Donald Trump’s Afghanistan Troop Speech ‘Typical Of Dementia, Lack Of Awareness,’ Psychiatry Professor Says

Mod: Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars are being spent to cart this old fool around the world. For absolutely no good effect.

Donald Trump’s Afghanistan Troop Speech ‘Typical Of Dementia, Lack Of Awareness,’ Psychiatry Professor Says (Inquisitr link): Donald Trump made a surprise visit to United States troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day. There, he delivered a speech to the troops that reportedly focused largely on his own claimed accomplishments. According to University of Texas Southwestern psychiatry professor John M. Talmadge, the speech was filled with “‘I am great’ stock phrases,” and in the psychiatrist’s view have grown “stale from overuse and inaccuracy.”

Taking to his Twitter account, Talmadge warned that Trump’s purported self-congratulatory speech in Afghanistan contained “vague claims of vapor-like achievement” that are “typical of dementia, lack of thinking, [and] lack of awareness.”

According to Talmadge, “every audience looks alike” to Trump. As a result, he is likely to deliver the same type of speech to troops in Afghanistan as to supportive audiences in the United States.

Talmadge has been a frequent critic of Trump, issuing repeated warnings regarding Trump’s mental fitness to hold office. The professor notes, however, that his opinions are his own and not necessarily reflective of the University of Texas Southwestern where he is employed.

Trump’s speech to the troops also contained jabs at prior administrations, telling the soldiers that they were fighting for a United States that is, he said, “doing well as opposed to something that was not doing well just a number of years ago,” according to a Slate account of the remarks.

Talmadge has warned in previous remarks that Trump suffers from mental and cognitive impairments that make it impossible for him to formulate a “vision” or “plan” due to his inability, as claimed by Talmadge, to engage in “abstract thinking.”

“Trumpian brain failure is hard for normal people to understand because for normal people, abstract thought is natural, baked in, largely unnoticed,” Talmadge said earlier, as quoted by Newsweek. Talmadge went on to describe “normal” thought processes as the ability to perceive “consequences, assess risk, [and] make rational decisions.”

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Trump heaps praise on himself in rambling speech to soldiers during surprise Afghanistan visit

Mod: So is this really why our soldiers are still fighting in Afghanistan? Because it is good for the stock market? Too bad his impeachment polls are running at 50%. He could have stayed in Florida and golfed.

Trump heaps praise on himself in rambling speech to soldiers during surprise Afghanistan visit (Raw Story link): During a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day, President Donald Trump gave a rambling and confused speech in which he credited himself for the economy and claimed people are thanking him for their 401(k)s and saying he “made them look like a genius.”

“We flew 8331 miles to be here tonight for one simple reason, to tell you in person that this Thanksgiving is a special Thanksgiving,” said Trump. “We’re doing so well. Our country is the strongest economically it has ever been. We’ve never done so well. We have the greatest economy anywhere in the world. So it is nice to know that you are fighting for something that is doing well as opposed to something that was not doing well just a number of years ago.”

“Our stock market has reached the highest level ever in the history of the exchanges, all three,” continued Trump. “If you look, all three. It is incredible. It is incredible what is happening. Just broke a record. I think it is close to 130 days. So we’re less than three years and 130 times we’ve broken the all-time record. And to me that didn’t mean an all-time record, it means something different. It means jobs. It means 401(k)s. People come up to me with their 401(k)s and they say, ‘You’ve made me look like a genius. Thank you very much.’ They are up 78 percent. They feel good.”

Mod: In other news, I'm kind of surprised they even let Eric out of the tower.

‘Umpa lopa doodle dee doo’: Eric Trump mocked for new ‘Leave Our President Alone’ stunt (Raw Story link): On Thanksgiving Day, Eric Trump attacked the impeachment effort by tweeting an image of a classic Trump hat, with the slogan altered to read “Leave Our President Alone,” complete with a hashtag. 

In short order, commenters on social media had a field day, mocking him for the stunt — many of them suggesting meanings for the word “LOPA” in foreign languages, and others offering other phrases the acronym could stand for. Like LOPA - Love Of Putin Always.

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Jim Bakker: Buy my ‘Turkey Feast’ survival food buckets in case the Apocalypse comes during Thanksgiving

video link here

Mod: Thank heavens Trump saved Thanksgiving. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to buy a turkey bucket!

