Biden and the Bishops, Election Board Purge
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Vol. 10, No. 144
My Father Can Beat Your Father at Dominoooos: The Catholic Bishops of the United States are preparing a statement pushed by conservatives in their ranks aimed at excluding President Biden from taking communion because of his support of abortion rights. Biden, who is devout, is only the country’s second Catholic president and he holds office at a turbulent moment in the religious debate about abortion.
An outline of the as yet unwritten statement says it would, “include the theological foundation for the Church’s discipline concerning the reception of Holy Communion and a special call for those Catholics who are cultural, political, or parochial leaders to witness the faith.” In other words, “if you’re OK with abortion, you are not OK with us.”
This is contrary to the teaching of Pope Francis, who recently said, “The Eucharist is not the reward of saints, but the bread of sinners.”
The downside for the Bishops, though, is that with declining church attendance, Biden is a calling card to the faith.
Voting Rights: Democratic members of Georgia election boards, many of them black, will lose their positions under a new law that puts election boards in the control of the majority party.
The NY Times notes that, “Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature.”
The paper quotes Lonnie Hollis, a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013 saying, “The bottom line is they don’t like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they’re doing, because they know they can’t influence them.”
Mental Impairment: Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who as the White House doctor said Donald Trump “aced” a cognitive assessment test, is demanding that President Joe Biden also be tested.
“The American people deserve to have absolute confidence in their President,” Jackson said in a press release. “I would argue that the American people don’t have that confidence in President Biden.”
One of the growing right wing complaints about Biden is not only that he’s driving the country toward socialism, but that he’s mentally failing. At 78, Biden is the oldest serving President and there’s been no medical evidence that he’s mentally deteriorating.
Nevertheless, Fox News political analyst Brit Hume said before a political debate last year, “I don’t think there’s any doubt Biden’s senile , but that doesn’t mean it’s going to show up tonight … you know if he comes out and doesn’t drool and gets through everything pretty well it could end up being quite a boost for him.”
Biden didn’t drool but maybe Hume is beginning to do so.
Trump, on the other hand, has a grand case of narcissism. He may have all his marbles, but he believes his marbles are the best in the world.
The Spin Rack: A Christian Colorado baker, who was the subject of a 2018 Supreme Court case for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, has violated state discrimination laws for refusing to bake a cake for a transgender woman’s birthday, a Denver district court has found. The Supreme Court sided with the baker in the earlier case. — Three people were found dead and two remain missing on a North Carolina river after the group floated over a dam. — Swimmer Ryan Lochte, a name right up there with Michael Phelps, failed to qualify for his fifth Olympics at the Omaha trials. “I really wanted to be on that Olympic team,” Lochte said. “I think this is probably my most important swim meet that I’ve ever had in my entire career, the one that meant the most to me. So falling short and feeling like I let everyone down was one of the hardest things.” — Variety reports that “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison was paid $9 million to go away. He had been accused of defending a contestant’s racism.
Juneteenth: Today is the first actual “Juneteenth,” a federal holiday marking the day slavery ended in the US. It falls on June 19th, but because it’s a Saturday, it was officially noted yesterday on the 18th.
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