are playing that part.

And so we knew, even before Trump sat down with NBC’s Lester Holt, that the White House was spinning a fairy tale about why the president fired Comey. We knew about possible policy changes regarding climate change and L.G.B.T. rights before Trump was ready to publicize them, because aides checked and balanced him with leaks to the media.


All of this came from within, and much of it reflects a concern for country — and for truth — that’s greater than any concern for Trump. Foolish: the failure to account for some aides’ decency and patriotism.

“Don’t be tattletales” was another caution from our parents, but it was imperfect — or at least incomplete. Sometimes tattling is all that keeps danger at bay. Swampy as Washington can be, it still harbors creatures who understand that.

Written like a true 8 year-old, Frankie.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.


Jonah Goldberg pleads with the man who my be the only grown up sane one anywhere near the Orange House.


From Townhall.com:

Dear Vice President Pence: It's Time to Take a Stand - Jonah Goldberg


Dear Vice President Pence,

I hope you're holding up under the strain.


I hope you don't mind me writing to you like this, but as one of those conservatives who was somewhat reassured by Donald Trump's decision to put you on the ticket, I feel compelled to ask: What's the endgame here?


Retired Gen. Michael Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, was reportedly fired for misleading you about his conversations with the Russians. But last week, you were apparently misled about the president's reasons for firing the FBI director.


Four times you said James Comey was terminated on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general, who criticized how Comey handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation during last year's campaign. Then the president told NBC's Lester Holt that the recommendation had nothing to do with it. It was all about the Russia investigation.


Maybe you weren't misled. Maybe you were part of the deception. But I'd like to think that's not the case.


Either way, is this really what you had in mind when you took the job?


I wouldn't dare appeal to you as a man of devout Christian faith; that's not my job. (It's also particularly awkward for a guy named Goldberg.) Nor do I see much point in blathering on about patriotism. I know you're a patriot with an abiding love for your country.


So let's talk about your ambition.


Ambition is not necessarily a dirty word. The founders thought that ambition more than almost anything else would preserve our system of checks and balances and safeguard our liberty.


I have to assume you accepted your position at least partly for the same reason many of your predecessors did: to get you closer to the top job.

The best way for you to be elected president is for Trump to have a successful presidency while maintaining your own credibility as a successor. That's easier said than done. There's a reason only two VPs (Martin Van Buren and George H.W. Bush) have been elected straight to the Oval Office since the passage of the 12th Amendment in 1804. You need the 2024 election to be a referendum on the Trump presidency, with a majority of voters wanting to stay the course.


It's early yet, but may I ask: How's that going? I'm not privy to what's happening behind the scenes, but from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like it's going too well.


The Comey fiasco doesn't help the president, and your apparent willingness to abet his misbehavior doesn't help you. The latest firestorm over allegations the president revealed classified information to the Russians is still raging and many questions remain, but the controversy certainly underscores concerns about the president's ad hoc approach to the job.


I understand that the vice presidency is an awkward position under the best of circumstances. It's a bit like the Newark Airport of constitutional offices, mostly famous for the bad things people say about it. John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt's first vice president, said it wasn't "worth a warm bucket of," well, historians debate which bodily byproduct he mentioned. Harry S. Truman, FDR's third vice president, said the office was "about as useful as a cow's fifth teat."


If that was once true, it isn't any longer. As you like to say, Trump threw away the old playbook. You have a role to play beyond acting like a campaign flunky, praising the president at every turn as a man of action displaying his "broad-shouldered leadership."


There's room to do more on your own shoulders.


Much of the president's power is derived from what Teddy Roosevelt called the "bully pulpit," or what legendary political scientist Richard Neustadt called the "power to persuade." In today's media landscape, you have an especially potent bully pulpit, because you're the one person the president cannot fire.


I don't think you should resign in response to the president hanging you out to dry in the Comey affair, but threatening to do so if he plays you for a patsy again might -- just might -- help the president get his act together, which would be good for you, the party and the country. You are also the tiebreaker in the Senate, which means something given the GOP's precariously thin majority.


The president claims to value loyalty, but we know he respects strength. For your sake and the country, maybe it's time to show some.


Bravo, Mr. Goldberg!