Jim Bakker: Buy my ‘Turkey Feast’ survival food buckets in case the Apocalypse comes during Thanksgiving (Dead State.org link): One of the most impressive career revivals is that of Jim Bakker. Once a disgraced televangelist who went to prison for mail and wire fraud and conspiring to defraud the public, he’s managed to reinvent himself as an apocalyptic doomsday prepper and build a nice following in the process.

Bakker has monetized his ever-evolving and open-ended predictions of the End Times with his (alleged) disaster-ready “food buckets.” But it isn’t the food buckets themselves that make for great unintentional comedy, it’s how he markets them. As hurricanes ravaged the East Coast in September of last year, Bakker warned his audience that in perilous times, people “kill each other” and “eat each other” and that he wanted them to “be prepared.” On his show that same month, he called upon viewers to buy a “million dollars-worth” of his food buckets, saying money will be useless anyway when the tribulation comes.

You can even make a Thanksgiving dinner with his food buckets. “This is the most unique survival food,” Bakker said on his show this Tuesday.

Pointing to his product, he said it contained “52 servings” of a “turkey feast emergency food supply” with a “30-year shelf life. It even has pumpkin pie mousse for dessert … I love pumpkin pie,” Bakker declared.

“This, for your survival food, this is to have,” he continued. “Because in a crisis, you’re gonna be able to have a Thanksgiving turkey dinner.”

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Every Day is Christmas for Putin: Trump administration to cut its financial contribution to NATO

Mod: In keeping with today's holiday theme, we'd like to note that when it comes to Vladimir Putin it's much more than the 12 days of Christmas for Donald Trump.

Trump administration to cut its financial contribution to NATO (CNN link): The Trump administration has moved to substantially cut its contribution to NATO's collective budget according to several US and NATO officials, a symbolic move that comes as many continue to question President Donald Trump's commitment to the transatlantic alliance as he prepares to attend a summit to mark its 70th anniversary in London next week.

Previously the US provided some 22% of NATO's direct funding, which covers the cost of maintaining the NATO headquarters, joint security investments and some combined military operations.

US defense officials tell CNN that the Trump administration sought to reduce its contribution to about 16%, bringing it in line with Germany's, which provides 14.8% despite the US having a larger economy.

Trump has long slammed NATO allies, particularly Germany for not meeting the 2% NATO defense spending target, which only eight of 29 members currently meet. All members pledged to reach the 2% level by 2024 but not all of them currently have plans to do so. Member countries have boosted defense spending considerably in recent years, something Trump has claimed credit for.

North Korea fires two ‘unidentified projectiles’ on Thanksgiving (Raw Story link): North Korea fired two “unidentified projectiles” on Thursday — the Thanksgiving holiday in the US — Seoul said, as nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington remain deadlocked.

The projectiles were fired eastwards from South Hamgyong province and came down in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

Nuclear negotiations between the US and the North have been at a standstill since the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un broke up in February, and Pyongyang has since demanded Washington change its approach by the end of the year.

“North Korea is growing anxious as its deadline approaches,” said Shin Beom-chul of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “That’s why it’s carrying out these provocations, which is the typical North Korean playbook to get more concessions from the US.”

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Tricky Trump: No, the new CNN poll is not good news for Donald Trump on impeachment

Mod: The pro-impeachment polling numbers for Trump are very high, and outside of Nixon have never been seen before. The next time some nitwit Trumper raises the exciting topic of impeachment polls, kindly remind him or her of this key controversial fact.

No, the new CNN poll is not good news for Donald Trump on impeachment (CNN link): A new CNN poll shows that half the country believes that President Donald Trump should be not only impeached by the House, but also removed from office by the Senate.

That result is being spun in some corners of the internet as great news for Trump, because that 50% number is unchanged from a CNN poll in mid-October, the conclusion being that the last 10 days of public impeachment hearings have not convinced more of the public that the President needs to go.

Except that we are missing the forest for the trees here: A majority of the country believes the current President of the United States should be impeached and removed from office! A quick check of history shows how strange that is.

The peak of support for the impeachment and removal of then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 was 29% in CNN polling. That's the highest that number ever went, despite the fact that the House Republican majority did vote to impeach late that year!

