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#25thAmendmentnow began trending as Donald Trump proclaimed himself 'the chosen one,' 'the king of Israel,' and the 'Second Coming' – then tells vets he wants to give himself the Medal of Honor after Denmark turns down offer to buy Greenland.

Trump's wacky day began when he quoted Wayne Allen Root, who has backed numerous conspiracy theories, and who said Israeli Jews love Trump 'like he is the second coming of God.'

Later in the day, Trump looked to the sky as he defended his unique role confronting China, saying he was 'the chosen one.' He also bizarrely canceled a state visit to Greenland and blasted comments by the Danish prime minister after she criticized his proposal to buy Greenland, calling it absurd and saying it was not for sale.

Next, Trump told Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams at an event in Kentucky, 'Nothing like the Medal of Honor-- I wanted one, but they told me I don't qualify, Woody. I said, 'Can I give it to myself anyway?' They said, 'I don't think that's a good idea.'”

The medal is usually given out in a solemn ceremony. Trump did not serve in Vietnam and received multiple deferments. 

Wrote Twitter user Ryan Knight, whose handle is @ProudResister: 'When the president of the United States starts declaring that he is: “The King of Israel, 'The Chosen One,' 'The Second coming of God,' It means he is out of his goddamn mind & it’s time for the #25thAmendmentNow.'

The 25th Amendment gives a special role to the vice president. Under it, the VP and the cabinet, if they vote by a majority, can write Congress saying the president is unable to discharge his office. A two thirds vote in each chamber would be required to remove him.

Another Anti-Semitic Attack from Trump

President Donald Trump has criticized Jewish Americans yet again, saying, "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat -- it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."

The remark led critics to argue the President was dabbling in the anti-Semitic trope of "dual loyalty," which questions the loyalty of Jewish citizens.

"Charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews. As we've said before, it's possible to engage in the democratic process without these claims. It's long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted.

Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, called the comments "yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponize and politicize anti-Semitism."

J Street, a liberal advocacy group focused on reaching a resolution between Israel and the Palestinian territories, said in a statement, "It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and 'disloyal.' "

The President has suggested that Jewish Americans, who are traditionally staunch supporters of the Democratic Party, are leaving it. But polling suggests that Jewish Americans continue overwhelmingly to be Democrats and opposed to Trump.

Undocumented Immigrant Suing Boss for Wage Theft Grabbed by ICE in the Middle of Court Proceedings

Xue Hui Zhang left a courtroom for lunch after giving a deposition against his former employer, who owes him $200,000 in back wages. Zhang and his attorney Adam Dong had barely made it to the diner entrance when as many as half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped them. “Mr. Zhang, can you come with us?” one reportedly asked. Zhang, an undocumented immigrant, was taken into custody.

“Zhang's attorneys said the case is extremely unusual,” WNYC reports. “While ICE has arrested people coming and going from courts, it has a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Labor not to detain workers in the process of suing an employer over workplace violations.” But that memo dates back to 2011, and our nation’s agencies are now operated by Trump loyalists who take the law into account based on how it affects the boss and his priorities.


ICE targeting workers who dared to fight unscrupulous employers.  Last year in Mississippi, Koch Foods settled with Latina processing plant workers for nearly $4 million after they alleged supervisors sexually harassed them, assaulted them, and forced them to work in overall “hostile” conditions. Earlier this month, that Koch plant was one of several raided by ICE, sweeping up nearly 700 workers and separating families. Koch Foods, documents state, had a history of “knowingly hiring and employing illegal aliens.” 

Zhang, his attorneys say, is currently jailed at a detention center in Buffalo, New York. "The underlying rationale or reason for the two agencies having this [memorandum of understanding] is to ensure that undocumented employees can pursue their labor law rights without the fear of interference from ICE," said attorney John Troy.

Trump Administration Confirms Efforts to Purchase Greenland

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has confirmed Trump's interest in the purchase of Greenland, before Trump spoke to reporters as he left New Jersey to return from vacation to Washington.

Trump's efforts to buy Greenland, reported last week, was greeted internationally with widespread hilarity but with indignation in Greenland and Denmark.  The government of the semi-autonomous Danish territory insisted it was not for sale. The Danish prime minister called any discussion of a sale “absurd”.

“I don’t want to predict it now,” Kudlow said yesterday. “I’m just saying the president, who knows a thing or two about buying real estate, wants to take a look at a potential Greenland purchase.”

