I listened to part or all of several local church services via YouTube from this last Sunday, all of the services mentioned the Kirk assassination. The pastor of the evangelical church was a Kirk fan and very upset, he appeared to blame 'The Left'. A Left leaning congragtion with several trans individuals in it opened the floor for congragents to express their feelings, the thoughts expressed where of the 'I didn't like him but he didn't deserve what happened to him' variety. One trans person expressed that their gut reaction when they first heard was that they were glad he died, but upon a few moments reflection realized that thought was unworthy and they are now trying to empathize with Kirk's family. The pastor at a mainline denomination mentioned that their congregation was politically diverse, that she didn't care what her listeners though about Kirk, whether they loved or hated him, but what happened to him was wrong, and she encouraged her flock to put down their smart phones and read their Bibles. It was interesting to get a pulse on local religious reaction to Charlie Kirk's murder, and I didn't hear any trivilazing of it.

 Trump facts..  

64 Times Mentioned In Epstein Report.

97 Times Pleaded The Fifth.

34 Felony Convictions.

91 Criminal Charges.

26 Sexual Assault Allegations.

6 Bankruptcies.

5 Draft Deferments.

4 Indictments.

2 Impeachments.

2 Convicted Companies.

1 Fake University Shut Down.

1 Fake Charity Shut Down.

$25 Million Fraud Settlement.

$5 Million Sexual Abuse Verdict.

$2 Million Fake Charity Abuse Judgment.

$93 Million Sexual Abuse Judgements.

$400+ Million Fraud Judgment.

First President in history to serve a full term increase the deficit every year he was in office.

First President in history to maintain a debt to GDP ratio over 100% for his entire term.

Highest annual budget deficit.

Most added to the national debt in a single term.

Most new unemployment claims.

Largest single day point drop in the history of the Dow.

First major party candidate in half a century to lose the popular vote twice.

Longest government shutdown in history (and he did that while his own party controlled both chambers of Congress).

First President in the history of approval ratings to maintain a net negative approval rating for his entire term.

First President to be impeached twice.

First President to have bipartisan support for his conviction after impeachment (which happened both times).

Most indictments, guilty pleas, and criminal convictions of members of an administration.

First president to have a mug shot.

Please go ahead and lookup every claim here.

 "And then something went wrong. In December 2009, every single Republican voted for a point of order calling the individual mandate "unconstitutional." Among then we're Senators Bob Bennett, Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, Mike Crapo, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, and Judd Gregg ---- all of whom were cosponsors of the Healthy Americans Act, which, again, included an individual mandate. There were no revolutions in constitutional law between January 2007 and December 2009. Nor did the individual mandate show itself to be fatally flawed in some particular way. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was being successfully implemented in Massachusetts as part of Rodney's reforms.

"But there had been a political change: Democrats had gone from opposing the mandate to supporting it. This shift---- Democrats lining up behind the Republican--crafted mandate, and Republicans declaring it not just inappropriate policy but contrary to the wishes of the Founders-- shocked Wyden. "I would characterize the Washington, D.C., relationship with the individual mandate as truly schizophrenic," he said.

"It was not an isolated case. In 2007 both Newt Gingrich and John McCain  wanted a cap-and-trade program in order to reduce carbon emissions. A few years later, the entire party -- includeding them--turned on the idea. In 2008, the Bush administration proposed, pushed, and signed the Economic Stimulus Act, a deficit-financed tax cut designed to boost the flagging economy. Under Obama, Republicans became staunch opponents of the idea that deficit--financed stimulus could help an economy, before re-embracing the idea under Trump. When Romney ran for president in 2012, he was mocked by Democrats for saying the Russia was America's foremost geopolitical threat; after Russia helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election, Democrats turned sharply against Russia, while Republicans came to view Vladimir Putin more favorably than they viewed Obama."

Why We're Polarized; Ezra Klein (2020) page 84

"Kahan calls this theory "Identity-protective cognition": "as a way of avoiding dissonance and estrangement from valued groups, individuals subconsciously resist factual information that threatens their defining values." Elsewhere, he puts it even more pithily: "What we believe about facts," he writes, "tells us who we are." And the most important psychological imperative most of us have in a given day is protecting our idea of who we are and our relationships with the people we trust and love"

Why We're Polarized; Ezra Klein (2020) page 96

"The simplest way to activate someone's identity is to threaten it, to tell them they don't deserve what they have, to make them consider that it might be taken away. The experience of losing status--- and being told your loss of status is part of society's march to justice--- is itself radicalizing."

Why We're Polarized; Ezra Klein (2020) page 118

"But it makes sense if you think about the incentives driving media outlets. Fox News dosen't get Facebook shares by reporting on some banal comments made by Bob Casey, the understated Democratic senator from Pennsylvania. It focuses on Minnesota Representative Ihlan Omar, a liberal, confrontational Muslim American who wears a hijab and speaks with a soft, Somalian accent. Similar dynamics hold on MSNBC and, honestly, everywhere in the media. Representative Steve King, the racist Republican from Iowa, holds little power in the House but receives far more coverage than Representative Greg Walden, the top Republican on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"The old line on local reporting was: "If it bleeds, it leads." For political reporting, the principle is: "If it outrages, it leads." And outrage is deeply connected to identity-- we are outraged when members of other groups threaten our group and violate our values. As such, polarized media dosen't emphasize commonalities, it weaponizes differences; it dosen't focus on the best of the other side, it threatens you with the worst."