Ditto impeachment sentiment for the two presidents between Clinton and Trump. In a 2006 CNN poll, 30% of the public wanted George W. Bush impeached and removed from office; in 2014, 33% said the same of Barack Obama. (Unlike Trump and Clinton, neither Bush nor Obama ever faced any sort of formal impeachment investigation or vote.)

What those historical numbers tell us is that for at least the last two decades, there is roughly 30% of the country that is ready to impeach a president (usually of the party to which they do not belong) at all times.

What makes the Trump number so remarkable, then, is that 20% more of the public is now convinced not only that he should be impeached but that he should be removed from office -- despite the fact that, unlike Clinton, Bush and Obama when those CNN polls were taken, Trump will face voters in a bid for a second term in less than a year's time.

Now, it is fair to say that Democrats -- if you gave them truth serum at the conclusion of last week's public impeachment hearings -- believed they had hit a home run, and that polling would reflect that. That polling so far hasn't changed all that much is worth noting.

So that point is right -- for now. But it's also worth noting that we are in the immediate aftermath of the hearings, and its findings may not have fully seeped into the public consciousness just yet. And more importantly, whether it's 50% or 51% or 55%, it's noteworthy that a majority of the public wants the President gone.

Don't get so close to the painting that you can't see the full picture. And that full picture is this: 50% of the public believes Trump should be impeached and removed -- almost double the amount who have said that about any of his three most recent predecessors, including one who was actually impeached by the House.

Don't lose sight of those facts amid the narrow focus on whether the impeachment numbers have moved since the last poll. That 50% number is both astounding and ahistorical.

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Voters need to boot out ‘un-American’ GOPers using Russian propaganda to save Trump

Powerful video - click here.

Mod: The theory is that the GOP controlled Senate will never vote to convict Trump because most of them have mattresses of their own stuffed full of rubles to hide. 

Voters need to boot out ‘un-American’ GOPers using Russian propaganda to save Trump: conservative columnist (Raw Story link): In a column for the Washington Post, conservative columnist and avid Donald Trump opponent Jennifer Rubin said voters should take a look at those who are defending the president over accusations of Russian interference and hid Ukraine dealings and show them the door when the 2020 election.

After watching Republican lawmakers attack career diplomats and experts over the past two weeks of impeachment hearings, Rubin expressed disgust with their actions and rhetoric.

“Republicans are not “merely” violating their oaths of office for failing to support impeachment of a president who arguably has committed more serious “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” and acts of bribery than all his predecessors combined,” Rubin wrote. “None of them sacrificed national security to obtain a political advantage. President Trump has been disloyal to the United States, not only in giving Russia a leg up in its war against Ukraine, but also in broadcasting his propaganda. And for that, Republicans are just as guilty.”

Adding, “we now know that they are neither dupes nor Fox News pawns; they are deliberately assisting in a Russian propaganda operation,” Rubin made her case.

“If congressional Republicans have evidence our intelligence community is wrong, they need to present it. Otherwise, they need to be called out for deliberately assisting a hostile foreign power. It is up to mainstream media interviewers and every Democrat on the ballot in 2020 to directly challenge Republicans who, yes, engage in un-American activity,” she wrote before suggesting Trump might be a “a malleable puppet whose strings are pulled in the Kremlin.”

“Ironically, it was Republicans during the Cold War who routinely and falsely accused every liberal of aiding communists,” she elaborated. “Now, we have a case in which the ‘useful idiots’ are in the White House and Congress, spreading Putin’s lies far more effectively than the Russian leader could do on his own.”

“Republicans must bear full responsibility for raising a specious defense of Trump that aids Russia, and the president should be held responsible for his inability to defend our national security by virtue of his susceptibility to Russian propaganda."

Brewery prints 'Epstein didn't kill himself' on bottom of beer cans (WBNS News link): Questions surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's death have popped up everywhere lately. Now, they have even made their way to the bottom of a beer can. Printed on the bottom of cans of a stout from Tactical Ops Brewery is the message, "Epstein didn't kill himself." The internet is full of speculation surrounding the death of the disgraced financier in jail. The offbeat promotion is the brainchild the brewery's manager. Carlos Tovar, in California.

