We had our thirty-something son and his wife and their six kiddos visit for a few days last week. They were on their way back home after being on a vacation. When I brought up the children being separated from their parents at the border, they didn't know about it.

I was reminded of myself at that stage of life, busy with work, kids' activities, and paying scant attention to news sources. I was in my forties before I started focusing again. I say again because I was raised in a politically active family and volunteered for various candidates in high school, college, and beyond.

We have a large number of our compatriots who may have heard very little about Trump, Russia, Mueller, and have a long way to go before they'll understand or believe. It's hard to imagine, the way this has captured our attention, but they're pretty clueless. That is not connected at all to level of intelligence. We've got our work cut out for us between now and Election Day, even more than we may have realized.

An attorney (S.) who goes to my Methodist church is working to get assigned to assist immigrants with their court cases. My pastor knows the separation of kids and parents has had me in tears and made it hard to concentrate on much else. He suggests I go with S. and another church member who's planning to go.

I'm not an attorney, but he told me they need witnesses to immigration proceedings, taking notes. I told him I'm very slow as a note-taker and have an unreliable memory, but he encouraged me to go anyway. Having civilian witnesses to the proceedings seems to cause the judges to trend to a little more careful and to better outcomes for the immigrants.

I'm waiting to hear if S. has been able to set things up. We'd go for a couple of days. Not much but something. Too bad we don't live close. If we did, it could be an ongoing effort.

Daniel Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro), former US Ambassador to Israel (2011-2017) and served under Obama on the National Security Council, posted a thread today. Coupled with the news that Trump has tasked a committee to assess the ramifications of pulling our troops out of Germany, this gave me chills! It seems so crazy – and completely likely with tRump.

…I don't think we are fully grappling with the possibility that we could be on the on the cusp of a completely new era, a fundamental reshaping of the international order. And I don't mean over the course of the Trump Administration. I mean by next week.

…Trump clearly wants to pull the US out of NATO. He doesn't believe in the alliance (or any alliances); he thinks our allies take advantage of us; he complains that NATO is worse than NAFTA(whatever that means); he seeks purely transactional relations with our closest partners.

…Our President doesn't know the history or strategy, doesn't listen to experts, personalizes everything & makes it transactional, & loves the drama of the outrageous move that dominates cable TV coverage. For him, pulling out of NATO is all gain, no cost.

https://twitter.com/DanielBShapiro/status/1016435137708544001

My husband heard a news story on NPR this afternoon talking with a group of Texas Democrats at the Texas State Democratic Convention going on now in Ft. Worth who are pro-life. They mourned how militant the pro-choice left had gotten on that issue and how hard it was to find room to stay within the Democratic party.

Abortion has been very much on my mind in the last few weeks, after visiting our son and daughter-in-law and our two grandchildren. The last day of our visit, my husband raised the issue of considering voting for a Democratic candidate we consider a very strong candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Col. Kim Olson, a retired combat pilot who served in Iraq.

“I could NEVER vote for anyone who supports abortion,” our son said. The Democratic party platform itself was enough to make him say that. He knows that any Dem no matter what they personally believe has to run on the party platform, which is correct.

We gently tried to point to other issues, but in our love and desire not to damage our relationship, we were fuzzy in what we said. We were sad and quiet during the entire three hour drive home and the rest of the day.

I’ve read the well-written Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Questions by Randy Alcorn too (in fact, I gave our son one of my two copies). But after much reflection and prayer, I couldn’t escape the understanding that God’s gift of free will was primary. I could not imagine God forcing a woman to carry a baby to term. I was convinced that God’s love was too great to compel someone to do that, no matter how much God loved the life created in her womb. If God wouldn’t, then God’s people shouldn’t either, no matter how much we want to leap to that unborn child’s defense.

There’s a line we should not cross. We can pray, offer support, create safe places where pregnant women could give birth, support economic policies that allow women to prevent unwanted pregnancies more easily, support adoptions, support programs that allow teenage mothers to continue their educations while their children are cared for at school, share our view that life is sacred from creation to death and provide information. However use of guilt would be going too far, and so would using legal or personal coercion. Ultimately I concluded we could not hijack the woman’s body to carry that baby to term because that would violate the free will God gave her - a respect borne of the deep love God has for her, as He does for all of us. He does us the honor of allowing us to make our own decisions, even bad ones, knowing that we will make mistakes but that we will learn and grow.

In wrestling with this issue, I’ve concluded that the God who created the cosmos out of nothing and is omnipotent (while choosing to not use that power to coerce) could be trusted with the immortal souls of those babies whose mothers chose to abort them. Though God had a purpose and plan for that infant’s life, God is able to achieve that purpose even when the original plan was aborted. And I trusted that the Holy Spirit would continue working in the lives of those women who made that choice. In fact, I know at least two women whose journey to God came about because of their abortions.

