Trying to live a life that glorifies Christ (perhaps occasionally succeeding); husband/dad/grandpa/lawyer; politically independent; grateful ex-alcoholic; competition BBQ judge. #LHPO https://open.substack.com/pub/paulderrick
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Spoken like a longtime heroin abuser with brain worms and no scientific background.
It is the duty of both the clergy and everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ to honestly examine and take meaningful action regarding the societal issues that lead people to abandon Jesus’ teachings in favor of a despotic authoritarian simply because he appeals to their basest instincts.
It’s also very hard to not think these folks and their disciples are…well…idiots.
Be strong! Marketers prey on the weaknesses caused by our addictions. Plus, when all is said and done, mushroom coffee is still just a cupful of fungi. Who wants to admit to their descendants that they willingly drank such a concoction? Even kids learn at an early age to “Just Say No!”
Agree that this approach is correct and that prosecutors nationwide should follow his lead. We shouldn’t start heaping praise on him, however, until the plan starts producing positive results.
We need all DAs to get on board with this. The only way to stop these criminals is to prosecute them #USDemocracy
Nixon also didn't mind saying out loud that he could do whatever he wanted to do because he was the president. Ultimately, that turned out badly for him. Things will go equally badly for Trump if he continues to believe that he can act with impunity. bsky.app/profile/atru...
I'm so sorry.
Keep yapping, Howard. You don’t have immunity in the event of a defamation lawsuit.
Best sung while on a bridge over the River Kwai. (Atmosphere is essential.)
Does anyone have any idea of what the House and Senate Democrats are actually doing, right now, to hasten an end to the wannabe dictator’s reign? (From what I can tell, nothing.)
Lesson #17: How a Despot Rationalizes Being a Despot
Dear Mr. President - Since no one in the media will ask you this, I will: Rather than stroking your own ego by lying that “a lot of people are saying maybe we'd like a dictator,” just name five people who will verify that they said that. Thanks.
“…she can’t have an infraction.” Says the man with 34 felony convictions, a sexual assault finding, and numerous other “infractions.” His hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness is truly stunning.
Same. 🤷♂️
Some children like to play "dress up" and pretend they're royalty. Trump likes to play POTUS and pretend he's intelligent enough to do the job. Problem is, he's not.
Deconstruction isn't required in order to be a Christian. Nonetheless, if someone wants to critically examine what they believe and why, that's fine. Just remember to use what is learned to build a life of greater faithfulness to Jesus. After all, that should be everyone's ultimate goal.
I've always been uneasy with the concept of "deconstruction" of one's faith. How do you deconstruct something that was never "constructed" in the first place? Indeed, faith is a gift from God (see, e.g., Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 12:9; Romans 12:3), not something that we create. (1/2)
We have 2-3 of them that like to sample our flowers in the early morning and late afternoon. Fascinating and beautiful! (But they don't get along very well with the actual hummingbirds.)
According to the CDC’s latest available data, Louisiana’s per capita murder rate is 400% higher than California’s. Why isn’t Trump deploying the military there, too? 🤔
God’s mercies are new every morning.
Accurate description.
Trump believes Americans are too stupid to see that his military deployments and police takeovers are just a power grab. If he wants to make cities safer, he should start by restoring the $158 million he ordered cut from violence-prevention programs for cities across the country.
In addition to the specter of inevitable creep toward socialism, government ownership of shares in a private corporation presents myriad concerns and problems, both ethical and practical. Real transparency will be required. (How much does anyone really trust Trump?) ir.law.utk.edu/cgi/viewcont...
Apples don't fall far from the tree.
Typical Trump childishness. He gets in front of the media and lies, someone with actual knowledge tells the truth, and that person is fired for making Trump look bad. apnews.com/article/pent...
It should be clear to everyone, by now, that neither the House nor the Senate is controlled by sane and serious people. They have violated their oaths to protect the Constitution, aided and abetted a felonious wannabe dictator, and should be subjected to every legal and practical sanction available.
Pretty sure any other U.S. president would take *some* kind of action in the wake of such unlawful Russian action against a U.S. company. All TACO had to say was that he’ll wait a couple weeks to see how things go. Cowardly; just cowardly.
