Hypocrisy Burns

When I read something I agree with totally, I don’t mind quoting verbatim. Especially when they say it better than I can. And double especially when it’s a man defending truth, common sense, and equality for all.

I find the fact that the LDS Church is considering revoking a woman’s temple recommend for breastfeeding her child in her local wardhouse ridiculous. Apparently, it's totally fine with members of the LDS Church to support a bigoted, narcissistic, pathological liar, a documented womanizer who makes disparaging comments about women and what he feels he can do to them and their bodies. I have to wonder why it’s OK to tolerate such unchristian behavior yet become unglued at the sight of a mother nursing her child and a woman’s breast.

I also wonder, if the president of the church or any of the hierarchy happened to make the same kind of remarks our so-called president had made regarding women, would it be brushed off as just typical locker room talk, yet a woman nursing in public is downright disgusting? The hypocrisy burns.--Randy Steal, Holladay

So Far: 4229 Lies and Misleading Statements

It’s interesting to see how far one’s moral compass will stray when there are no consequences.   These lies are the result of no one willing to stand up and say no, no one willing to tell the President of the United States that his actions are harmful and demeaning to the office.  Donald Trump, according to The Washington Post, has told 4229 lies or misleading statements in 558 days in office, or an average of 7.6 a day.  From The Post: When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.

Put another way: In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.

On July 5th, he had a whopper of a day with 79 lies.

In 558 days, President Trump has told 4,229 lies:
• 2,140 in year one
• 2,089 since Jan. 20
• 1,293 about the economy
• 538 about immigration
• 378 about Russia
• 79 on July 5, 2018 alone
• 60 about NATO spending
• 7.6 lies per day

Reader’s Comments:

Edwin Castro:

“It’s very tough, because it’s an island. In Texas, we can ship the trucks right out there. And you know, we’ve gotten A-pluses on Texas and on Florida, and we will also on Puerto Rico. But the difference is, this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean. And it’s a big ocean; it’s a very big ocean. And we’re doing a really good job.”

"Nobody knew health care could be so complicated."

"I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me."

"When you're a star, they let you do it. Grab em by the p***y, you can do anything."

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any votes."

“I know words. I have the best words.”

“I think there is blame on both sides.”

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

“She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base."

“I alone can fix it.”

          This is the character of the current president. Character matters. Integrity matters. Humility matters. This is someone who can’t place the country’s needs before his own. He doesn’t have the temperament to lead nor the humility to realize that the job is too large for any one person. Government requires compromise, patience, thoughtfulness and adaptability: qualities he utterly lacks. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t study. He’s incapable of reflection, of rigorous analysis of his thoughts or words to determine the consequences of his actions. He’s profoundly and proudly ignorant. Donald Trump is not strong, honest or honorable. He is not humble, compassionate, caring or kind. He has none of these qualities. He never will. He isn’t capable of it. Donald Trump is an aberration. He may have the title but he should never be considered a leader.

Mary Gould: For me his mocking a disabled reporter was the ultimate degradation. Oh, I forgot cheating on a wife with a new baby. Hard to choose. We’ll have to invent new adjectives to describe his behavior.

Jenn Braithwaite: And the newest one "met the queen, in the UK, some call it England, some call it Britain some call it great britian, I like England, great place, the queen, some say I kept her waiting, I was early, but the fake news, and you know who they are, they said I was late, I was early, and I saw the kings and the queens guard, and I was early".

Lori Dildine: Don’t forget he “likes war and knows more than the Generals about war”😡

God Bless Us Everyone

I grew up being patriotic, saying the Pledge at school every morning and getting teary when I sang The Star Spangled Banner. I remember during the war we talked about if we won, everyone in the world would be free. However, if the Germans won, they would enslave us. No wonder we prayed for our troops each night and especially for our cousins who were serving in the War.

I truly believed this was a land choice above all other lands and that God loved us the best.

It was at Sunstone, where a multitude of views are expressed, that I first came to understand that everyone on the face of the earth is a child of God and He loves all His children equally. Even though, I'm extremely humbled and grateful to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, I never felt the same about singing “God Bless America” again. I think Tiny Tim got it right when he exclaimed: “God Bless Us Everyone”.

With this background, Holly Richardson’s article in the Salt Lake Tribune on August 4, 2018, struck a tender chord with me. 

Holly Richardson: How can God-given rights only apply to Americans?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Those words from the Declaration of Independence ring down through the ages. I have heard dozens — hundreds, maybe, of speeches that point to this fundamental belief that lies at the bedrock of our nation’s founding — that everyone — EVERYONE - has rights that come to them by God and that those rights cannot be granted by any government.

In fact, the Declaration of Independence goes on to say further that whenever those rights have been so trampled on and usurped, it is the right of the people to create a government that will protect those rights for all.

