Read it Yourself | Download the Mueller Report | Update

Here's a link to the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, Volumes I + II, by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.

Volumes I + II are together in sequence. Volume II begins on physical page 208.

UPDATE:

There is a searchable version of the redacted release of the Mueller Report here. The file is too large to read online; you’ll need to download it.

This scanned PDF of the Mueller Report was acquired from the Washington Post and processed via OCR (Optical Character Recognition) in PDF Editor 6 Pro. 

OCR software may not be 100% accurate in recognizing characters in scanned documents. Comparing the OCR version with the original scanned document should clear up any typographical issues.

Martin Marty on the New York Times Food Writer Who Fasted | Updated 04.04.19

We were, as a people, in a somewhat different space when this came up eight years ago ... somewhat, but not entirely. We're not arguing much about cutting the Federal deficits this year, but we're finding plenty to clash about as relates to the poor — of whom it may be said, as David Beckmann is quoted as saying by Martin Marty: "They didn’t get us into this, and starving them isn’t going to get us out of it.” So, with that...

“Why We’re Fasting” is the title of columnist Mark Bittman’s essay in Wednesday's New York Times, the “we” being himself and David Beckmann, here described as a “reverend,” and “this year’s World Food Prize laureate.” The pastor heads “Bread for the World.” Yes, why fast? Readers can do their own sighting and hearing of all the media-reported clashes over the national budget, now in final crunch time. That scan will reveal the obvious: that lost in the necessary political and economic debates blighted by the side-tracking but focal partisan and sub-partisan disputes on the issue is one set of people. Biblical scholars in this “Judeo-” and “Christian” nation call them “God’s people.” They are the poor, disabled, disadvantaged, undersheltered and, yes, hungry, about whom some of the budget debates were supposed to have been waged.           

Bittman and Beckmann discuss Isaiah 58, essential reading for believers and bystanders alike at such a time and place as this. G. K. Chesterton famously observed that one can look at something 999 times and then, on the thousandth sighting, see something revelatory, as if for the first time. We are asked to do such looking now. To bid each other to do so will sound embarrassingly pious, and yet. . . .           

As Bittman tells it, he is fasting, or was, last Monday, when thousands of others also fasted to draw notice to those Congressional budget proposals (H.R. 1) which would “quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than they are doing now.” Adds Bittman: “And: The bill would increase defense spending.”

Bittman confessed to some skepticism about whether things work out the way Isaiah 58, reporting on God’s revelatory word, suggests. That chapter also reflected God’s being bored by all of Israel’s fussing about how strenuous the people were about holy fasting. The prophet—in my own loose translation—says, for God: “You think you are going to impress me by fasting, but all you do is get hungry and thus get angry and then beat up on each other. Is that the fast you think I want?”

Keith Miller + The Boy Who Believed in Magic

Keith Miller — author of A Taste of New Wine, A Hunger for Healing, and much more — sent me a pointed note in response to The Boy Who Believed in Magic. Keith said, "The Boy Who Believed in Magic is real — and sobering, but hopeful … This book can help a lot of folks who wouldn’t get it by being buttonholed by Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book thumpers."

Keith knew the boy who believed in magic … seems like maybe we all do….

The Boy Who Believed in Magic is available now in digital editions — for Kindle apps at Amazon , and as a PDF at thetinycompanycalledme.com. Help yourself. Help someone you love.

Brennan Manning + The Boy Who Believed in Magic

Brennan Manning — author of Ragamuffin Gospel, Abba’s Child, and much more — sent me a lovely note in response to The Boy Who Believed in Magic. 

The Boy Who Believed in Magic has been around for a long time but never, until now, in a digital edition. 

Now, anyone with a smart phone, tablet, laptop, or pc can read The Boy Who Believes in Magic and, maybe, see what — saw in 2,000 words, spread across 80 pages, illuminated by Gavin McKinley’s sensitive drawings of one boy’s life, from childhood to his 50th birthday....

The Boy Who Believed in Magic :: in digital editions at Amazon.com and thetinycompanycalledme.com.

Thoughts and Prayers [Updated 02.17.24]

Update

Five years ago, today — February 27, 2024 — we were awash in thoughts and prayers from another deadly assault on the American conscience.

And what did we do about it? Not enough.

But not nothing.

Two years ago — June, 2022 — the *Bipartisan Safer Communities Act* passed by majorities in the House (234-193) and Senate (65-33) and was signed into law by President Biden.

The law:

• Expanded background checks for gun sales by commercial firearm dealers to include private sales and transfers between individuals, with some exceptions.

• Provides grants to states that implement "red flag" laws, which allow authorities to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

• Created a new federal offense for strawman purchasing, where someone buys a gun for someone else who is prohibited from owning one.

• Strengthened penalties for gun trafficking and strawman purchasing.

