The president has intensified his criticism of Canada in private conversations with aides in recent weeks over what he sees as the country's vulnerability to U.S. adversaries in the Arctic.
L.A. County Public Defender Noah Cox noticed the disturbing trend. Many of his clients seemed to struggle answering even the most basic questions about the crimes they'd been charged with, questions like, "Where were you that day?" It seemed, Cox said, "like they were having troubles related to some sort of intellectual ability."
Britain's so-called Brexit wars dominated parliament for years. Now the Labour government is bracing for new battles as it eyes legislation to move closer to the European Union.
The U.S. Geological Survey, the federal government's earth sciences arm, discovered new oil and gas reserves in the Permian Basin -- enough to supply the United States for 10 months.
Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has made it clear he's concerned about America's low birth rates, and the country's aging population.
... and ready to move where he leads. It's a choice to face the unknown and to trust that God will equip you along the way." ...
Trump the savior-king
www.christiancentury.org
... Pete Hegseth may be the first Secretary of Defense whose tattoos have made headlines. In May 2020, he posted a photo on Instagram featuring the Latin phrase inked onto his right bicep: Deus Vult, meaning, "God wills it."
"Deus Vult" was the medieval Christian crusaders' battle cry. During the Crusades, Christians killed those who refused to convert, especially their Muslim Ottoman enemies, as they fought to conquer Jerusalem. White supremacists shouted the phrase as they marched on Charlottesville in 2017, and one January 6th rioter waved a white flag emblazoned with a red Jerusalem cross and the words "Deus Vult" as he approached the Capitol building.
Seeing the phrase on the arm of the Secretary of Defense disturbed medieval scholars, who understood it as "a call to religious violence." They saw it as clear evidence that Hegseth is "a Crusader fanboy."
Of course, Hegseth denies the link to any negative connotations his political rivals can dream up. But in his 2020 MAGA tome, American Crusade, he frequently references the medieval Crusades, and he urges the religious right to engage in a new "holy war."
He even nicknames Donald Trump "our Crusader in chief" and hints at his willingness to engage in future violence: "Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet." Hegseth claims that these statements are metaphors. ...
@#1 ... Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." ...
Excellent quote. I think I may have also posted it. at one point.
Since then I have looked around ...
The Sinclair Lewis Society
about.illinoisstate.edu
... Frequently Asked Questions ...
Did Sinclair Lewis say, "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"?
This quote sounds like something Sinclair Lewis might have said or written, but we've never been able to find this exact quote. Here are passages from two novels Lewis wrote that are similar to the quote attributed to him.
From It Can't Happen Here: "But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word Fascism' and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty."
From Gideon Planish: "I just wish people wouldn't quote Lincoln or the Bible, or hang out the flag or the cross, to cover up something that belongs more to the bank-book and the three golden balls."
There was also a play by Sherman Yellen called Strangers in the late 1970s which had a similar quote, but no one, including one of Lewis's biographers, Richard Lingeman, has ever been able to locate the original citation.
Other variants include one from James Waterman Wise, Jr. in the Christian Century (Feb.5, 1936) who noted that Hearst and Coughlin were the two chief exponents of fascism in America. If fascism comes, he added, it will not be identified with any "shirt" movement, nor with an "insignia," but it will probably be "wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution" (245). Another version is from Halford E. Luccock, in Keeping Life Out of Confusion (1938): "When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled made in Germany'; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, Americanism.'" Harrison Evans Salisbury in The Many Americas Shall Be One (1971) remarked "Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can't Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling The Star Spangled Banner'" (29).
...
Frank Sinatra Jr - The Gumby Heart Song (1989)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
... lyrics seem to be unavailable ...
@#3 ... Storming a church service is just despicable. ...
Church Leaders Shaken After a Man Was Detained in Their Parking Lot (June 2025)
www.nytimes.com
... A group of armed men in face coverings detained a Latino man outside a church in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey and took him away on Wednesday, in what pastors believed was a federal immigration raid.
The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior pastor of Downey Memorial Christian Church, said she was in her office on Wednesday when three SUVs with tinted windows pulled up to her church. Then, Ms. Lopez said, five men, some wearing badges and tan bulletproof vests that said "POLICE," rushed out of the vehicles and detained a man in the parking lot.
The men, Ms. Lopez said, refused to identify which agency they worked for, and they did not share their names or badge numbers when asked. Their vehicles had out-of-state license plates. They also did not provide a warrant, she said.
They took the man into a black SUV. And, Ms. Lopez said that as she shouted instructions in Spanish to the man inside the vehicle, an agent drew a rifle at her. ...
@#11 ... Lewzer would like that. Obama only has two of those. ...
Barack Obama - WINS: 2
www.grammy.com
...
Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling)
A Promised Land ...
Best Spoken Word Album
Dreams From My Father (Senator Barack Obama)
...
@#3 ... Sometime you need to check out the east coast of Florida, Mara-Lardo and south, and what the Atlantic Ocean is doing. ...
Yeah, given the rising sea levels and most of Florida's low rise above sea-level, there may be a problem.
When I look at the topological maps, one thing I notice is that one has to look miles, many miles, inland before you even get 20 feet above sea level high tide.
So, yeah ,the coastal areas of Florida are threatened.
For example ...
Sea Level Rise and Flooding
www.miamidade.gov
... Resilience is the ability to cope with adverse shocks and stresses, and to adapt and learn to live with changes and uncertainty. Climate change and sea level rise are long term stresses that will amplify other issues in our county from intensifying storm events and hurricanes to impacting human health and social vulnerability.
With its ongoing Sea Level Rise Strategy project, Miami-Dade County is identifying and developing financially-feasible mitigation and adaptation strategies to prepare for sea level rise and coastal storms. This includes analyzing multiple "adaptation pathways" and quantifying the economic cost of inaction. ...
@#7 ... Especially with Lewzer selling stolen oil at ten cents on the dollar. ...
Venezuela oil fetching 30% higher price, U.S. energy chief says, after first sale worth $500 million
www.cnbc.com
... "We're getting about a 30% higher realized price when we sell the same barrel of oil than they sold the same barrel of oil three weeks ago," Wright said at a U.S. Energy Association event, without specifying prices. ...
"Venezuela's oil problem is not technical, and it is not commercial, it's fundamentally human and political," said Baron Lamarre, former head of trading at Petronas and co-founder of Index.
"Until investors have confidence in long-term political continuity, capital will remain cautious, incremental, and conditional," he said. ...
More from the article ...