donald trump

A Conservative Disease

A Conservative Disease

The day after the furor of Roseanne's racist tweets and her show being cancelled as a result, she once again took to Twitter and offered up a whole host of defenses; some from her and others she retweeted. After she apologized yesterday for one of the racist tweets she has posted, apparently, her apology was solely directed not towards making amends, but to save her job. When it didn't do the trick, she has now switched back to comfortable ground for conservatives who do something wrong: blame everyone but themselves. 

The Justice We Seek

The Justice We Seek

My approval of the Mueller investigation is that I know the more political space being devoted to these investigations and their immense political fallout means that there is less space being given to codify the harm this administration seems hell bent on causing people. But I also find myself wondering to what end are all of these investigations coming to. Is it faithful, as a follower of Jesus, to hope for significant jail time for trump or the members of his cabinet or campaign team? 

Two Missing Words

Two Missing Words

Typically, the role the United States has played in the world, though admittedly without consistency or authenticity most of the time, is to remind nations of their responsibility to uphold human rights. This issue has been raised by all presidents since President Jimmy Carter, who was the first to make it a centerpiece of his foreign policy, until now. As I have watched donald trump on his two major trips abroad there are two words that he has yet to mention: human rights.

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget

I am concerned that because trump's presidency is so immeasurably corrupt, so incredibly incompetent, and that because he is such a soulless and heartless person that we are distorting history. Simply put, we cannot allow trump's utter lack of leadership to blind our hindsight from the tragic mistakes of our past presidents.

Why I am Not Standing for the National Anthem

Why I am Not Standing for the National Anthem

I believe the United States has tremendous potential for good and justice and I have seen it in small ways from time to time. But I refuse to pretend that we are living into that potential with our current leadership. The potential and the reality are, once again, irreconcilable for me. And so I will not stand for it literally or figuratively. 

Reaping What We Sow

Reaping What We Sow

The violence on Tuesday has created an expected and much-needed reflection by political leaders of both parties. But, as equally expected, this reflection has been superficial at best. My hope is that their time of reflection would give time for us to look at the unnecessary violence injected into the world and rethink more than just their speech, but the very policies they are enacting. 

Straight from the Horse's Mouth: donald trump's conversation with President Duterte

The following is a transcript of a call between donald trump and President Duterte from the Philippines who has been roundly criticized for his abuse of human rights in his relentless murder of drug addicts in his home country. More than 6,000 people have been killed under his brutal rule and Fig Tree Revolution has talked about this before. 

Duterte: Thank you for calling and good evening, it is night over here.

donald trump: Okay I hope it’s not too late? It’s okay isn’t it? It’s not too late?

Duterte: No it’s okay, we are just having dinner with some of the members of ASEAN.

donald trump: I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.

Duterte: Thank you Mr. President. This is the scourge of my nation now and I have to do something to preserve the Filipino nation.

donald trump: I understand that and fully understand and I think we had a previous President who did not understand that, but I understand that and we have spoken about this before.

Duterte: Yes, I know that. Thank you.

They go on to talk about other things. Below are their final comments. 

donald trump: Thank you Mr. President. You are a good man. Yes, certainly in November. Welcome and thank you and we will certainly be happy to see you, Rodrigo. I look forward to seeing you. If you want to come to the Oval office I will love to have you in Oval office. Anytime you want to come. I will be in the Philippines in November, but anytime if you are in DC or anywhere, come see me in the Oval office. Work it out with your staff. Seriously, if you want to come over, just let us know. Just take care of yourself and we will take care of North Korea. Keep up the good work, you are doing an amazing job. Say hello to the people of the Philippines for me.

Duterte: They know that you are calling. It is the last day of the ASEAN Summit and everyone was asking. Sultan Bolkiah just left but I will tell remaining guys here what you told me. We are all for peace, there’s no secret about that.

donald trump: Good, you take care of yourself, come see me before November, you are invited anytime.

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Immunity

Immunity

Last week Michael Flynn’s lawyers asked for immunity in exchange for his testimony before Congress for any possible crimes he may have committed before he was nudged out of his position as National Security Advisor in the trump administration. So, with donald trump now in favor of immunity for people who seem to be targets of enthusiastic inquisition, then there should likely be more groups of people for whom immunity should be granted.

Monetizing Human Misery

Monetizing Human Misery

 I was involved in the criminal justice system for almost 10 years. For those 10 years, I probably spent at least one full day a week in Court. It was a parade of human misery and hopelessness in all aspects that was soul numbing to behold. The victims were not going to be made whole and the defendants were not going to receive any rehabilitation that would prevent future offenses. It was a mass churning of humanity for no apparent reason whatsoever except a violation of the law demanded punishment. 

Two Ways We Can and Must RESIST

Two Ways We Can and Must RESIST

So, yes my friends, feel free to protest at every turn the most damaging leader the world has seen in some time. But I hope we can start figuring out which protests are going to have impact and leave behind the protests that are designed to make ourselves or groups like evangelicals just feel good. 

The Politics of Persecution

The Politics of Persecution

If donald trump wants to care for Syrian Christian refugees then there is much he can do to expedite those processes of letting more refugees in. But he does not care about Christian refugees. He does not care about Christians and he does not care about refugees. He is using Christian refugees as a means of demonizing Muslims and elevating mindless nativism and the baseless fear of refugees.

What a Sanctuary City Looks Like

What a Sanctuary City Looks Like

With President Haman's announcement yesterday to attack effective law enforcement and drive people further underground through cutting funding for Sanctuary Cities, we wanted to show what real leadership looks like. Below is the text of a letter sent on January 17 from the Arlington County Board to Arlington County residents in Arlington, VA.

trump is Hurting People

trump is Hurting People

We have been told what to expect with a trump presidency and it is here. Are we ready? Are you ready to take action to stop a man who is bent on hurting people? This is our chance. Let’s take advantage of it and get to work. People are counting on us. 

Let Saturday be the Beginning

Let Saturday be the Beginning

And we must be ready to publicly proclaim our allegiance under an administration that has said they will operate by the new decree, “America First.” This new decree is an abomination to anyone who claims to faithfully follow Jesus. Simply put, you cannot faithfully follow Jesus and follow "America First."