Oddly missing from this Declaration is the caveat “unless you were born in another country” or “unless you seeking refuge from abuse and terror.” So why are there so many in this nation willing to look down from their lofty towers and proclaim that unalienable rights from God come only to those born in the United States of America? How arrogant.

On our southern border, asylum seekers are turned away without an opportunity to petition the courts for safety. Eyewitnesses and advocates visiting the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S. in June met Laura and her 6-year-old son Nicolas. She was fleeing a violent police officer husband whose colleagues turned the other way when she sought help. She came to follow the legal process the United States outlined — enter the country and request asylum.

However, the officers on the bridge were not allowing anyone to complete the first step — enter the U.S. “They keep telling me to go come back later, that there is no room for people like me (asylum seekers), and that I should try again in five or six hours,” Laura explained. “But I have been here for three days, along with these other people waiting here, and no one gets in.”

According to those same eyewitnesses, the supervisor was confronted about a mother and child who had been sitting on the bridge for days and his response was a chilling, “I don’t really care.”

Where are the unalienable rights for Laura and Nicolas?

As I’ve written before, the worldwide refugee crisis is expanding. On average, someone is driven from their home every two seconds.

The Trump administration is now considering cutting the number of refugees admitted to the United States by 40 percent, down to just 25,000 per year. For some context, Bangladesh has a million or more refugees, Germany has almost a million and Turkey has 3.5 million refugees. But the U.S. can only “handle” 25,000?

Where are the refugees' unalienable rights? Should they not be able to seek refuge in a place where they can at least hope for a measure of peace?

For those who say that rights only extend to those who are citizens of the United States: You are wrong. The Founding Fathers declared their natural rights came from God long before they had a United States to belong to. More recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) that “due process” of the 14th Amendment applies to all aliens in the United States whose presence may be or is "unlawful, involuntary or transit.”

The court also ruled in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States (1973) that all criminal charge-related elements of the Constitution’s amendments (the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and the 14th) including search and seizure, self-incrimination, trial by jury and due process, protect non-citizens, legally or illegally present. Saying that unalienable rights depend on where you were born and that they stop at the border — which something created by governments and not by God — is segregation. It’s the new way of claiming to be “Separate but equal.”

If you believe that God has granted you rights that cannot be granted by government, but you also believe that those rights only extend to the border, I would suggest that you do not in fact, believe in the Constitution, unalienable rights or the Founding Fathers vision for this country. You cannot have it both ways.

The 9-Day Green River Adventure

I wasn't there, I simply construe

what was told to me

by Amy, Brent, Jan, and Amanda Hugh

 Anderson Bottom

Jeanette Hugh: I can see no place for the people in the canoes.

Amy Hugh: People are optional. They just float along the sides or flop anywhere along the top. I wish we would have gotten a t-cat when we took you--so much easier.

Jeanette Hugh: Maybe when I'm 100, I'll go again and we can use the t-cat.

Amy Hugh: When you're 100, we'll all be dead from air pollution and the Green River drained and sold to oil and gas following Trump's America. The Doll's Head may still be around however, there is that. . .

                                   

Doll's head from Doll's Head Island

No bugs (including mosquitoes) this year, much to their glee. Why?

  

 Purifying water system

Big Horn Mesa

  

Canyonlands

Riding the Jet Boat back.

The Duel was a great favorite of ours

when the children were growing up.

I still recite  it silently now and again -

especially  "The truth about the cat and pup
is this: The ate each other up!

(The Old Dutch Clock it told me so,

And that is how I came to know.)"

The Duel

Eugene Field

The gingham dog and the calico cat

Side by side on the table sat;

‘T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)

Nor one nor t’ other had slept a wink!

      The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate

      Appeared to know as sure as fate

There was going to be a terrible spat.

            (I was n’t there; I simply state

            What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

The gingham dog went “Bow-wow-wow!”

And the calico cat replied “Mee-ow!”

The air was littered, an hour or so,

With bits of gingham and calico,

      While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place

      Up with its hands before its face,

For it always dreaded a family row!

            (Now mind: I’m only telling you

            What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)

The Chinese plate looked very blue,

And wailed, “Oh, dear! what shall we do!”

But the gingham dog and the calico cat

Wallowed this way and tumbled that,

      Employing every tooth and claw

      In the awfullest way you ever saw—

And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

            (Don’t fancy I exaggerate—

            I got my news from the Chinese plate!)

Next morning, where the two had sat

They found no trace of dog or cat;

And some folks think unto this day

That burglars stole that pair away!

      But the truth about the cat and pup

      Is this: they ate each other up!

Now what do you really think of that!

            (The old Dutch clock it told me so,

            And that is how I came to know.)