"I was like, 'Hey, what if we do this? And on our Basher can, that we're doing. We put in a, 'Epstein didn't kill himself,' because you know, it's a big thing right now," he said.

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Trump threatens to sic Army dog on reporters during bizarre presentation: ‘If you open your mouths you will be attacked!’

Video link here.

Mod: Trump is tetched in the head, of course. Everyday something happens to prove it.

Trump threatens to sic Army dog on reporters during bizarre presentation: ‘If you open your mouths you will be attacked!’ (Raw Story link): President Donald Trump warned reporters that a Special Forces dog would attack them in a bizarre event outside the White House.

Reporters were summoned to the Rose Garden for a presentation of Conan, the dog who took part in a raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "If you open your mouths you will be attacked,” the president told reporters gathered outside.

Trump did not appear to touch the Belgian Malinois during the event, although Vice President Mike Pence occasionally patted the dog on the head.

“We were going to put a muzzle on the dog, and I thought that was a good idea, but then it gets even more violent,” Trump said.

“But no, the dog is incredible, actually incredible. We spent some good time with it. So brilliant, so smart.”

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A Whistleblower: Kushner OK'd Khashoggi Arrest, Turkey Heard Call & Blackmailed Trump over Syrian Troops

Mod: Interesting theory. Of course, we all know that Trump is an old hand at being blackmailed. For foreign despots this has become the coin of the realm when dealing with Donald and his kin.

Kushner OK'd Khashoggi Arrest, Turkey Heard Call & Blackmailed Trump over Syrian Troops (Daily Kos link): I saw this story pop up around midnight that, if verified by other sources - including one of the new whistleblowers they’re reporting a source told them had nothing to do with the Ukraine saga - would explain Trump’s sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces in Syria and puts a target squarely on Jared Kushner’s back for providing the opening to Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in October of last year.

It would also expose a U.S. president as having been blackmailed by another head of state into abandoning our Syrian Kurdish allies to protect his son-in-law.

The UK’s Daily Mail released this story at midnight based on an article that was published late last night in the Spectator, published by the owners of the UK’s The Daily Telegraph. I hope it isn't true. And I say that because I hate the thought that a U.S. president’s closest advisor, a U.S. citizen and WH employee, gave the green light to a WP reporter’s (Khashoggi’s) arrest, especially if it led to Khashoggi’s brutal murder.

You may recall that Washington Post reporter, Jamal Khashoggi, a staunch human rights activist and once friend-turned critic of the ruling Saudi royal family, was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018.

The Central Intelligence Agency and other Western governments believe that Saudi Crown Prince and friend of Jared Kushner, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), ordered Khashoggi’s killing. Khashoggi was a legal resident of the U.S., educated at Indiana University, with children who are U.S. citizens, and was seeking to become a U.S. citizen himself when he was murdered.

Jared Kushner gave permission to Saudi ruler Mohammad bin Salman to arrest Jamal Khashoggi before he was killed and dismembered, a whistleblower claims.

However, Turkish intelligence intercepted the call and President Recep Erdogan then used the information to force President Trump to remove his troops from northern Syria, according to the Spectator.

The report also mentions that a source also told the writer at the Spectator that there are 4 NEW whistleblowers, including one whose reported events have nothing to do with the Ukraine saga. It’s possible. The attorney representing the initial, unnamed Ukraine whistleblower has stated he is representing “multiple whistleblowers.”

The report claims that investigators on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee are aware of these allegations and are planning to dig further into them while pursuing the impeachment inquiry over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

It also claims that the number of intelligence whistleblowers who are willing to give evidence to the impeachment committee is seven.

The three already known are the original anonymous CIA officer, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Tim Morrison, the NSC’s director for European and Russian Affairs.

The Khashoggi whistleblower takes that tally up to four, meaning there are three others waiting in the wings.

If this story has legs, the open House Intelligence Committee hearings could turn out to contain the most explosive charges ever leveled against a sitting president and his family, or a government official in any capacity, when you consider the aftershocks the alleged phone calls between Kushner with MBS that Erdogan set in motion.

Mod: More at the link.

