[Headlines from DRJ]

Coats out as national intel director, clashed with Trump:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, will leave his job next month, President Trump announced Sunday, after a turbulent two years in which Coats and the president were often at odds over Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump announced Coats’ departure as Aug. 15 in a tweet that thanked Coats for his service. He said he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to the post and that he will name an acting official in the coming days. Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Coats often appeared out of step with Trump and disclosed to prosecutors how he was urged by the president to publicly deny any link between Russia and the Trump campaign. The frayed relationship reflected broader divisions between the president and the government’s intelligence agencies.

Dan Coats is out; Congressman and attorney John Ratcliffe is in following “his sharp questioning of former special counsel Robert Mueller during his congressional testimony last week.”

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

Multiple Injuries Reported in Shooting at Gilroy Garlic Festival:

Police and emergency personnel late Sunday responded to reports of a shooting involving multiple victims at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.

Ambulance crews were told 11 people were down in an active shooter incident at Gilroy’s Christmas Hill Park. As of 7:30 p.m. the situation was still active, according to Gilroy police.

This is a breaking news story so reports may be unreliable. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

MORE: CNN has live updates, including that the San Francisco FBI is responding. As of now, there is one confirmed fatality.

UPDATE 7/29/2019: The shooter was reportedly an angry 19-year-old male. Law enforcement shot and killed him within minutes. As bad as this was, this could have been much worse .

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

Pro-choice billboards erected outside Texas town that declared itself ‘sanctuary city for the unborn’:

Two pro-choice billboards outside a small town in Texas were put up this month after the all-male city council passed an ordinance declaring it a “sanctuary city for the unborn.”

The billboards, funded by abortion rights activists from Austin, read “Abortion is freedom” and include a website that has information on abortion services in Texas and nearby, according to the Washington Post.
***
Jayna Lay, a resident of Waskom, told The Post she supports the ordinance and is unhappy and outside group put the billboard near town. “I think they did it to take a dig at Waskom,” she said. “They send the wrong message in my opinion. ‘Abortion is freedom,’ that’s a messed up phrase. That’s pretty much saying, ‘Kill your children and you’re free.’ That’s crazy to me.”

The billboards are outside Waskom, Texas, a small town located on IH-20 which is a major East-West freeway in Texas. Waskom is known as “The Gateway to Texas” because it is near the Texas-Louisiana state line.

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

First there was the Licker in Lufkin and then the Texas tea spitter. Now it is the Indiana spitters:

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — A disturbing trend of food tampering in stores has hit central Indiana with a video showing two teens spitting into soda bottles.

Brittney Edwards posted the video to her Facebook page after she said a girl her daughter follows on Instagram posted it. Edwards said her daughter goes to school with one of the girls in the video. The video has been shared more than 50 times and viewed by more than 2,000. Dozens of people have commented on it. Some call it disturbing, even stomach-turning.

The video shows two teens taking soda bottles from a store cooler. They open the bottles, spit in them, replace the caps and put the bottles back on the cooler rack.

Adults are joining in, too.

— DRJ

It is the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch” (Truly, truly I say to you)

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 11:1-13:

Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, so will it be given to you.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

As everyone knows, the people who run Twitter are at war with half of America. This is not a matter of failed algorithms, poor judgment, and political bias on the part of moderators occasionally combining to result in ridiculous individual decisions. No, this is a war on conservative ideas, waged by the top people at Twitter, who literally want to silence entirely half of America because they hate our country and our president who has done so much for her.

The latest instance: well, look for yourself:

Help! David Hogg, yes, the REAL David Hogg @realdavidhogg, has been suspended for 'impersonating' @davidhogg111. Of course this is a mistake & David wrote Twitter. Below is their response. David is very upset. Can you help? @jack he sent lots of news articles/videos as proof! pic.twitter.com/2xS2ZcRklX

— Traci Hogg (@realdavidhogg 's mom) (@hogg_traci) July 28, 2019

There you have it. Another conservative voice silenced. How many times must this happen before the people rise up and DEMAND that our government get to tell this private company what speech it may allow. THIS IS A MATTER OF FREE SPEECH. EVERYBODY WHO AGREES WITH ME SAY DAMN RIGHT, ON THREE. ONE, TWO…

Wait, someone just gave me a piece of paper.

*reads, as lips move*

He’s for the gun control?

Siri delete post

UPDATE: A second piece of paper says he’s the real guy, meaning the imposter, and therefore it is in fact a war on all of conservative America. Or something.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]