I asked a dear friend, the person with the most intimate and faithful walk with God I know, a retired nurse who had not been able to conceive and so had adopted a child, what was her belief about abortion. When she was a young nurse, she said, it had upset her when abortions were performed at her hospital, until she talked to a wise mentor. His conversation with her was much like my internal pondering. After that, she too trusted God with the issue.

That’s not to say I think abortions should normally be allowed late in a pregnancy. By the age at which the baby’s movements can be detected, most women will have had time to exercise free will. Even free will has limits. Limitations, however, should have a judicial appeal process that would allow a judge to permit it in rare circumstances such as risk to the life of the mother or to the physical safety of someone whose body isn’t mature enough to safely carry a baby to term, as could be the case of a girl pregnant through incest or molestation.

I honor my son’s desire to protect life. God’s creation is beautiful and praiseworthy, and I understand why he would conclude what he has.

It grieves me that he is appalled that we support a woman’s right to choose. He questioned whether I just had come to a belief that “seemed good to me.” But that sells me short. I genuinely want to want what God wants and to do what God would have me do. He is also mistaken to think that we think abortion is good, or just fine. We don’t. It’s a grievous act, but to disrespect the woman or family’s free will would be worse, in our opinion, because it would not follow God’s way.

That part of the conversation was not the only thing that made us sad, though. In fact, that was a minor thing because as I said we understand and honor his desire to protect life. What we found deeply troubling was realizing that to accomplish that desire, he was willing to completely ignore many moral issues important to us and that we believe scripture indicates are ones that matter to God too.

We assume that he voted for Trump for president from a number of statements he made during the primary season, although we didn’t want to know that he did. His wife couldn’t do it and voted for an independent candidate, and perhaps he did too.

I've read the very fierce remarks some have made here on the absolute necessity of being pro-choice in every aspect of the Democratic party platform, and I'm pro-choice myself obviously. But the tone of the comments doesn't allow for any dialogue or sense of inclusion, and I was saddened by what felt like a very hard rigidity.

My husband's question is how do we include people such as these pro-Life Dems. This election more than any other in our lifetime is about good and evil, and surely the stark immorality of this administration OUGHT to have decent people like our son and his wife voting against every Republican up and down the ticket. It's very hard to bear the thought of our son and his wife not supporting Dems when to me it's such a clear-cut issue of good vs. evil.

Do you rely on your local newspaper to keep up with how your tax dollars are being spent? If so, tell your congressman you don’t want a new tariff to put the paper out of business.

A new study reveals that communities that lose their newspapers see an alarming increase in the cost of local government because there’s no watchdog reporting on how your hard-earned money is spent.

A new “temporary” tariff on Canadian newsprint — the paper used to print 75 percent of American newspaper pages — poses a dire threat if it becomes permanent. Simply put, your hometown paper can’t exist if it costs more to print than it earns in revenue…

Under the arcane and almost unfathomable rules of U.S. trade policy, the newspaper industry isn’t allowed to formally make its case to the administration, which will decide soon whether to make the tariff permanent. Members of Congress, on the other hand, may submit official comments to be considered. Very few have done that.

https://www.caprockcourier.com/2018/06/12/tell-congress-newsprint-tariffs-threaten-your-paper-and-you/
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Our small-town weekly newspaper had this editorial in this week's newspaper. In searching for more info, turns out a whole lot of Texas newspapers had the same editor. They're urging readers to urge their members of Congress to write the Commerce Department and International Trade Association, since only members of Congress have standing to make the case apparently, and newspapers can't even send representatives to make their case to the administration. Apparently only 4 Texas reps have so far.


I missed a couple of earlier DU posts on this tariff including this one: https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10142081919

Today's observances took an unexpected (but good) turn.

I live in one of those Southern sundown towns. Though no one still stops carloads of blacks and tells them to keep on passing through and make sure they're out of town before sundown, the legacy of a shamefully racist past lingers in the tiny percentage of blacks living here. So there are no observances locally.

I go to the county seat where the demographics are much different and participate in a march with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to Dr. King and civil rights erected at the only intersection of streets named after LBJ and Martin Luther King in the United States. That's usually followed by a pie social and auction that's a fundraiser for the historic black community center there.

This year the community center was under repairs and at first they thought they'd better cancel it. But a local black church in the historically black neighborhood opened their doors to a conversation. It was lovely - from the heart, relaxed, accepting of the minority of whites who were present as well as the agnostics and Muslims in their midst. I was a little late and just listened. After it was over the pastor approached me and just asked for my feedback. We had a wonderful conversation for perhaps a half hour after most of the several dozen people who'd come had left.

There was a different feeling this year, looking for ways to make a difference together. Maybe it was being in a place of worship too. I know when we stood and joined hands for the final prayer, there seemed to be an unusual degree of acceptance for everyone. I'm glad I went - and hope that it will be there again next year. In fact, I wish there were other occasions to come together over the course of the time between.