Trump has claimed (without offering evidence) that ownership of Greenland was “hurting Denmark very badly because they’re losing almost $700m a year carrying it. So they carry it at a great loss and strategically for the United States it would be very nice and we’re a big ally of Denmark, we protect Denmark and we help Denmark and we will.”

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters, “Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. It’s an absurd discussion, and [Greenland prime minister] Kim Kielsen has of course made it clear that Greenland is not for sale. That’s where the conversation ends.”

Greenlanders have expressed horror. One, Else Mathiesen, told local media: “You can’t just buy an island or a people. This sounds like something from the era of slavery and colonial power.”

Shell Workers Threatned with Loss of Pay If They Didn't Attend Trump Rally

Workers at a massive new Shell plant were required to attend a speech by President Donald Trump in order to be paid — and were ordered not to protest.

Attendance was not mandatory for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant north of Pittsburgh, but they had to forfeit pay for the day if they skipped, according to attendance and comportment information obtained by the newspaper.

“Your attendance is not mandatory,” one manager told workers, summarizing a memo that Shell sent to union leaders, but only those who showed up at 7 a.m., scanned their ID cards and prepared to stand for hours through lunch would be paid.  “No scan, no pay,” workers were warned.

Workers were also told: “No yelling, shouting, protesting or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event. An underlying theme of the event is to promote good will from the unions. Your building trades leaders and jobs stewards have agreed to this.”

Trump was supposed to stick to addressing energy in his speech, but it morphed into a full-blown, free-range campaign speech.  In his remarks, Trump took full credit for the plant, even though it was initially approved in June 2016, during the Obama administration.

Advice For Trump Voters

The Lastest Episode in Trumpville

Ellie Goulding - Hate Me

Wednesday Wisdom

Am I Right?

CBP Now Using Children to Entrap Migrant parents

In yet another example of Trump administration abuse of migrant children, federal CBP officials refused to allow three U.S. citizen girls (ages 9, 10, and 13) to leave O'Hare airport because the girls parents are believed to be undocumented immigrants.

The children were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials upon returning from a visit to Mexico with a cousin who had a valid visitor visa.  CBP said that they would not be released until their parents picked them up. After arriving on a late flight, the kids were detained beginning at 3 a.m. The children's cousin, who had a valid visitor visa, was (illegally) detained as well.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers deemed the cousin "inadmissible," according to a department spokesperson. The statement didn't offer further details about why the cousin's status was insufficient.   "U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers have attempted numerous times today to reach family members to pick up the children.  As of 2 pm the next day, CBP officers still awaited a legal guardian to arrive and pick the children up.

Because the CBP violated the law by illegally detaining the cousin (who had a valid visa), the children's mother didn't trust U.S. officials and felt that by showing up at the airport with a U-visa, there might be a problem.  The mother's instincts were right-- there was almost universal suspicion that the CBP's real goal was to use the children as bait to reel in one or both parents for deportation.

The mother reached out to the Mexican Consulate, who agreed that she would be taken into custody or deported herself if she went to the airport.  The consulate first worked to get the parents' permission to release the children into the custody of an immigration lawyer, but CBP refused.

The incident brought dozens of protesters to O'Hare International Airport, carrying signs that read "Free the Kids" and "Stop ICE."   Immigration lawyers attempted to meet with the children to check on their well-being-- but agents refused that request as well.

The situation got the attention of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, prompting a tweet saying custom agents were using “children as pawns to advance a racist and xenophobic immigration policy.”  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also said she’d been working with customs officials to mediate return of the children.

After many hours of negotiations brokered by immigration lawyers between CBP officials and Mexican consulate officials, the CBP finally relented and released the children's into the mother's custody around 4 pm-- after officially agreeing to forego any attempt to seize the mother.

Dreamville - Costa Rica

Trump's America

Banned in the United States

The U.S. has been rocked by two mass shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.  At least nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire in Ohio, mere hours after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas that killed at least 20 people, by a suspected white supremacist.

In many states, including Nevada, you don't need a permit to buy a gun - nor are you required to get a license, register a firearm and there's no limit on the number of guns you can buy at one time.   Donald Trump has repeatedly declared his love for the Second Amendment, and has rolled back a number of President Obama's restrictions on the purchasing of deadly weapons.

Here are a few items that are more difficult to get in the U.S. than a semi-automatic rifle:

Kinder Eggs:  While the rest of the world enjoys the sweet chocolatey taste of a Kinder Surprise - America’s no-fun Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned them on the basis that the toys inside the eggs could be a choking hazard. Americans craved the chocolate eggs so much that they returned to the US in 2017 in a different form: Kinder Joy.   It consists of two individually packed halves - one containing the chocolate and the other containing the toy.

