Civil Commotion

Every lawyer, judge, physician, social worker, teacher, activist, insurance adjuster or journalist with professional experience in the matter of sexual abuse of children by clergy will, without exception, tell you the exact same thing: Congregations all-but-invariably rally to the predatory pastor, even when he confesses, and punish his victim. In a lifetime you will need only one hand to count the exceptions to that rule. Roy Moore, whose perfervid religiosity is an intrinsic part of his public identity, will benefit from that.

Anybody who thinks that molesting pubescent girls is going to injure him with his core constituency is dreaming. About the only thing that is actually fatal to an evangelical pastor is embezzling the church’s money; that gets a quick and furious response from congregations.

“The best defense,” goes an old adage that has been traced back as far as George Washington, “is a strong offense.” Moore has clearly taken the rule to heart. I mean — seriously? These allegations are something cooked-up by Hilary Clinton and that WICKED NIGRA MOOZLIM!! who, inexplicably, lived in OUR WHITE HOUSE!!?

I’ve wondered through the years: Is Roy Moore as stupid as he seems to be, or is he a whore who specializes in servicing the stupid? Today’s tweets, with their naked appeal to tribal identity, tell us: He’s a whore, whether or not he is a child molester.

Remember: Y’all are no damn good and, absent mercy from the Invisible Wizard, you’ll spend eternity on fire, which is exactly what you were born deserving.

What do you know? The New York Times is getting its quadrennial abuse over its style-sheet, specifically how it references the president in news stories.

Readers occasionally express concern about articles referring to the president as “Mr. Trump.”

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The complaint isn’t new to me.

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It’s “President Trump” (or President Obama, or President Bush) on first reference, and “Mr. Trump” or “the president” (lowercase) thereafter.

Well.

Search around, and you will find that I have never used the words “President Trump” — nor will I. I quote others accurately, and you will find the words in quotes, but you will never find them used by me. The Donald, the Liar-in-Chief, the Buffoon-in-Chief, the Cartoon Character-in-Chief is … #NotMyPresident, and he won’t be getting the honorific that goes with the office he has so grievously soiled. At least not around here.

All he is getting from me is the loathing and contempt he deserves from decent people.

No. Trump passed the high-water mark on election day last year, and the tide will continue to go out. Americans see with increasing clarity the authoritarian proto-fascist beneath the smarmy television personality, they see the hypocrisy and malice of the Evangelical Right whose support was indispensable to Trump’s win last year, they see the whorish cowardliness of the Republican Party that turns a blind-eye to his plain corruption.

Though Northam’s victory in Virginia exceeded Clinton’s victory in Virginia last year, 9-points doesn’t constitute a landslide and I wouldn’t — solo scriptura, so to speak — call it a rebuke. But yesterday’s trend clearly favored Democrats, and that is a decisive rebuke of a president only 10-months into his term. The Deplorable One-third can still make noise — but they aren’t going to carry many more Republicans across the finish-line.

Republicans facing re-election are making their calculations, and it must be plain by now to even the most dimwitted that it’s foolish to hitch themselves to Trump; I expect a steadily-growing catalog of outright defections from, and refusals to indulge, that sick pastiche of disaffected nutjobs now known as the alt-right.

Wake Forest Church Employee Charged With Filming Women in Bathroom

A Wake Forest man has been charged after he admitted to filming women while they used the bathroom.

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The incident was reported to Summit Church, where McCaskell and the woman both worked, and church officials conducted an internal investigation, during which time McCaskell admitted to a pastor that he recorded three women while they used the toilet or showered.