…snip…

The SEC is probing Kushner Companies over its use of the EB-5 program, which provides green cards to immigrants who invest at least $500,000 in certain U.S. businesses.

The commission subpoenaed the business for information about how it used the program in May, according to the [Wall Street]
Journal. The commission is working with a similar probe out of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office, which has been investigating Kushner Companies projects that were partially financed through the visa program.

…snip…

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/367728-sec-investigating-kushner-business-over-use-of-visa-program-report

Jared Kushner's sister was running it then, after he resigned to join the WH staff.

They've been meeting every Saturday morning for well over 20 years. Dad is the moderator. Anyway today the group pressed one of the Yeller Dawg's who is a psychologist to talk about how she would diagnose Donald Trump. She named two categories (I think the first was narcissistic personality disorder, but I had a moment of distraction.) She focused on the next category: psychopath. She detailed the various traits seen in that diagnosis that Trump exhibits. I was struck by those and looked up more upon getting home.

He definitely exhibits almost every trait. There are some on the list that are about behaviors when young. I haven't read up on that but it certainly would not surprise me to learn that Trump showed traits of: delinquency when young; had revocation of conditional release; behavioral problems early in life; and maybe lack of realistic, long-term goals. Anybody know?

https://www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/psychopath/psychopathy-definition-symptoms-signs-and-causes/ had the intro and list below.
Signs and Symptoms of Psychopathy
The signs and symptoms of psychopathy are identified most commonly in scientific studies by Hare's 20-item Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. This checklist identifies the following as the symptoms and signs of psychopathy:

Superficial charm and glibness√
Inflated sense of self-worth√
Constant need for stimulation√
Lying pathologically√
Conning others; being manipulative√
Lack of remorse or guilt√
Shallow emotions√
Callousness; lack of empathy√
Using others (a parasitic lifestyle)√
Poor control over behavior√
Promiscuous sexual behavior√
Behavioral problems early in life?
Lack of realistic, long-term goals?
Being impulsive√
Being irresponsible√
Blaming others and refusing to accept responsibility√
Having several marital relationships√
Delinquency when young?
Revocation of conditional release?
Criminal acts in several realms (criminal versatility) - I think we will find this one is a definite √

Of course a bunch of traits are missing. Megalomania type symptoms, which I found is grouped as a narcissistic personality disorder. So here's what the Mayo Clinic has on that.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and the severity of symptoms vary. People with the disorder can:

Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance√
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration√
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it√
Exaggerate achievements and talents√
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate√
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people÷
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior√
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations√
Take advantage of others to get what they want√
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others√
Be envious of others and believe others envy them√
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious√
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office√
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:

Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment√
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted√
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior√
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior√
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change√
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection?
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation√



I do think those who've pointed to dementia (or even Alzheimer's) setting in are likely correct. My dad, who's 91, has a fair amount of it. But he's still intelligent and knowledgeable in many ways and his personality and interests haven't changed, basic traits which the dementia hasn't erased. At least yet. He doesn't retain new or complicated information at all well though. And it's progressive. Same with DT, I strongly suspect. And with his mental illness and his position…

Is this warning a valid caution, or…? I was pleased the intel chiefs spoke up, but took it at face value. Those in DU with an intel or legal background are better able to asses whether it's valid or overblown.

https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-is-devolving-into-an-effort-to-stigmatize-dissent/

Of all the various twists and turns of the year-and-a-half-long national drama known as #Russiagate, the effort to marginalize and stigmatize dissent from the consensus Russia-Trump narrative, particularly by former intelligence and national-security officials and operatives, is among the more alarming.


…snip…

In a new development, in early December, 14 former high-ranking US intelligence and national-security officials, including former deputy secretary of state William Burns; former CIA director John Brennan; former director of national intelligence James Clapper; and former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul (a longtime proponent of democracy promotion, which presumably includes free speech), filed an amicus brief as part of the lawsuit.

…But where the briefers branch off into new territory is in their attempt to characterize journalism and political speech with which they disagree as acts of subversion on behalf of a foreign power.

According to the 14 former officials, Russia’s active-measure campaign relies “on intermediaries or ‘cut outs’ inside a country,” which are rather broadly defined as “political organizers and activists, academics, journalists, web operators, shell companies, nationalists and militant groups, and prominent pro-Russian businessmen.”

…snip…

In other words, a Russian “cut out” (or fifth columnist) can be defined as those “activists, academics, journalists, [or] web operators” who dissent from the shared ideology of the 14 signatories of the amicus brief.

Roy Moore's penchant for flirting with teen girls was "common knowledge" and "not a big secret" around Gadsden, according to some area residents.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/gadsden_residents_say_moores_b.html

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I wonder if the initial surge of support from those who assume the national media is just out to get Roy Moore will be able to continue as Alabama media dig their teeth into the truth of the allegations.