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Fox News Political Analyst Juan Williams Suggests President Trump Is A Traitor To The United States

Cartoon: 'So You’re Getting Impeached' - link

Mod: He is, as we all know. And by defending him each of his supporters becomes one as well.

Fox Contributor Suggests President Trump Is A Traitor To The United States (The Intellectualist link): Fox News political analyst Juan Williams suggested on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has committed treason during an argument among co-hosts of The Five, according to Newsweek.

Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters attacked the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged misdeeds regarding U.S. military aid to Ukraine and investigations he sought into his political rivals, insisting that Democrats have no case.

"You need to look at impeachment as a junkie dancing on a street corner in his underwear," Gutfeld said, earning laughs from the panel. "It's their experience, it's not yours. It's what they're living but it's not yours. So, the media strategy is preventive intervention."

But Williams disagreed and accused Republicans of behaving hypocritically.

"What we've got here is an effort, and Greg I think reflects this, which is to say to the American people, 'Forget about this. This is a bore. It's not interesting... this is not even Clinton and sex,'" said Williams. "But this is much more important.”

He continued: "Right now, the Republican strategy is to say 'Yes, there's a mountain of evidence, but don't look! Look at the rainbows, look at the rainbows in every direction!' It's tribal blindness. Because if this was Obama, if this was Hillary Clinton, they would say, 'Hang him from the highest tree, this is treason.'"

Williams also said that the president’s attempts to discredit impeachment witnesses as “never Trumpers” who previously worked for him — a move many of Trump’s GOP allies have copied — is absurd and said it is merely a distraction.

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Is Russian Money Behind Lindsey Graham's Growing Defense of Trump?

Mod: The Republicans have their Russian paymaster. All they have to do to get his money is betray America. 

Is Russian Money Behind Graham's Growing Defense of Trump? (Investigate Russia.Org link): The Intellectualist, a left-leaning news aggregator, points out that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has received at least $800,000 in campaign donations from a man with ties to Putin-allied oligarchs, which could explain why the Senator has been increasingly supportive of President Trump lately.

Ruth May, in a piece for the Dallas Morning News, details the donations from Len Blavatnik, "one of the largest donors to GOP political action committees in the 2015-16 election cycle."

Data from the Federal Election Commission show that Blavatnik's campaign contributions dating back to 2009-10 were fairly balanced across party lines and relatively modest for a billionaire. During that season he contributed $53,400. His contributions increased to $135,552 in 2011-12 and to $273,600 in 2013-14, still bipartisan. In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.

In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund.
An infographic accompanying May's article notes the following.

Blavatnik contributed $800,000 to the Security is Strength PAC, associated with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., via Access Industries. Blavatnik and oligarch Viktor Vekselberg met attending university in Russia years ago, and together they now own a 20.5% stake in Rusal, oligarch Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company.

Further, nearly 4 percent of Deripaska's stake in Rusal is owned by Putin's state-controlled bank, VTB, which is currently under U.S. sanctions. VTB was exposed in the Panama Papers in 2016 for facilitating the flow of billions of dollars to offshore companies linked to Putin.

Earlier this year, The Associated Press reported that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, began collecting $10 million a year in 2006 from Deripaska to advance Putin's interests with Western governments. Deripaska's name turned up again in an email handed over to Mueller's team by Manafort's attorneys.

Vekselberg has connections to at least two Americans who made significant GOP campaign contributions during the last cycle. They are among several Americans who also merit Mueller's scrutiny.

The first is his cousin Andrew Intrater, and the second is Alexander Shustorovich.

Intrater had no significant history of political contributions prior to the 2016 elections. But in January 2017 he contributed $250,000 to Trump's Inaugural Committee. His six-figure gift bought him special access to a dinner billed as "an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees."

Alexander Shustorovich, chief executive of IMG Artists, attempted to give the Republican Party $250,000 in 2000 to support the George W. Bush presidential campaign, but his money was rejected because of his ties to the Russian government, according to Quartz. So why didn't the Trump team reject Shustorovich's $1 million check to Trump's Inaugural Committee?

Oil magnate Simon Kukes, who once worked for Vekselberg and Blavatnik, also is of interest. In 2016, Kukes contributed a total of $283,000, much of it to the Trump Victory Fund. He had no significant donor history before last year's election.