Haggis: Continuing on their no-fun theme, the FDA has also banned Haggis imports. Americans can make their own but the US won’t let any food into the country which contains sheep lung.

Shark Fins: A traditional Chinese delicacy, they have been banned in California since 2011, and remain banned in 12 other US states. Once their fins have been removed sharks are often put back in the ocean where they are likely to drown because of their restricted movement.

Nigella Lawson:  The celebrity chef was stopped from boarding a British Airways flight to America in 2014 after she publicly confessed to taking drugs. The ban was later lifted in preparation for her show "The Taste."

Dog Hair: It is illegal to import, export, sell or transport cat and dog fur products

Nipples:  The movie poster for Sin City 2 featuring Eva Green was reportedly banned in the U.S. for being too provocative.

Dictionaries:  The Merriam-Webster 10th edition was removed from classrooms in southern California in 2010 following a parent’s complaint that children could read the definition of the term “oral sex”.  

Lengthy Bingo Games:  In North Carolina bingo games are not allowed to last more than five hours unless they are held in a fair.

The Ice Bucket Challenge:  The State Department has banned its diplomats from doing the ALS ice bucket challenge. The State Department has said that people in public offices such as ambassadors could not use them for private gain "no matter how worthy the cause is".

Can We Stop Feeling Sorry for Racists Who Don't Like Being Called Racist?

We keep seeing profiles of racist Trump supporters such as The Atlantic’s “We’re All Tired of Being Called Racists,” in which rally-goers from his Thursday night Ohio hate-fest cried about being called racists. Let me spoil the surprise for you: they said some pretty racist shit in the process.

Take Roseanna and Amy, for example.  Amy claimed, "Oh gosh", they would never join in a “Send her back” chant about Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. But Roseanna, one of the “forgotten people” media can’t seem to forget, had some thoughts about Rep. Omar.   “Look, but she is gonna get—you know, I don’t want her stinkin’ Muslim crap in my country.”  It’s “Sharia law,” pal Amy agreed. “That’s not America,” Roseanna continued, saying, “She is a Muslim through and through … she wants that all here.”  Per The Atlantic, Roseanna then “wondered whether Omar had come to the U.S. illegally.”

For the record, Rep. Omar came here as a refugee, and became a U.S. citizen at 17. You know, if racist Trump supporters don’t want to be called racist, it’s actually pretty easy to fix: Stop being racist. But so much of their outrage is over being labeled as racists, and not actually over the actions themselves, such as threatening someone with ICE for speaking Spanish, or calling 911 on someone over the act of waiting-in-a-hotel-lobby-while-black. But just don’t call them racists—it hurts their feelings.

When Will We Come to Our Senses and Enact Real Gun Control?

Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, tried desperately on Saturday to focus on “mental health” issues instead of such matters as easy access to assault rifles as he spoke following the slaughter at a Walmart in his home state that left at least 20 people dead.

Police identified the gunman at Walmart as 21-year-old Patrick Crucius, but have said nothing about his mental health. Police and the FBI are investigating a hate-fueled anti-immigrant “manifesto” that may be linked to Crucius.

 Abbott boasted at his Saturday press conference that the state Legislature passed “bill after bill after bill” to protect students from school shootings after eight teenagers and two teachers were fatally shot last year at Santa Fe High School in Texas. One of the bills Abbott signed into law involved arming more teachers. None of the bills involved increased gun control.

In a second mass shooting hours later, at least nine people were murdered and more than two dozen were wounded after someone opened fire outside a bar in downtown Dayton, Ohio.  The shooter, later identified as 24-year-old Connor Betts was shot and killed by responding officers "in less than a minute" after opening fire.

Mayor Nan Whaley said Betts wore armor and was carrying a .223-caliber "long gun" and additional high-capacity magazines.  Betts' sister Megan and her boyfriend was later found dead near the scene of the shooting, and are believed to have been killed prior to the shooting spree.  Connor Betts had triggered a lockdown in his high school eight years ago when he posted a "hit list" on the wall of the bathroom at his high school.

Studies indicate that the rate at which public mass shootings occur has tripled since 2011.  Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days.  However, between 2011 and 2014, that rate has accelerated greatly with at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days in the United States. According to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, there were 250 mass shootings between January 1 and August 3, 2019—the 215th day of the year. 