After all she’s seen and done, she still can’t understand that respect isn’t automatic, it’s earned.
And I thought I was the only one who did that. (Of course, I do follow it up with a muttered, "...you little ingrates.")
“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” Hannah Arendt
🎯
Trump is simply afraid of what will happen when a nation full of educated people see his grandiose narcissism for what it is: a futile attempt to distract from his insecurity and ignorance. Trump wants to cut funds to college programs for poor students www.npr.org/2025/08/22/n...
It’s probably the same pedophile who’s been seen perched on the roof of the White House.
Some people will never understand that. I usually assume it’s because they’ve never had much stuff and the thought of having anything actually gives rise to issues that most of us find mundane but as to which they are completely unprepared.
You know what's underrated? Letting people be. Let them mispronounce a word, talk too much about a show they love, or get excited about something you don't understand. You don't have to get it, just be kind. Everyone has something that lights them up. Let them shine, even if it's not your thing.
That’s why all D.C. residents should carry a cross, a vial of holy water, and a wooden stake.
That’s why the media need to become actual journalists and ask the obvious questions that they’re afraid to ask (e.g., “Can you tell us which wars those were?”).
Mr. Burge and his ilk seem to be laboring under the erroneous notion that we (a) want to know and (b) even remotely care what they have to say about our home furnishing decisions. If we wanted to know, we’d ask them.
Sneak preview of Cracker Barrel’s actual new logo, to be officially unveiled soon. No wonder MAGA is in such an uproar over it.
At a rate of 35% in nine days, it'll only take about a year for Trump to achieve his benchmark 1,500% decline in the murder rate!
And has TACO yet expressed even a syllable of outrage about the attack? Not that I've seen.
Shock and awe? Force? Does Kirk think it's going to be like the bombing of Baghdad on the opening night of the Iraq war? He obviously knows nothing about a night in the life of the typical law enforcement officer. And "cockroaches?" You don't hear actual Christians calling fellow humans that.
Says the wannabe dictator whose own regime of jackbooted thugs arrest and deport people for having -- GASP! -- autism awareness tattoos and other such evidence of hardened criminality.
So, as with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we shouldn’t really trust the government’s own data?
Maybe some newspaper in Maine will reprise the New York Daily News’ famed 1975 headline with a variation that says: MAINE TO DOJ: DROP DEAD
[NARRATOR]: Yet, neither he nor anyone else can truthfully name a single war that he ever ended.
So, MAGA has decided that homeless people are “crazy” and should go the way of the many categories of “others” they don’t want to see on our streets. Have any of these MAGATs ever read what Jesus taught about how to treat the homeless, poor, oppressed, immigrants, etc.? bsky.app/profile/atru...
Has anyone identified the authority by which the White House will "audit" the Smithsonian Institution? The SI answers to a Board of Regents, not to any branch of government.
Bad behavior on the Right isn’t permissible just because the Left does it, too. Bad behavior on the Left isn’t permissible just because the Right does it, too. Wrong is wrong. People of integrity understand this and will call out corruption regardless of the offender’s affiliations.
Journos are every bit as much of the problem as Trump is. Seems they have no idea what journalism means.
One has to wonder how many times Miller got beaten up as a kid simply because he was so obnoxious and had no redeeming social qualities.
Seriously, does anyone know what and how much training ICE agents receive before they are sent into the world to do their thing? Are they even certified in any way?
In Trumpworld, “good” is a fluid term. It’s much like “truth.” Such people believe that nothing, not even the truth, is absolute and identifiable. It’s simply whatever is most convenient and useful at the moment.
Someone’s getting very worried about what’s being uncovered in the various investigations and legal proceedings by the UN, ICC, and others. Hit dogs tend to holler. apnews.com/article/us-i...
🎯 And in all his professed Bible reading he apparently skipped right over the tidbit in Ephesians 2:9 that says our salvation isn't based on our good works, lest anyone should boast. (Of course, that part may have been omitted from the Trump Bible.)
Trump recently told Fox News that he is trying to do good deeds in order to increase his odds of going to heaven. Does he really think that becoming an apologist for slavery is going to further his already delusional and contra-Biblical plan?