There is no doubt that Kukes has close ties to the Putin government. When he left his job as CEO of TNK in June 2003, he joined the board of Yukos Oil, which at the time was the largest oil company in Russia owned by the richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Four months after Kukes joined the board, authorities arrested Khodorkovsky at gunpoint on his private plane in Siberia on trumped up charges of tax evasion and tapped Kukes to be CEO.

In total, Blavatnik, Intrater, Shustorovich and Kukes made $10.4 million in political contributions from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017, and 99 percent of their contributions went to Republicans. With the exception of Shustorovich, the common denominator that connects the men is their association with Vekselberg. Experts who follow the activities of Russian oligarchs told ABC News that they believe the contributions from Blavatnik, Intrater and Kukes warrant intense scrutiny because they have worked closely with Vekselberg.

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One-Quarter Of Americans Believe Donald Trump Is A Tool Of The Devil, According To A New Study

Mod: Apparently a lot more people believe that Donald Trump is a friend of the devil than the choice of God. The problem here being the press has yet to pick up on that. Does the devil need a better publicist?

One-Quarter Of Americans Believe Donald Trump Is A Tool Of The Devil, According To A New Study (Pacific Standard link): A subset of President Donald Trump's supporters sincerely believe that his presidency was preordained by God. While this conviction has been widely reported (and ridiculed), it might be surprising to learn that more Americans associate the president with a figure from the opposite end of the spiritual spectrum.

New research reports that, while 17.2 percent of Americans believe Trump's election "is a reflection of God's will," 27.7 percent believe he is "working for the devil." That same percentage replied affirmatively to the statement: "The devil is using Donald Trump for his purposes."

This tendency toward demonization, along with the even more widespread belief that Trump's election amounts to a desecration of American values, "may help to explain the heightened levels of distress" following his election, writes a research team led by psychologist Serena Wong of Bowling Green State University.

The study, in the journal Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, featured 252 American voters recruited online via Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. The participants' political affiliations were broadly in line with that of the population as a whole.

The results suggest that our nation's polarization is spiritual as well as political. "Approximately one-fifth of participants sanctified the election of President Trump to some degree, with up to 21 percent appraising his presidency as part of a larger spiritual plan," Wong and her colleagues write.

"Conversely, approximately one-third of participants endorsed some level of negative spiritual appraisals. For instance, 32 percent of voters endorsed that 'the devil played a role in this election.'"

In other words, a lot more Americans associate Trump with the devil than with the almighty. A few more figures: Among study participants, 28.7 percent agreed, at least to an extent, that "the results of the election reflect what the devil wants." And a majority—54.4 percent—expressed agreement with the statement: "The election of Donald Trump was an immoral act against something I value."

Interestingly, the researchers discovered no significant differences in spiritual appraisals between Christian and non-Christian participants. This fact suggests that "sanctification, demonization, and desecration are psycho-spiritual processes that can occur across faith traditions," they write.

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Ken Starr suggests Sondland’s testimony could prompt GOP to ‘make a trip to the White House’ and ask Trump to resign

Mod: Watergate references are all the rage in Washington this week.

Ken Starr: GOP Senators Might Consider Having to ‘Make a Trip’ to the White House After Sondland’s Testimony (Daily Beast link): Moments before Wednesday’s impeachment hearings and right after U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland’s opening statement was released, Fox News contributor Ken Starr wondered aloud whether Sondland flipping on President Trump would cause GOP senators to push Trump to resign.

“The real issue is the senators are watching,” Starr said. “Are senators going to now say in light of what we hear today, it’s going to be a long day even with the ambassador alone, in light of what we have heard, ‘We need to make a trip down to the White House’? That historic example set during the Nixon presidency. From what I’ve been able to glean I don’t think that’s going to happen. But obviously what happens today could—has the potential to be a game-changer.”

In his opening statement, Sondland claimed that Trump was seeking a quid pro quo with Ukraine in exchange for investigations into the president’s political rivals, adding that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was “expressing the desires” of Trump.

During a break in the hearings a few hours later, Starr was just as emphatic in his belief that this could spell bad news for Trump. Noting that “articles of impeachment are being drawn up if they haven’t already been drawn up” over Sondland’s testimony, Starr concluded by saying “this obviously has been one of those bombshell days.”

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