I wish I had written that. His solution is much less messy than my "suicide by .44" scenario: The psychotic motherfucker in charge can't keep from tripping over the overcompensatingly long, syphiliticly red phallic symbol around its neck. (Part 7,804)


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Holy crap! Those commie bastards at Harvard are segregating black kids from their white classmates!

What? Segregation is cool with black people now? Why didn't I get the memo?

I hope this doesn't mean I have to burn all my Earth, Wind, & Fire albums...


Black Harvard students holding a graduation of their own - NBC12 ...


 Black students at Harvard University are organizing a graduation ceremony of their own this year.

Harvard's first Black Commencement will recognize the achievements of black students and faculty members some say have been overlooked.

More than 700 students and guests are registered to attend. It will take place May 23, two days before the school's traditional graduation events.

Student organizers say it isn't meant to replace the existing ceremony, but rather to add something that was missing.

Like... more racism?

Harvard joins a growing number of universities that have added graduation events for students of different ethnicities. Some have offered black commencement ceremonies for years, including Stanford University, Marshall University and the University of Washington. Some have added them more recently, and are also adding events for a variety of cultural groups.


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

FREE SPEECH FOR EVERYONE! (Except you, you, and you. And you over there. Yeah, you...the one who believes in God.


Parkland students demand to form anti-abortion club | lehighvalleylive ...


Ah, fascism...thy name is headline writing...

See, kiddies? People who don't want babies to be chopped to pieces and thrown in the trash are always "anti-" and they dare to "demand" their rights to assemble and speak freely.

Golly, fascism sure does suck.


A pair of Parkland students are demanding the high school allow them to create an anti-abortion club, after initially being denied.

District spokeswoman Nicole McGalla said the district Wednesday received a letter from the pair's attorney, demanding the club be allowed to form.


The district was consulting with its solicitor, but McGalla said because it is a legal matter, the district would not have a comment at this time.


Senior Elizabeth Castro and junior Grace Schairer proposed a student group called Trojans for Life, a branch of Students for Life of America, a nonprofit organization based in Virginia whose stated mission is to abolish abortion.

The teens said they approached the high school's administration about starting the club, and were told they would need an adviser and would have to submit a club proposal.


The girls found an adviser and submitted their proposal in March, but said the proposal was denied by Assistant Principal Jude Sandt, who reportedly said the group was too "political" and "controversial."


Baby eating sodomite.

Sandt did not immediately respond to a phone message asking about the proposal.


Schairer said she sent an email in April asking what the group could do to overcome the denial, but allegedly received no response.


"As a club, our purpose is to create a life-affirming culture at our school, educate our peers on the issue of life, hold diaper drives to support pregnant and parenting students, and become a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves," Castro said in a news release. "The school is not only denying our right to start a group but also denying the opportunity for others at our school to learn about the greatest human rights social injustice of our time."


The students are now represented by the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm. Their attorney says the school's denial is unconstitutional, violating the group's First Amendment rights.


A letter that demands the club be permitted was sent Wednesday to Superintendent Richard Sniscak and high school administrators:




The Thomas More Society is always on the side of the angels and deserves your support.

Thomas More Society | a National Public Interest Law Firm





About the Thomas More Society


Mission. The Thomas More Society is a not-for-profit, national public ..
.


    Thomas Olp


Thomas Olp earned his undergraduate degree from ...





Sir Thomas More


Thomas More Society celebrates the life of its namesake, Sir ...



TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Meet Larry Krasner, commie lawyer and Philly's next DA.

It is way past time for all decent people to leave the City of Brotherly Death.


From WhatIsTheFuck.org:

Philadelphia DA nominee would stop seeking death penalty | witf.org


A civil rights lawyer (Hee-hee. - F.G.) poised to become the next Philadelphia District Attorney says he would immediately stop seeking the death penalty and prioritize education, drug treatment and job training.
Larry Krasner's background as a defense lawyer and left-leaning policy positions worry some police officers and prosecutors in the wake of his Democratic primary victory Tuesday.

The vast majority of city voters are Democrats, making him the favorite in the fall election.
City police union president John McNesby criticized a handful of Krasner supporters making anti-police comments on election night.