The man who says that he reads the Bible more than almost everyone, who says that God spared him from an assassin's bullet so that he could save America, believes that his good works will save him and get him into heaven? In all that Bible reading, he must have skipped over Ephesians 2:9.
We lost a true angel from this earth, on Thursday evening. My sister-in-law lost her 11-year battle with Alzheimer’s. Rest in peace with the Lord, sweet Mandy. www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/l...
Will someone please remind us, again, why the media and MAGAts keep praising Trump as a master deal maker? The only thing he seems to have mastered is the ability to keep falling for Putin’s manipulation. Oh, and lest we forget….
Experts have said that it’s impossible to be less intelligent than Trump but Andy Ogles is proving them wrong.
Meteorologists would probably say it has something to do with a low pressure system arriving and drawing in warm, moist air. The real explanation, however, is that it will take that long for the heat from all the hot air bloviated at the summit talks in Alaska to make it to Florida.
Concepts of a plan. That’s still all Trump has—while he and extreme Republicans gut Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and more. No roadmap, no real strategy—just cuts to your care and chaos for your family.
I believe that was a Twitter post from 2020.
bsky.app/profile/notu...
So, a D.C. municipal judge releases the sandwich thrower, DOJ promptly goes out and gets a new (federal) arrest warrant, sends a 20-man SWAT team to forcibly rearrest this desperado, films it all, then releases the film as a flex to cow the unwashed masses. This malignant regime must be stopped.
It’s just pure, unadulterated lunacy.
Honor the Budapest Memorandum!
The petition is hereby granted.
Salami? Good heavens! Please tell me it didn’t also contain tomatoes and [gasp] lettuce. If so, that’ll certainly be a weapons enhancement when the time comes for sentencing.
JUDGE: “Treating attendance in immigration court as a game of detention roulette is not consistent with the constitutional guarantee of due process.” www.rawstory.com/judge-267388...
Bless Sean’s ignorant little heart. (He really has done rather well for himself, however, considering his profound cognitive deficits.)
Epstein invited the rich and famous to his island. Trump swears he was never there. Some reporter needs to ask him how he feels about apparently not having been rich and famous enough to be invited. He’ll quickly admit to being there often. His ego won’t let him do otherwise.
DOJ employee Sean Dunn was charged with felony assault and fired for throwing his sandwich at a federal officer. He’s a “grave threat.” Remember the FBI agent who participated in the riots on Jan. 6 and rallied the charge to assault officers? He’s still employed. Make it make sense.
Buried in the regime's political takeover letter of the Smithsonian is the worst bit. Unlike exhibits, which are non-destructive towards primary materials, temporary in nature, and reversible, the foundational collections are irreplacable. They want to be able to throw stuff out.
If a group of crows is called a "murder," does that mean that just a crow or two is called "attempted murder?"
Trump assured him that he wouldn't be subject to arrest while in Alaska. (Birds of a feather stick together.)
Merely an intentional "accidental oversight" designed to camouflage that she will make a surprise appearance to receive some kind of lifetime achievement award.
Compulsive liars lie compulsively; it's just what they do. And Trump is their poster child.
At what point is someone(s) in the media going to publicly ask him why he's such a compulsive liar? (DOJ's own numbers contradict his premise, here.) No one at these press conferences even remotely holds his feet to the fire and confronts him with facts and evidence.
Equivocation (i.e., being diplomatic) may seem like the safer option, but it won't shield anyone from the reality and consequences of Trump's unscrupulous ideas and actions. Martin Luther famously said that we must have the courage to call things what they are. What this regime is doing is fascism.
Dear Smithsonian Institution (si.edu), Trump has turned his dictatorial sights on you, despite the fact that neither he nor any of the branches of government controls the SI. Will the Board of Regents cower or stand up for America and its true history? www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...
The Smithsonian Institution answers to a Board of Regents, not to any of the three branches of government. So, the question becomes: Will the Board of Regents stand its ground against Trump and refuse to be manipulated?
Christians must "walk the talk." A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. . . .Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (Matthew 7:17-18, 20)