Community Matters

(Community Matters) Not sure I’ve gone 5 days previously without posting – hadn’t even realized it until now. It’s been unusually busy and good time. Starting over the weekend, my quarterly review and analysis of everything to do with the Entrepreneurs Foundation, then Houston on Tuesday to imagine the future of youth entrepreneurship training related to lemonade day – looking at expanding what we offer which kids depending on age and experience. Quick catch up with family, hurry up and catch up at office one day, then to Marfa to join friends at the Lyceum meetings, look at real estate and handle Marfa Public Radio business. Of course, keeping up with EFCT business on the road and making good progress with equity prospects, sponsors and in prep for our annual poker tournament. Great to be here. Dinner with friends tonight.

(Community Matters) “Putin is fag and the rest of it is all shit. The entire country is on its knees. We are Russians! We are working!” – Russian paratroopers shouting at police and media in St. Petersburg as a lone gay activist is whisked away by police, preventing the paratroopers from beating him.

Ironic that these paratroopers are turning the hate and nationalism President Putin unleashed back on him. For him, I doubt it’s anything more than thuggish attempts to deflect criticism as he & his friends loot the country and trample human rights.

Hat Tip: Towelroad

(Community Matters) Significant progress that all went smooth without bombs, violent counter protests and no more than 150ish ultra-orthodox protesters this year. 

(Community Matters) Not sure I was aware this video was on YouTube. One of my favorite pieces – rather four of my favorite pieces.

He originally performed this at a Four Seasons fundraising luncheon. This video seems to be from the subsequent People’s staff retreat.

(Community Matters) Looking forward to tonight’s ALLGO event

(Community Matters) I was afraid to look – and unsurprisingly the victim is Black. Benchmark Bank – not robber. 

(Community Matters) Photographer Carl Warner created landscapes from torsos and appendages..

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(Community Matters) Our friend, John Corvino. Super editorial about the Pope’s comment of not judging gays. John is an associate professor and Chair of Philosophy at Wayne State University.

new book

(Community Matters) In The Big Bend Sentinel, I’m reading the senators Cornyn & Cruz are accepting applications for judgeships in Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Sherman, Texarkana, San Antonio, El Paso, Pecos, Midland and Alpine. Applications due by August 19

(Community Matters) Reuters, “Pope says gays must not be judged or marginalized” 

Politico Playbook: TOMORROW’S FRONT PAGE TODAY – “Pope says gays must not be judged or marginalized,” by Reuters’ Philip Pullella in Rome : “Pope Francis, in some of the most conciliatory words from any pontiff on gays, said they should not be judged or marginalised and should be integrated into society, but he reaffirmed Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin. In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, Francis also said the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities. He expressed pain over scandals at the Vatican bank during a remarkably forthright press conference, his first since being elected in March to replace Benedict XVI, who became the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. Francis said there were saints in the Holy See but also ‘those who are not very saintly.’ The airborne encounter with journalists ranged over issues as varied as the pope’s insistence on low-key security to his desire to slip out of the shackles of the Vatican to go for walks.”

(Community Matters) A covert, right wing group is planning “a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation,” according to my friend David Corn of Mother Jones. Fearing immigration reform, the group has even crafted a message for Senator Rubio to face-savingly abandon the Gang of Eight, “we can’t trust Obama to enforce immigration laws after the amnesty.”

Dubbed Groundswell, this coalition convenes weekly in the offices of Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group. During these hush-hush sessions and through a Google group, the members of Groundswell—including aides to congressional Republicans—cook up battle plans for their ongoing fights against the Obama administration, congressional Democrats, progressive outfits, and the Republican establishment and “clueless” GOP congressional leaders. They devise strategies for killing immigration reform, hyping the Benghazi controversy, and countering the impression that the GOP exploits racism. And the Groundswell gang is mounting a behind-the-scenes organized effort to eradicate the outsize influence of GOP über-strategist/pundit Karl Rove within Republican and conservative ranks.

One of the influential conservatives guiding the group is Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a columnist for the Daily Caller and a tea party consultant and lobbyist. Other Groundswell members include John Bolton, the former UN ambassador; Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy; Ken Blackwell and Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council; Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch; Gayle Trotter, a fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum; Catherine Engelbrecht and Anita MonCrief of True the Vote; Allen West, the former GOP House member; Sue Myrick, also a former House GOPer; Diana Banister of the influential Shirley and Banister PR firm; and Max Pappas, a top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

“Other memorable quotes from the group’s memos:

• ‘We’re failing the propaganda battle with minorities.’
• ‘Conservatives are so busy dealing with issues like immigration, gay marriage and boy scouts there is little time left to focus on other issues. These are the very issues the Left wants to avoid but we need to magnify.’
• ‘We are in a real war; most conservatives are not prepared to fight.’
• ‘We need to be more clever than the Left on this… Something amusing and easy for LIVs [low-information voters] to understand.’
• ‘We must reclaim the language and put ‘a face’ on our messages; tell stories. Write articles on 4th grade level! ‘”

There are plenty of groups that meet and coordinate political efforts. If you read David’s article which quotes from their Google Group, the hypocrisy of the Right’s outcry about a “liberal media” while they are coordinating messaging and stories with journalists and pitching Obama scandals is illuminating.

Hat Tip: Towelroad 

(Community Matters) Good McDonald Observatory Board of Visitors and Marfa Public Radio board meetings this weekend. BOV dinner Friday night, dinner w/ Julie, Fran, Jane, Tana, Joe & Steven Saturday night and with Tom Jacobs at Cochineal last night. We like the Playboy installation just West of Marfa on Highway 90.