Krasner says he has spoken with Police Commissioner Richard Ross and is confident they can work together.

Krasner says he would recruit top legal minds from around the country to join the 600-person office.

What? Like his? God help us.

Current District Attorney Seth Williams is facing a federal bribery trial.


Wow. They actually busted one of their own. What heinous crime did he commit? Refusing to eat children?


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.


Dr. Oz is an ignorant prick, but...(Part 2)

First, the but...

Pregnant and smoking marijuana? Big mistake. | Drs. Oz and Roizen ...


By Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. on



At the end of its seven-year run, "Mad Men's" producers admitted that, on screen, the characters smoked a whopping 942 cigarettes, several of them by protagonist Don Draper's wife Betty while she was pregnant.

These days, you all know it's dangerous to smoke cigarettes while pregnant; it leads to premature deliveries and babies with cognitive problems. And now research is showing it's a good thing Betty didn't smoke pot too, because marijuana comes with its own set of risks for unborn fetuses.

A study published in the Journal of Biosocial Science found that pregnant women who smoked marijuana -- either for recreation or because they heard it can ease morning sickness or aches and pains -- were almost three times more likely to have a baby born at a low birth weight compared to women who didn't. Low birth weight is associated with greater infant mortality, asthma and poorer cognitive development. Pot-smoking while pregnant is also linked to the offspring developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes later in life.

This is especially concerning because marijuana use is up in pregnant woman, from 2.4 percent in 2012 to almost 4 percent in 2014. That's about 160,000 women annually who are endangering their fetus by smoking pot. (And if you keep smoking pot after you give birth? Newborns exposed to THC can have problems with brain development.)

So, if you're pregnant or a new mom, don't take the risk. To ease nausea or pains, talk to your doc about other remedies that are safe for you during pregnancy.
========
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of "The Dr. Oz Show," and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into "The Dr. Oz Show" or visit www.sharecare.com.


...and the ignorant prick is back after a too short hiatus. You see, kiddies, weed is good for adults...at least that is the modern conceit.



Dr. Oz Explains How Marijuana May Relieve Chronic Pain (Video from droz.com)...


At least Dr. Devi is easy on the eyes...


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Steve Palermo, Requiescat in pace.

Heroes do indeed walk among us. Many wear uniforms.

Steve Palermo's uniform happened to be that of a Major League Baseball umpire.



Umpire Steve Palermo's love of baseball | MLB.com


By Joe Posnanski / MLB.com | | May 14th, 2017



Sometimes, when there was a quiet moment, I would ask Stevie to tell the Bucky Dent story again. There weren't too many quiet moments between us. There was always family to talk about, life to talk about, mostly baseball to talk about. But now and again, I'd ask, and Steve Palermo would smile, and say, "Come on, how many times you want me to tell that same thing?"

And then Stevie would smile again and begin.

He was still a kid when the Bucky Dent thing happened, a week shy of his 29th birthday. And he was a big league umpire. Stevie had been a big league umpire for two full seasons, but even then he was not sure how a kid from Worcester, Mass., could end up standing on the field at Fenway Park. That was a crazy story, too. Palermo was 20, and he was umpiring a local game when, fatefully, a family friend who did some umpire scouting saw him in action.

"Hey Stevie," the friend said, "you ever thought about becoming a big league umpire?"

"Every minute of every day," Stevie said.

Lord, Stevie loved baseball. He didn't love it like you or I do, like fans do. He loved it from the inside. He loved the order of baseball, the rules, the balance. For the better part of 15 seasons, from 1977-91, Steve Palermo was as good as umpiring gets. His particular skill was calling balls and strikes; nobody did that better. Stevie studied the strike zone the way Rod Carew studied hitting, the way Jim Palmer studied pitching, the way his nemesis Earl Weaver studied the game.

Nemesis? Oh yeah. Steve called Weaver "That little …" with various choice words following. Stevie tossed Weaver twice in a week in 1979, once over a balk call he made, and two days later for a balk he didn't make. Tossed him again a year later. Stevie used to say, "That little … called me names that would get a man killed in other places. And that was on days I didn't throw him out."

Stevie so loved it all, loved the life, loved the relationships, loved the travel, even loved the arguments.

