THE BISHOP VS. THE PRESIDENT
How convenient
Bishop Richard Stika of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, whose jurisdiction includes the Chattanooga area, is no fan of President Joe Biden’s rosary flaunting when religiously convenient.
The Virgin Mary, he said, does not share the president’s support for “unrestricted abortion.”
In Biden’s virtual meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last week, he pulled out his rosary beads and noted how he has often “paid my respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe.”
“So sad that the President like [sic] to pull out his rosary and touts his devotion of Our Lady of Guadeloupe as he forgets another title for her: ‘Our Lady of Life,’” Bishop Stika said on Twitter. “He likes to brag on his Catholic background when convenient. So very dishonest!”
In a separate tweet, he said, “So how can you judge another on their commitment to the Catholic Church? Not their words do we judge but rather their actions. Mr. Biden promotes unrestricted abortion and what does he do today? Biden mentions Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows Rosary in meeting with Mexican president.”
The bishop is not the only Catholic dismayed the president’s faith doesn’t match his actions. Father Jerry Pokorsky, a director of Human Life International, said he is the “most aggressively anti-Catholic president in history.”
“Biden’s habitual and unapologetic sinful acts are on full display,” the priest asserted.
Obama’s pick
A new book by two journalists add fuels to previous reporting that former President Barack Obama did not want his former vice president, Joe Biden, to run for president because of his worries Biden “would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.”
“Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency,” by Jonathan Allen and Arnie Parnes, suggests Obama and many of his staffers thought former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, might have the right stuff. Other Democrats, the authors maintain, say O’Rourke reminded them of former President John F. Kennedy and Obama.
O’Rourke flamed out in November 2019, months before the Iowa caucuses.
Previous reporting said Biden admitted Obama “was not encouraging” about his run, that Obama reportedly told people Biden “really doesn’t have it” and warned Democrats not to “underestimate Joe’s ability to [mess] things up.”
Although the multi-millionaire former president finally endorsed Biden against President Donald Trump, he did not donate any money to his general election campaign.
Now they tell us
It’s akin to closing the barn door after horses have gotten out, but an ethics-in-journalism organization says CNN host Chris Cuomo should never have been allowed to interview his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, last year.
“With Gov. Cuomo now embroiled in controversy,” Poynter writes, “CNN’s credibility is taking a hit.”
The far-left organization’s news credibility could hardly be lower, but the ethics organization — months after the brothers appeared together — now admits “media observers … overlooked the shady journalism ethics that were on display.”
Poynter adds, “The segments with Chris and Andrew became … popular. They acted like brothers. They teased each other, jabbed each other, yukked it up. They talked about Mom and growing up. In between their little comedy act, they did discuss the coronavirus. … But with Gov. Cuomo in good standing, it all seemed fairly harmless.”
However, Cuomo’s administration is now under federal investigation for its handling of the virus in nursing homes, and he has personally been accused of sexual harassment by several women.
If ethics suggest the softball/promotional appearances are wrong now, they were wrong then. But the governor wasn’t in trouble then, so left-leaning organizations didn’t want to call him out.
Where’s mine?
What can you do but shake your head at the kerfuffle that has sprung up between the Ferguson, Missouri-based International Black Freedom Alliance (IBFA) and Black Lives Matter (BLM). The former wants $20 million from the latter because it said only the resulting outcry from the death of Michael Brown in 2014 allowed BLM to reap $90 million in contributions last year.
Michael Brown Sr., father of the Black robbery suspect who was shot by a white police officer in the incident, said IBFA only received $500.
“They believe the momentum from the 2014 unrest and the subsequent protest that local activists organized for several months after were the catalyst for the group being propelled into the position to receive the $90 million,” the IBFA said in a news release last week. “Now they demand funding from the group to the tune of $20 million in order to continue the work they started.”
The $20 million would go toward annual commemorations of Michael Brown Jr.’s life, mutual aid programs, Black Panther-style services, as well as fellowships and stipends to fight white supremacy, Tory Russell, founder of IBFA, said.