Civil Commotion

The whistleblower complaint withheld from Congress on the orders of the Department of Justice and Director of National Intelligence alleged multiple intelligence violations according to the New York Times.

A potentially explosive complaint by a whistle-blower in the intelligence community said to involve President Trump was related to a series of actions that goes beyond any single discussion with a foreign leader, according to interviews on Thursday.

The complaint was related to multiple acts, Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for American spy agencies, told lawmakers during a private briefing, two officials familiar with it said. But he declined to discuss specifics, including whether the complaint involved the president, according to committee members.

The Donald, y’all will not be surprised to learn, says it is all fake news.

It seems likely that the full story will eventually leak, but that isn’t necessarily a certainty; it isn’t difficult to imagine Trump behaving so badly that a responsible person wouldn’t want the story to enter general circulation. If you were an officer of the government, for instance, and the rumored “pee tape” came into your possession — would you release it or, afraid of the damage it might do to the country, would you bury it in your backyard?

The difficulty here is that the law speaks plainly: The Inspector General is to investigate the complaint, and if he thinks it has merit it is to be provided to Congress. In the instant case, the IG found the allegation “credible and urgent.” The DOJ and DNI have blocked the IG from transmitting the complaint to Congress.

My recollection from high school civics is that the Supreme Court has “original jurisdiction” in the event of disputes between Congress and the Executive and — Oh, boy — if there was ever a case where the Congress ought to petition the Court for an immediate decision, this is it. Certainly, where offenses against intelligence are concerned, it is more grave than Nixon’s refusal to turn over the Oval Office recordings.

That whistleblower complaint that the administration refuses to turn-over to Congress? According to the Washington Post, it concerns a promise made to a foreign leader by Trump during a telephone conversation.

The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

It’s time for Congress to assert itself and end gentlemanly negotiations with people from whom they want testimony, and instead start issuing contempt citations.

Christian Conservative Politics Are Driving Liberals Out of the Pews

Long-time readers will recall that soon after the election I predicted the Evangelical Right’s hypocritical enthusiasm for Donald Trump would be ruinous for them.

The Trump administration, with its inevitable serial indecencies and corruptions, is their achievement, and they will never live it down.

I’m not hiding or apologizing for my schadenfreude. I’ve earned it.

A Democrat in Georgia, Sarah Riggs Amico — a newly announced Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who is running against incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue — is curiously launching a faith-based campaign to win Christian voters.

[ … ]

Hippies, Marxists, and animal rights activists all use Christianity like a cheap prostitute whenever it is convenient, citing twisted Bible passages and taking Scripture out of context. Evangelicals aren’t easily fooled by Democrats patronizing actual Christians with a few misquoted Bible passages.

Pulpit & Pen

Just so’s you know, this indignation was triggered by Ms. Amico’s insolent declaration that “You don’t love the neighbor if you shun the poor, the powerless, the least of these. Faith is how I know that nobody should be sick because they’re poor, or poor because they’re sick. That we need to protect and sustain the earth. That we have an obligation to stand up for economic security and social justice no matter the color of your skin or who you love.” Strikingly, except for being allright with gays, it’s indistinguishable from what the local (and probably Georgia’s) Southern Baptists claim to believe.

It’s just exactly like I’ve been telling y’all for years: Most people have too much sense and decency to be good Christians — and the ones who don’t that you need to avoid.

Mohler has for several years been encouraging quick marriage and pregnancy, and I’m convinced it’s because that makes it difficult for seminarians to leave in favor of serious education. Just imagine a young man who is a couple of years in and suddenly realizes the storyline is crazy and he doesn’t believe it. BUT: His parents are bursting with pride at his choice of career, he has a child, and faculty with one eye on their retirement accounts are crooning that doubt is a commonplace; it’ll go away. Also, he is married to a woman reared from childhood to be a preacher’s wife, and she is never going to be a good sport about four more years in married student housing while he studies some bullshit atheist thing like physics.

So he stays, gets his degree and sets out, literally, to save the world — which laughs at him because, Hey!, that story is crazy and the cult-ish ethics harm people, and the people around them, if they’re foolish enough to take it seriously. Now he is in the net with, mostly, people too dumb to know that the Christian narrative is crazy and untrue — and they’re looking to him for guidance on how to live.

You can see the problem, and it’s a tribute to the genuine need for the Clergy Project that it keeps growing.