"Someday, you'll get a real job, right?" his mother Angela used to say to him.

"Sure 'Ma," he would say. But he didn't mean it.

Heck, he even met his wife Debbie on the road -- at a Checkers restaurant in Kansas City.

"Who you going out with?" Debbie Aaron's brother Steve asked.

"An umpire," she said.

"I hope it wasn't the second-base umpire who blew two calls last night," he said.

It was. They were married before the 1991 baseball season. That horrible baseball season.

Everything changed on July 6, 1991. Everything went dark. It was a Saturday. Stevie was in Texas; he had worked third base for the game between the Angels and the Rangers. It had been an easy game, no close plays at third, and Stevie was with the gang at Campisi's Egyptian, a famous local Italian joint where Jack Ruby used to hang out. It seemed like another night in a charmed life. And then the bartender, a guy named Jimmy Upton, yelled out, "Two waitresses are getting mugged across the street!"

Of course, they all ran out to help, Stevie among them. The scene was a blur. Stevie chased after one of the muggers, who was running away. He and a friend caught the mugger and held him down, when a car pulled around corner. Then there were gunshots. Stevie didn't feel the bullet hit his back. He felt his legs go numb.

The doctors told him he would never walk again, but they were wrong. They had to be wrong. The journey to that first step was agonizing, all but unbearable.

"Inch by inch, life is a cinch," Debbie would say to him when the pain came in.

They clung to that funny little rhyme, clung to it like it was a raft in a vast ocean. Sometimes after a bad day, Stevie would cry at night, not so much in pain, but in frustration and rage because the doctors couldn't be right.

"Inch by inch, life is a cinch," they would repeat to each other.

Inch by inch, he came back. Inch by inch, he began walking with crutches. Then with a cane. He threw out the first pitch at the World Series. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was featured on television. He received countless letters of love. He was an American hero.

He would have traded in all of it, every single bit of it, to umpire just one more game.

Stevie sometimes dreamed of it, umpiring just one more game. But that was just beyond his reach. He stayed in baseball, served as an umpire supervisor, worked behind the scenes on numerous initiatives. And he raised money, millions of dollars, for the National Paralysis Foundation. More than that, he somehow made everyone around him laugh, feel better about themselves. I saw it countless times.

And when I would ask Stevie how he was doing, really doing, he did not want to talk about that.

"How's your family?" he would immediately say.

"What do you think of Mike Trout?" he would immediately say.

We did talk once about it, one raw day, he talked about how everyone kept asking him if, knowing what he came to know, he would still go out into that Texas night on July 6, 1991.

"I would do it again," he said. And he paused.

"Two reasons," he said, breaking it down with an umpire's precision. "One, if my wife was in that situation, I would hope four or five guys would come to her defense. I have to believe that."

Pause.

"Two," he said, "if I say no, I wouldn't do it again, then what does that mean?"

Pause

"It means I made a mistake. I just can't admit it was a mistake."

A final pause.

"I went to help people in trouble," he said. "How can that be a mistake?"

Steve Palermo died Sunday. He was 67 years old. I saw him not too long ago, and I asked him to tell the Bucky Dent story again. And so, of course, he smiled and told the story. Stevie was working third base during the 1978 American League East tiebreaker game between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Palermo, as mentioned, had grown up in nearby Worcester. He grew up in a Red Sox family; heck his Sawx lineage went back more or less to the days the Sawx traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Well, you know the story of that game. The Sox led 2-0 going into the seventh, and the Yankees' Bucky Dent -- no power Bucky Dent, choking-up-5-inches-on-the-bat Bucky Dent -- popped a three-run homer over the Green Monster in left. Steve Palermo was the umpire who called it a fair ball and made the home run sign.

Not long after, Stevie saw his father Vincent. Stevie noticed his Dad acting cold toward him.
"What's the matter, Pops?" he asked.

"What," Vincent blurted out, "you couldn't have called that ball foul?"

"It was like 20 feet fair," Stevie said.

At which point Vincent Palermo said the one word that made Stevie and I crack up every day. He said: "So?"


