Hillary Comes Out

. . as a believing Christian, that is.  Here is an excerpt from her brilliant essay just published in the Atlantic, which is a bit long but a powerful indictment of Trumpism, and well worth your time:

When I first saw the video of the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, I immediately thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Federal agents shot Pretti after he tried to help a woman they had thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help those in need. “Do this and you will live,” he says. Not in Donald Trump’s America.

Americans have now seen with their own eyes the cost of President Trump’s abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution. Videos of the killing of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents have exposed the lies of Trump-administration officials who were quick to smear the victims as “domestic terrorists.” Even Americans who have grown habituated to Trump’s excesses have been shaken by these killings and the reflexively cruel and dishonest response from the administration.

This crisis also reveals a deeper moral rot at the heart of Trump’s MAGA movement. Whatever you think about immigration policy, how can a person of conscience justify the lack of compassion and empathy for the victims in Minnesota, and for the families torn apart or hiding in fear, for the children separated from their parents or afraid to go to school?

That compassion is weak and cruelty is strong has become an article of MAGA faith. Trump and his allies believe that the more inhumane the treatment, the more likely it is to spread fear. That’s the goal of surging heavily armed federal forces into blue states such as Minnesota and Maine—street theater of the most dangerous kind. Other recent presidents, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, managed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants without turning American cities into battlegrounds or making a show of keeping children in cages. . . .

The glorification of cruelty and rejection of compassion don’t just shape the Trump administration’s policies. Those values are also at the core of Trump’s own character and worldview. And they have become a rallying cry for a cadre of hard-right “Christian influencers” who are waging a war on empathy. . .

This is certainly not what I was taught in Sunday school, not what my reading of the Bible teaches me, and not what I believe Jesus preached in his short time on Earth. Yes, I went to Sunday school. In fact, my mother taught Sunday school at our Methodist church in Park Ridge, Illinois. As an adult, I occasionally taught at our church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Some people—such as the Republican congressman who once called me the Antichrist—might find this surprising. (When I confronted him, he mumbled something about not having meant it. Trump later appointed him to his Cabinet.)

I’ve never been one to wear my faith on my sleeve, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to me. Quite the opposite: My faith has sustained me, informed me, saved me, chided me, and challenged me. I don’t know who I would be or where I would have ended up without it. So I am not a disinterested observer here. I believe that Christians like me—and people of faith more generally—have a responsibility to stand up to the extremists who use religion to divide our society and undermine our democracy. . . .

What I  Say:

It is not necessary to be a Christian to be a good citizen in America; but can America survive without Christian morality?  I don't mean who sleeps with whom, which is a non-issue in the scheme of things - I mean the essential teachings of Christ as found in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Golden Rule, and the Sermon on the Mount, to name a few.  True Christianity is about loving your neighbor as yourself - the polar opposite of the rampant narcissism of the modern world - not to mention the perverted Christianism of the far right, hate-filled and self-serving.

Liberal-minded people have been fleeing from the churches en masse in recent decades - but I really don't think they will like a "post-Christian" world as much as they expect.  In fact, it's already here - in Minneapolis, in Silicon Valley, and in Washington, D. C.  

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Sunday Drive: Peace Prayer

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

                                                 -- Micah 6:8

The Peace Prayer, sometimes called the Prayer of St. Francis, exquisitely performed by John Michael Talbot.

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

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Waitin' for the Weekend

"Men Back Then #3" by Clint Collide:

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Art Works: Boom!

Handsome cover of The American Magazine for September, 1931, by illustrator John Sheridan.  Actor Joseph Cotten was the model.

Click to enlarge.

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Pete B.: The Ground Is Shifting

"Hope can be the consequence of action, not just its cause."

Bonus: In this opinion piece for The Atlantic, conservative gay author and political analyst Jonathan Rauch says its okay to use the F-word now:  "Yes, It's Fascism"

Also well worth your time:  another Atlantic piece about "The Four Types of Trump Supporter" and the different ways he appeals to each type.

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Sunday Drive: Snowfall

As performed by Doris Day, 1967; one of M.P.'s favorite songs.  And so appropriate for today in Texas.

It's sunny and 16 fucking degrees outside as I write, and feels like 30 in the house.  BRRR!  We have 3 to 5 inches of white stuff all over the gound, atop a solid glaze of ice.  That's why you don't see any traffic on the roads in this news video, though the freeways are open.  Temps won't get above freezing until Tuesday afternoon, for a little while.  Here's some live coverage from the Dallas-Fort Worth area:

M.P. and I are hunkered down and huddled up in our drafty old bungalow, using all available methods of heat generation and retention - gas furnace, electric fireplace, and multiple layers of clothing. I highly recommend fleece-lined flannel shirts and knitted caps.  And we're not leaving the house until the icy white is all gone. 