The GOP's tired old “good guy with a gun” slogan is an invitation to admit defeat. It’s a policy that says the best we can hope for is to react after someone opens fire. That preventing gun deaths is impossible, and the absolute best we can hope for, if everyone, everywhere, every time, is carrying a weapon … is to limit the number of dead.  But never prevent.  Because every bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.  Until he shoots someone.

Father Blows Best

Proverbial "Head Case"

Three men and one woman  have filed a lawsuit against a longtime Presbyterian minister, claiming he indulged in sexual behavior to exorcise evil spirits from them.

The Rev. Dr. William Weaver, the former minister of Linden Presbyterian Church for 39 years, is accused of sexual assault, aggravated assault, sexual battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, misrepresentation and gross negligence.

No criminal charges have been filed against Weaver. The Union County Prosecutor's Office could neither confirm or deny any information relating to Weaver.

The plaintiffs' lawyer said that Weaver used his abilities and position "for evil" and that he "used his position of pastoral authority to harm and manipulate these victims for his own twisted desires."

The three men bringing the lawsuit previously spoke to reporters,detailing allegations that Weaver performed oral sex on them to remove evil spirits.  A fourth person, identified in the lawsuit only as H.C., alleges that Weaver pulled down her pants and sucked on her navel as part of the elaborate exorcism ritual.

Eventually, after about eight “rituals,” H.C. told Weaver that although she was still interested in counseling, she would not allow him to perform any more rituals. She then stopped seeing him altogether "after she discovered that Defendant Weaver told fellow Church members details she shared with Defendant Weaver in therapy."

Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars - Blow

Zimbabweans Continue to Suffer Post-Mugabe

Zimbabwe continues in a downward spiral, as its citizens suffer from long power blackouts-- while the country's financial crisis worsens and fears of hyperinflation grow.

With both the government and families battling to pay electricity bills, many children now do their homework by candlelight.  For the last month, as soon as the sun goes down at six o'clock, candles are lit so they can settle down to complete their assignments.  It is only after they have gone to bed that the electricity comes on - usually at around 22:00 local time.  The children then have to be woken the next morning before 05:00 if they want a warm breakfast, as that is when the blackout starts again. It could be their only hot meal of the day.

It is like that in most households unless you have invested in solar power or a generator - but the latter is difficult to rely on because of severe gasoline shortages and long queues at garages.  Other people have resorted to wood to cope with the 18-hour daily blackouts - which can be purchased from the roadside vendors who, quick to spot a business opening, now populate the roads leading to residential areas with their bundles of logs.  However, this means deforestation is now on the rise.

The electricity rationing is also crippling the economy and robbing people of sleep.  People are now doing their ironing after 22:00, when they should be heading to their beds, or staying up late into the early hours to cook meals for their family.  And many businesses that rely on electricity have resorted to working a night shift.  You now see artisans such as welders and carpenters heading out to work in the evening to make the most of the seven hours of electricity.

Recently, the country's biggest mobile phone operator, Econet, shutdown for more than six hours thanks to a blackout after its own generators failed - this affected all those who were out doing their weekly shopping as millions rely on mobile money to pay-- as cash is still in short supply here.

Such prolonged blackouts are a big threat to production in the mining and agriculture sectors-- which is especially alarming, as mining contributes a huge chunk to Zimbabwe's foreign currency earnings - something the country, which imports nearly everything, desperately needs.

Farmers also complain that it is hard to irrigate crops - which they need to do in this winter season when there is no rain.  And it is the lack of rain that the government blames for these problems.  The country has one hydropower plant - Kariba - but it is failing to supply its usual amount of electricity because of low water levels caused by drought.  It now only generating 358MW instead of its usual 1,050MW. Zimbabwe needs 1,700MW each day to meet demand.  A coal-fired power plant in Hwange is also facing problems caused by its ageing and crumbling infrastructure, only three of its six units are operational.

Zesa, the state power firm, which would usually have been able to buy electricity from its neighbors in such circumstances, has been unable to do so because it has failed to pay its outstanding bills - it owes $83m to South Africa and Mozambique.  Zesa also blames its cash-strapped customers for failing to pay their bills and it has proposed that mining firms pay for their electricity in U.S. dollars.

The most recent figures suggest inflation has risen sharply over the last year. In May it was 98% and by June, annual inflation stood at 176%. So, the trend is not encouraging.  Solar power is definitely the country's one growth area - panels and such gadgets are mushrooming on rooftops.  Yet it seems Zimbabweans will have to continue operating in the dark for some time to come.