• Expanded the definition of "domestic violence" for gun restrictions to include dating partners and expanded background check requirements for individuals convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors.

• Increases funding for school-based mental health services and expanded training for school personnel.

• Expanded access to mental health services through telehealth for Medicaid and CHIP recipients.

• Provides funding for community-based violence intervention programs.

• Provides funding for states to develop and implement crisis intervention programs.

• Created a federal clearinghouse on school safety evidence-based practices.

• Provides funding for research on gun violence prevention.

As our thus far unending parade of public bloodbaths demonstrates, we're far behind the civilized world on this. But the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act wasn't nothing — for example, as of January, 2024, more than 500 illegal gun purchases have been stopped by the enhanced background checks in the law.

We can continue our advance out of gun cult savagery by electing people who will lead that march — see, for example, the leadership of Florida Member of Congress Maxwell Frost ... the first Gen Z Member of Congress but certainly not the last.

Look, nobody loves the manifest falseness of tea and sympathy. William Barclay got it right: "What use is sympathy without some attempt to turn that sympathy into practical effect?" 

sometimes karma seems like a thing

Read it Yourself | A Proclamation + Invitation to Thanksgiving by Abraham Lincoln | 1863

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State 

If nothing else, I hope they’ll vote on healthcare

If nothing else, vote on health care.

If some people are not ready to vote down racism, misogyny, corruption in the White House Cabinet and Staff, torrents of abuse and spectacularly flagrant lying by the chief executive, and/or a know-nothing/do-nothing Congress — all outlined and helpfully linked by Greg Sargent [https://buff.ly/2AOpABH] — I hope they will at least vote on health care.

Consider what Rachel Maddox carefully documented on October 23 [https://buff.ly/2JJa64E]:

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: In Wisconsin, preexisting conditions are covered. And as long as I`m governor, they always will be.

MADDOW: Actually, under Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin is the lead named plaintiff on the federal lawsuit that would eliminate Obamacare, including specifically its protections for people with preexisting conditions.

JOSH HAWLEY (R), MISSOURI SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I’m Josh Hawley. I support forcing insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions.

MADDOW: Actually, Josh Hawley is the attorney general in the state of Missouri who is personally handling that state’s part in the federal lawsuit to kill Obamacare, including its protections for preexisting conditions.

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: I support forcing insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions.

MADDOW: Actually, under Florida Governor Rick Scott, his state is suing to allow insurance companies specifically to no longer cover preexisting conditions.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Everyone agrees we’re going to protect preexisting conditions.

REP. MARTHA MCSALLY (R), ARIZONA: I want the voters to know I’m committed to protecting people with preexisting conditions. I’m fighting for it. I fought for it, and I voted for it.

MADDOW: Nope. Martha McSally, no, you did not. You actually voted to get rid of Obamacare, including its protections for people with preexisting conditions. So did you, Ted Cruz, Texas senator up for reelection. So did you, Dean Heller, Nevada senator up for reelection. So did you, Dana Rohrabacher, Russian congressman up for reelection. So did you, Congressman Kevin Cramer, running for Senate now against Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota.

You all voted to end insurance coverage for people with preexisting
conditions. You all voted for it. You all voted to kill Obamacare,
including that provision of it.

And, Jennifer Rubin reminds us [https://buff.ly/2F2m6j1] that, having blown a massive hole in the budget with unwarranted high-income tax cuts, on October 16, Mitch McConnell told us what he wants to do to gut healthcare protections as leader of the Senate majority "If we had the votes to completely start over, we’d do it," McConnell said. "But that depends on what happens in a couple of weeks…."

The G.O.P. is not, at present on our side. Only we can send them back home in sufficient numbers to get their attention, and remind them of the common good.

The president finally gets his military parade.

Deploying active duty service members against a grave national threat as footsore asylum-seekers inch their way toward the U.S. border (only 900 hundred miles to go!), Donald J. Trump finally gets his military parade — and just in time for the midterms!
https://buff.ly/2QfZVr1

VOTE THE BEAT

A Nation of Voters | November 6, 2018

Geo. Washington’s Letter to Jews in Newport R.I.

Excerpts from President George Washington’s August 1790 letter to Jewish leaders in Newport, Rhode Island

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

.... 

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

Bullies don’t work alone.

Imagine there was a bully at your school who was surrounded by flunkies who harassed and hounded the bully’s targets, and egged him on, and told baldfaced lies to cover for him.

Next, imagine you had the power to turn the flunkies into homeschoolers, just like that. And just like that, the bully was left to fend for himself....

OK?

Now, imagine there’s a bully in the White House ... and imagine the White House bully is surrounded by flunkies who do what he says, and egg him on, and cover for him the way flunkies do.

And imagine you have the power to send the flunkies home ... so, just like that, the bully is left to fend for himself....

We have that power.

Send the flunkies home. November 6 2018.