Joe Posnanski is an executive columnist for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

The psychotic motherfucker in charge can't keep from tripping over the overcompensatingly long, syphiliticly red phallic symbol around its neck. (Part 7,804)

If this arch-pervert hadn't strangled its conscience decades ago, it might put us out of our misery and blow its pea-sized brain all over the Oval Office during a live news conference with a .44.

Arnold would NEVER be able to touch those ratings.

From The Old Gray Whore:

Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation


WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The documentation of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. Late Tuesday, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the F.B.I. turn over all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey.

Such documents, Mr. Chaffetz wrote, would “raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede” the F.B.I.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. It was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter.



In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.

“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

They cannot know that. Nobody knows if the boss is lying a little bit or a whole lot from minute to minute.

Mr. Chaffetz’s letter, sent to the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, set a May 24 deadline for the internal documents to be delivered to the House committee. The congressman, a Republican, was criticized in recent months for showing little of the appetite he demonstrated in pursuing Hillary Clinton to pursue investigations into Mr. Trump’s associates.

But since announcing in April that he will not seek re-election in 2018, Mr. Chaffetz has shown more interest in the Russia investigation, and held out the potential for a subpoena on Tuesday, a notably aggressive move as most Republicans have tried to stay out of the fray.

In testimony to the Senate last week, Mr. McCabe said, “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.” Mr. McCabe was referring to the broad investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The investigation into Mr. Flynn is separate.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

Mr. Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified — about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department about the conversation or his memos.

Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey last week. Trump administration officials have provided multiple, conflicting accounts of the reasoning behind Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Mr. Trump said in a television interview that one of the reasons was because he believed “this Russia thing” was a “made-up story.”

After the meeting, Mr. Comey’s associates did not believe there was any way to corroborate Mr. Trump’s statements. But Mr. Trump’s suggestion last week that he was keeping tapes has made them wonder whether there are tapes that back up Mr. Comey’s account.

The Jan. 27 dinner came a day after White House officials learned that Mr. Flynn had been interviewed by F.B.I. agents about his phone calls with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak. On Jan. 26, the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, told the White House counsel about the interview, and said Mr. Flynn could be subject to blackmail by the Russians because they knew he had lied about the content of the calls.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

The psychotic motherfucker in charge can't keep from tripping over the overcompensatingly long, syphiliticly red phallic symbol around its neck. (Part 7,803)

Of course it may not be a symbol. It may actually have the clap. That would explain a whole hell of a lot.


From Washington's other newspaper:

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister...


President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The revelation comes as the president faces rising legal and political pressure on multiple Russia-related fronts. Last week, he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in the midst of a bureau investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Trump’s subsequent admission that his decision was driven by “this Russia thing” was seen by critics as attempted obstruction of justice.

One day after dismissing Comey, Trump welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — a key figure in earlier Russia controversies — into the Oval Office. It was during that meeting, officials said, that Trump went off script and began describing details of an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.



For almost anyone in government, discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law.


White House officials involved in the meeting said Trump discussed only shared concerns about terrorism.

“The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation,” said H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, who participated in the meeting. “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.”

McMaster reiterated his statement in a subsequent appearance at the White House on Monday and described the Washington Post story as “false,” but did not take any questions.


In their statements, White House officials emphasized that Trump had not discussed specific intelligence sources and methods, rather than addressing whether he had disclosed information drawn from sensitive sources.


The CIA declined to comment, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment.
But officials expressed concern about Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats.


“It is all kind of shocking,” said a former senior U.S. official who is close to current administration officials. “Trump seems to be very reckless and doesn’t grasp the gravity of the things he’s dealing with, especially when it comes to intelligence and national security. And it’s all clouded because of this problem he has with Russia.”


In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. He did not reveal the specific intelligence-gathering method, but he described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat.


The Post is withholding most plot details, including the name of the city, at the urging of officials who warned that revealing them would jeopardize important intelligence capabilities.


“Everyone knows this stream is very sensitive, and the idea of sharing it at this level of granularity with the Russians is troubling,” said a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official who also worked closely with members of the Trump national security team. He and others spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.


The identification of the location was seen as particularly problematic, officials said, because Russia could use that detail to help identify the U.S. ally or intelligence capability involved. Officials said the capability could be useful for other purposes, possibly providing intelligence on Russia’s presence in Syria. Moscow would be keenly interested in identifying that source and perhaps disrupting it.


