I believe that in all seriousness the Republican Party has become a cult. I think that we as humans, myself included tend to display elements of cult behavior, but I think the cult has taken possession when people begin to act on a belief system that can be empirically proved to to be absurd, and even dangerous. Medical professionals h…
I believe that in all seriousness the Republican Party has become a cult. I think that we as humans, myself included tend to display elements of cult behavior, but I think the cult has taken possession when people begin to act on a belief system that can be empirically proved to to be absurd, and even dangerous. Medical professionals have told of COVID deniers who rejected the realities of their illness until petty literally their dying breath. When that kind of thinking is being cultivated, that is a cult. Any significant number of people believing just about anything that is said by Trump, especially lately, requires the circular thinking of a cult.
It gives me a better sense of who is in MAGA, what they want, and why they see Trump as more likely to give it to them than anyone else. He is a part of this movement and he does not hide his White Supremacy politics.
I am at the point where she is discussing that the White Power movement, post Reagan has decided that there is no way that they are going to get the government to actually become what they want it to be, so they are now for creating their own white state, which starts in the Pacific Northwest and ends up taking over all of the USA and Canada for White People only. This is the goal! In fact their goal is to have a White world and get rid of everyone else, modeled on the book The Turner Diaries. It is their sort of road map for life. Since Trump is not a US patriot either I can see how he can seem to be someone who would be helping them to fulfill what they feel is a Christian, anti-communist mission. Belew is considered an authority on the White Power movement and this book is really deepening my understanding of who I am sharing a country with. They ARE A HUGE PROBLEM and I believe they are the core of what MAGA is about. I think they are underestimated because too many people just accept WHITE POWER! While everyone who is MAGA may not be actively part of the White Power militia, they certainly embrace the ideology. https://www.vox.com/2018/8/10/17670992/study-white-americans-alt-right-racism-white-nationalists
I do not know what you do about having a huge contingent of people in your country who basically want to overthrow the government. How can they participate in a democracy when they don't believe in democracy? They are trying to legislate and vote it away! What can be done? What should be done? Democracy is for people who believe in democracy. What do we do about the rest of them?
The Two Parties Finally Agree on Something: American Democracy Is in Danger”, was the headline in the New York Times. A Washington Post editorial declared the president was “wrong to conflate upholding the rule of law with his own partisan agenda, which he called ‘the work of democracy’”.
In his brilliant new book, Dana Milbank, a Post columnist, does not offer any of the squishy-soft judgments to which most of his Washington colleagues have become sadly addicted.
“He comes straight to the point that eluded the authors of that Times story and that Post editorial: “Republicans have become an authoritarian faction fighting democracy. There’s a perfectly logical, if deeply cynical reason for this. Democracy is working against Republicans” who have only carried the popular vote once in eight presidential elections since 1988.
As America “approaches majority-minority status”, Milbank writes, “… white grievance and white fear” have driven “Republican identity more than any other factor – and drive the tribalism and dysfunction in the US political system”.”
Thank you for your post. Ari Melber did an excellent program on the strength of racism in America last week. As a southerner who grew up in the shadow of the Confederacy and taught at an HSBC, I have lived the “problem,” having had a racist mother and a very non-racist father.
MAGA and racism fit together like Trump and his father making certain there weren’t blacks (or as few as possible) in the apartments Fred Trump built with federal money. The Trump-Putin confluence is built on racism among other “values.” Racism may yet destroy our democracy that so many immigrants of many colors fought to defend.
May I take this space to put out a call to all who read this to do at least one action before the November 8th vote to add another vote/voter to save this country? My permission: yesterday I finished writing the 825 GOTV postcards (for which I bought the stamps), which are to be mailed to three states in October.
I did not know the acronym HSBC until I looked it up thanks to your comment. Thank you! I have learned more from just the comments today then I Iearned in a year of HS US history class!
I have just finished Rising Out of Hatred by Eli Saslow. It is a biography about Derek Black, White Nationalist heir apparent, who repudiated his beliefs after college among liberals who did not ostracize him, but debated with him and provided data. This book also describes the agenda of white only, deporting everyone else.
