Civil Commotion

According to The Donald, then, Bolton was fired last evening. But John Bolton has a different story:

Apparently, Bolton was startled to learn that he had resigned. Well … who knows? Trump lies for the sheer joy of lying; he lies when he doesn’t need to lie; he lies when it’s against his interest to lie. So I don’t think The Donald’s account can be assumed out-of-hand to bear a close resemblance to reality. On the other hand. Bolton has lived in a fantasy world for years; he can’t be trusted to even know what reality is, and routinely peddles gaudy fantasy with total sincerity.

So: Who’s telling the truth?

Nobody acquainted with the excesses and systemic dishonesty of the Evangelical Right will be surprised to learn that Liberty University is a bit sketchy behind the pious facade.

Over the past year, Falwell, a prominent evangelical leader and supporter of President Donald Trump, has come under increasing scrutiny. News outlets have reported on business deals by Liberty University benefiting Falwell’s friends. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen claimed that he had helped Falwell clean up racy “personal” photographs.

Based on scores of new interviews and documents obtained for this article, concerns about Falwell’s behavior go well beyond that — and it’s causing longtime, loyal Liberty University officials to rapidly lose faith in him.

In spite of his Boss Hogg presence and bumpkin theology, Falwell, Sr., ran a relatively clean and benevolently paternal organization; he cared about the students entrusted to his school. Junior, contrarily, seems interested only in using the school as a device for generating personal wealth.

The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the office’s own position that Alabama was not at risk.

New York Times

#DefendReality.

First Baptist Church is selling most of its property in downtown Jacksonville, Florida.

A pillar of faith in downtown Jacksonville for 181 years, First Baptist Church plans to consolidate its sprawling 10-block campus into one block in an effort to eliminate skyrocketing maintenance costs, while also rebuilding its dwindling congregation by extending its ministry to growing areas of Duval County.

The congregation Sunday morning overwhelmingly approved the plan …

Watch the sermon, below.

Watching the sermon, I’m struck by the pastor’s frank recitation of the dismal facts — declining membership and rising campus maintenance costs (and, notice that this church pays no property taxes on its massive downtown campus). Ordinarily, pastors do everything but drop happy-face balloons from the ceiling when the news is bad.

The problems at FBC-Jax have been growing for years, of course; it’s Pastor Lambert’s misfortune to be the guy at the helm when the difficulties can no longer be ignored and pretended-away. Recall that the previous pastor, Mac Brunson, is the guy who sicced the Sheriff’s office on an anonymous Internet critic and ended-up paying an undisclosed settlement.

I doubt very much that these measures will secure the long-term viability of the church, because Christianity is untrue and in decline. Another pastor will face the same problems 20-years from now, but with a smaller congregation. Perhaps they’ll rent a storefront in a failing shopping center.

It is truly sad to see political appointees undermining the superb, life-saving work of NOAA’s talented and dedicated career servants. Scientific integrity at a science agency matters.

Jane Lubchenco

This rewriting history to satisfy an ego diminishes NOAA. We don’t want to get the point where science is determined by politics rather than science and facts. And I’m afraid this is an example where this is beginning to occur.

Elbert Friday

Until yesterday, Trump’s boo-boo and focus upon Dorian’s storm track was merely an amusing example of his incompetence and narcissism. With NOAA’s rebuke of its own scientists late Friday, however, it became something vastly more ominous: A scientific agency has been suborned to the protection of a madman’s vanity at the cost of plain facts in the public domain; it has become an accomplice in distorting and perverting reality.

Whomever issued that craven statement failed an ethical duty to resign, and ought to be fired just as soon as the next president is sworn-in.