Russia and the United States both regard the Islamic State as an enemy and share limited information about terrorist threats. But the two nations have competing agendas in Syria, where Moscow has deployed military assets and personnel to support President Bashar al-Assad.


“Russia could identify our sources or techniques,” the senior U.S. official said.


A former intelligence official who handled high-level intelligence on Russia said that given the clues Trump provided, “I don’t think that it would be that hard [for Russian spy services] to figure this out.”


At a more fundamental level, the information wasn’t the United States’ to provide to others. Under the rules of espionage, governments — and even individual agencies — are given significant control over whether and how the information they gather is disseminated, even after it has been shared. Violating that practice undercuts trust considered essential to sharing secrets.


The officials declined to identify the ally but said it has previously voiced frustration with Washington’s inability to safeguard sensitive information related to Iraq and Syria.


“If that partner learned we’d given this to Russia without their knowledge or asking first, that is a blow to that relationship,” the U.S. official said.


Trump also described measures the United States has taken or is contemplating to counter the threat, including military operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as other steps to tighten security, officials said.


The officials would not discuss details of those measures, but the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed that it is considering banning laptops and other large electronic devices from carry-on bags on flights between Europe and the United States. The United States and Britain imposed a similar ban in March affecting travelers passing through airports in 10 Muslim-majority countries.
Trump cast the countermeasures in wistful terms. “Can you believe the world we live in today?” he said, according to one official. “Isn’t it crazy?”


Lavrov and Kislyak were also accompanied by aides.


A Russian photographer took photos of part of the session that were released by the Russian state-owned Tass news agency. No U.S. news organization was allowed to attend any part of the meeting.


Senior White House officials appeared to recognize quickly that Trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout. Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, placed calls to the directors of the CIA and the NSA, the services most directly involved in the intelligence-sharing arrangement with the partner.


One of Bossert’s subordinates also called for the problematic portion of Trump’s discussion to be stricken from internal memos and for the full transcript to be limited to a small circle of recipients, efforts to prevent sensitive details from being disseminated further or leaked


White House officials defended Trump. “This story is false,” said Dina Powell, deputy national security adviser for strategy. “The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced.”


But officials could not explain why staff members nevertheless felt it necessary to alert the CIA and the NSA.


Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he would rather comment on the revelations in the Post story after “I know a little bit more about it,” but added: “Obviously, they are in a downward spiral right now and have got to figure out a way to come to grips with all that’s happening. And the shame of it is, there’s a really good national security team in place.”


Corker also said, “The chaos that is being created by the lack of discipline is creating an environment that I think makes — it creates a worrisome environment.”


Trump has repeatedly gone off-script in his dealings with high-ranking foreign officials, most notably in his contentious introductory conversation with the Australian prime minister earlier this year. He has also faced criticism for seemingly lax attention to security at his Florida retreat, Mar-a-Lago, where he appeared to field preliminary reports of a North Korea missile launch in full view of casual diners.


U.S. officials said that the National Security Council continues to prepare multi-page briefings for Trump to guide him through conversations with foreign leaders, but that he has insisted that the guidance be distilled to a single page of bullet points — and often ignores those.


“He seems to get in the room or on the phone and just goes with it, and that has big downsides,” the second former official said. “Does he understand what’s classified and what’s not? That’s what worries me.”


Lavrov’s reaction to the Trump disclosures was muted, officials said, calling for the United States to work more closely with Moscow on fighting terrorism.


Kislyak has figured prominently in damaging stories about the Trump administration’s ties to Russia. Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign just 24 days into the job over his contacts with Kislyak and his misleading statements about them. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself from matters related to the FBI’s Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had met and spoke with Kislyak, despite denying any contact with Russian officials during his confirmation hearing.


“I’m sure Kislyak was able to fire off a good cable back to the Kremlin with all the details” he gleaned from Trump, said the former U.S. official who handled intelligence on Russia.


The White House readout of the meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak made no mention of the discussion of a terrorist threat.


“Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria,” the summary said. The president also “raised Ukraine” and “emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia.”


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

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First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct. "My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up. What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.

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