Click to enlarge.
N.B. - This is a color photograph.

To keep up our morale, last night M.P. made sausage-and-chicken gumbo, with potato salad and fried oysters on the side; it doesn't get any better than that! And I hunted up The Birdcage, which we haven't seen in years; still a comedic treat.  We watched it as we ate our dinner at the kitchen bar, followed by hot coffee and the last two slices of homemade chess pie, flavored with a drop of orange liqueur.

My heart aches for you Yankee boys, really it does.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

"Those Who Came Before #1" by Clint Collide:

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Here We Go Again

North Texas is bracing for a monster icy blast like that Deep Freeze we had five years ago.  WFAA in Dallas reports:

Last time, all the state agencies assured us that everything would be fine. Instead, there were massive power failures statewide, and hundreds of people died from exposure. The Governor put all the blame on solar panels and wind turbines.  Seriously.  Now the same agencies and the same governor are saying once again that all will be well - we've got it covered - don't worry, be happy. 

M.P. and I are stocking up on groceries, candles, and brandy, and crossing all our fingers.

P. S. -- That craven skunk Ted Cruz has already jetted off to California - a sure sign that we're gonna get walloped.

Bonus:  M.P. just got back from Kroger and Winco, and he said it was just like what you see in this video.  Even the produce shelves were completely empty - I'm thinking, what the hell?  Produce?  Is this a vegetarian emergency?

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Gimme Your Bike or I'll Beat You Up!

Bizarro World:  The American president just threatened to make war on Europe - our own allies - because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize.  I wish this were the premise of a Saturday Night Live skit - but it's not.

France 24 reports:

Secretary Pete says we don't have to accep this craziness:

Danish comedian Huxi Bach wants to speak to the manager:

Bach says we have always bragged about the checks and balances in our system, and it's true they have worked well for a long time. But what he and all of Europe need to understand is that the USA they knew and admired no longer exists, except on paper. It was the victim of a hostile takeover last year, which is still d/b/a (doing business as) the USA - but in name only. The Congress, which can indeed "fire the president," is populated with a majority of supine sycophants who are only too glad to shirk their duties and let the infantile CEO run wild. They are enablers of all the craziness, and will continue to be unless and until the voters turn them out.

But will they? Can they? I'd be deeply saddened, though not at all surprised, if there were no more elections in my lifetime - real elections, not phony ones. For anyone who's read history, the present state of affairs in America has a familiar ring. The august Senate of Rome, proud guardians of their republican traditions, all acquiesced meekly (with financial advantage) to the supremacy of the Caesars when the imperial government began, and though they continued to meet and debate with all due decorum for several more centuries, they were just a rubber stamp for whoever sat on the imperial throne.

Likewise in Germany when the Nazis came to power. Hitler expelled all the other parties from the Reichstag, and thereafter did as he pleased, with the Nazi members of the legislature gladly doing his bidding as required. It's important to remember that dictators, as a general rule, like to maintain the trappings of law and legitimacy - then they can say, "See? I'm only doing what I was supposed to do."  This sort of don't-blame-me charade has occurred many times in many lands, all over the world.

But as Europeans should remember, once Hitler came to power, he kept making incessant, outrageous demands on all his neighbors, blaming them for "provoking" confrontations, and demanding more territory for national security and industrial expansion. And constantly spouting one outrageous lie after another.  But the Europeans were afraid of him, and didn't want to get into another catastrophic war, so they kept timidly backing away from the fight, doing all they could to make nice and appease the insatiable dictator - who could never be appeased enough.  We all know where that led.

I have no diplomatic expertise, so I can't say what Europe should or could do if push came to shove in Greenland or anywhere else. But what I feel sure of is that if they cave in to this outrageous demand, there will quickly be another one, and another, and another, until Europe is overwhelmed and fragmented and prostrate beneath the heels of the billionaire cronies of the Emperor of the West.

The only thing a bully of any age understands, and grudgingly respects, is a swift punch in the nose! Enuf said.

Bonus:  Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt in early 1944, speaking as an American president ought always to speak:

"The doctrine that the strong shall dominate the weak is the doctrine of our enemies, and we reject it."

Wow, what a concept, huh?

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Sunday Drive: Bach, Air on the G String

Like a prayer for peace -- as performed by Hauser.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

"Brotherly Love #1" by Clint Collide:

You can save time by pausing the video and right-arrowing through the pics.

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