Why We're Polarized; Ezra Klein (2020) page 149

 That the same people who said that Bill Clinton lacked the moral character to be president, now so enthusiasticly embrace Donald Trump is something I don't think I'll ever get over. I grew up surrounded and nurtured by good, conservative Mormon folk who taught me the importance of character and the danger of associationing with those of low morals. It was made clear to me that 1990's Democrats had betrayed their own principles by embracing someone of William Jefferson Clinton's deep flaws. They had failed the test of their moral standards by embracing a liar and a womanizer,  a fundamentaly dishonest man who dishonored his country and his own supposed faith. They had  traded precious principles for the sake of a mess of postage made up of policy priorities and a good economy. I must learn the lession of this and take it to heart. I did. They did not.

I'm not upset that they aren't meeting my standards, I'm upset that they aren't meeting their own.

 As it seems increasingly likely that President Biden will drop his relection bid in the near future, hopefully this coming week, precious little time is left until the August convention in which a new candidate would need to be nominated. Being an event unprecedented in my life time it's hard to see exactly how this process would go, Democrats haven't had anything approaching an open convention since 1972. Weither picked at such a convention or before hand by some other means, it seems unlikely the next Democratic nominee will be anyone other then Kamala Harris, so I wanted to take a little time to lay out what I see as her pluses and minus and likely chances of landing the office of President. Many of these thoughts have been inspired by other sources but some of them are my own.

First let's start with the negatives.

While there are some people who really like her, for the most part Kamala seems to be genrally seen as not very likable. She is not a particularly good speaker nor has she shown much in the way of charisma. As vice president she has been mostly sidelined to that point that it appears The White House has considered her a liability and limited her public role. She has no legislative or policy accomplishments to speak of either in her current role or in the senate. It's hard for me to even tell what she believes. Her time as a prosecutor and attorney general in California may even be a net negative, I've heard some very critical things about her in those roles  Her placement on the ticket to begin with seems principly to check some demographic boxes rather then any inherent talents on her part. Being from California she dosen't put any swing state into play, the Golden State hasn't voted for a Republican since George H.W.Bush. She dosen't tend to generate much enthusiasm.

Now on to the pros, which are more numerous then they might at first appear.

At the top of the ticket Harris could energize black and women voters, as well as the youth vote given she would be a historic pick. As Biden's presumptive VP nominee already, there would be fewer legal complications to her accessing the campaigns considerable war chest. She would benefit, if mildly, from a kind of quasi incumbentcy and should Biden resign she would in fact be the incumbent.

Voters have been complaining for some time about the prospect of another election between these two old men. There has been a demand for new faces and while Kamala isn't exactly new, she's at least not one of those two old guys. Kamala is 18 years younger then Donald Trump. With Biden off the ticket Democrats would be able to plausibly go after Trumps age and his own mental and physical decline hard; this is something they have not been able to do before because of Biden's greater age (roughly four years), his looking a good deal older then Trump, that dismel debate performance, public gaffs and growing (and not illigmate) concerns about his capacity to do the job. Replacing Joe with Kamala removes all of that from the equation.

It is hard not to imagine racist and misogynistic attacks against Harris from Trump and his suraragtes, this would likely repell moderate and independent voters and push more of them towards Harris. Harris of course would get to name her own running mate, I would suggest finding the most charismatic and popular white male Democrats have in elected office, if that person happens to be a swing state governor so much the better, I'm looking at you Tim Walz of Minnesota and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

Least we forget, and how could we not, the many, many liabilities of Donald Trump. A polarizing figure who has already twice lost the popular vote and never broke even a 50% approval rating as President. There are many Republican voters looking for an alternative, witness Nikky Haley's remarkably strong 2nd place finishes in Republicans primaries. Donald Trump has multiple pending legal cases against him, is known to foment hate, violence and chaos. Not to mention his being broadly associated with the unpopular supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade. He sorounds himself with repellent and often criminal  fringe figures like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. The scary possibilities of a second Trump term as outlined in Project 2025 and elsewhere, promise an increasing authoritarian bent among Republicans, policy overreach, revenge on his political opponents, the potenal shattering of NATO and an American complicaty in a Russian victory in Ukraine, and surely loads of chaos we can't even anticipate at this juncture.

In short, despite all her short comings and liabilities I think Kamala Harris would have a really good chance of defeating Trump in November. I hope she has that chance as the odds of Biden somehow pulling off a victory seem increasingly remote with every passing day.

Thoughts?

Church Hopping

 In December of 2022 I started my current cycle of Church hopping, here I will attempt to list the names of as many of those Churches as I can remember, only the first two will be in order.

.Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Berean Bible Church

New Creation Church

The Mountain Church

South Valley Community Church

Bridge Church

Mid-Valley Church of Christ

Murray Park Church of Christ

United Church of Christ Salt Lake City

Church of the Valley

St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church

The Cathedral of the Madeline 

Christ Lutheran Church

Cottonwood Presbyterian Church

Adventure Church Draper

St. Marks Cathedral - Episcopalian 

Firsr United Methodist Church - Salt Lake City

First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City

Landmark Apostolic Church

Awaken Church

Anchor Baptist Church 

Discovery Christian Center

First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City

St. John's Lutheran Church

Central Church of the Nazeren

The Fellowship 

Second Church of Christ Scientist

Salt Lake Society of Friends

K2 Church

Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church

Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church

Canyons Church

Unity Church

The Rock Church

Various LDS wards

Covenant Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho

 M. Russell Ballard, a senior leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has passed away at the age of 95. Ballard was a direct descendent of Hyrum Smith, brother of Church founder Joseph Smith. It occurred to me that Ballard's death inaugurates what I think only the second period in Church history, during which no Smith relation sat in the upper councils of the Church. The other period was between the release of Church Presiding Patriarch Eldred G. Smith in 1979 and Ballard's call to the Quoram of the Twelve Apostles in 1985. Incidently during that interm Apostle Bruce R. McConkie was married to a Smith. A testament to the influence of the Smith on the Church.