There are too many Trump supporters to ignore, and we have to find a way to live with all but the truly lawless ones, but there is a lot of behavior going on that has to be successfully resisted. Biden is distinguishing between saner Republicans and maniacal MAGAs, which I don't see as an entirely distinct division, but it gives the less fanatical ones an out. And I have met a number of intelligent, educated and seemingly otherwise civilized people who are somehow infected with the MAGA malware. If Trump in particular and his principle enablers can be sufficiently discredited, a would like to hope they can be turned. For reasons that seem too complex to be entirely explained, obsessive trends in public thinking seem sometimes to just burn themselves out, especially when reality proves less pleasing than promised. That said, evil never sleeps, and community solidarity needed to keep those who live to conquer contained.
I’m guessing this is why major religions all promote the golden rule? And why Bannon announced in the beginning their intention has always been destruction? Where were the warnings about using airwaves and cyber space to propagate jealousy, greed, lies, and worship of the other “Gods” (money & power)?
I imagine you were not raised in the South. Those of us oldsters who were, remember seeing confederate flags everywhere and shotguns hung across trucks back windows. Oh and to actually see the KKKers in town was a sight before sore eyes, too! Our small town was black and white. Our schools did not integrate until 1964, until after LBJ, deemed segregation in the South, was over. The furniture factories in our town carted in people from Guatemala and now there is a population of Spanish-speaking people with Southern accents. I don’t find that to be a bad thing! While the South has always had mean and hateful white people, their love spread to Oakland, CA where the Hell’s Angels was formed. Many in that group were white supremacists.
By the way. I have been a staunch supporter of SPLC for over 23 years. Bless them.
An important fact about Tolkien: he wanted to create a “mythology” of the English. Due to the nature of immigration to England over centuries, all of its “myths” were adopted from other cultures. In Tolkien’s mind, the hobbits represented the English soul. Other than that, the over-riding themes are good versus evil in a Catholic tinted world. As for “whiteness”, it is not possible to divorce this author from the world that he lived in (the British Empire). All of the good and the bad of that empire are inherent in those books. Why can’t we understand that most work of artists reflect the values of their time, not ours? My favorite illustration of that fact are the Renaissance painters in. Florence: painting all of their middle eastern nativity scenes with people dressed as 15th century Florentines. Only rarely are artists able to transcend their own era and speak to the ages.
Yes. My son and I were talking about much of what you say here as we watched the new episodes. But your words say with elegance what we were fumbling around trying to say . Thank you and I am copying your comment to show my son. Thank you.
It amazes me that some people are convinced that totally fictional characters like Tolkien's elves must all look like white people. It's probably the same people who are sure that Jesus of Nazareth, a brown-skinned Jew speaking Aramaic and advocating like most Hebrew prophets for feeding the poor and welcoming the stranger, was a white man speaking English who hated immigrants.
It continues to be scary to realize that there are so many people filled with such hatred. The idea that this movement stems from the idea that the White Power adherents are finishing off "the job" that was not completed in Vietnam of ridding the world of communists, which somehow translates to everyone who is not one of them, is so crazy. It is unfortunate that so many people are so angry and are also raising children to be this way? As a parent I just don't understand the parenting style that is based on raising your child with hatred. Also, while there is so much accusation of Democrats being child traffickers, apparently there is illicit child sex among those espousing White Power politics too.
We are not the only country with this problem. Lis Truss being nominated as PM just points out this anti immigrant hostile hate others in British Tory politics too.
And white power people are so pointless, considering that we will all have to adapt to dessertification by gradually darkening our skin to protect ourselves from the Sun's rays.
Last night at dinner we were having a divide on better to die by too hot or too cold. My aunt is of the opinion that with cold one just goes to sleep. A friend lost her father a few years ago in Arizona when it was 120 degrees and his air conditioning was broken and he did not say anything to them about it while she was traveling. Ironically, she and her family were traveling in Iceland at the time when the neighbor called her and told her he had found her father in his home. I know that they are saying that the South and Midwest where I live will have dangerously hot temps for many days in a row. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-extreme-heat-americans-will-live-in-dangerous-areas/
I don't think skin color alone will help adapt. We will need to redesign our cities and how we live. A show I just watched did confirm my worries about all of these White Supremacists going to fight in Ukraine, which I had been hearing. They are getting weapons there, which are not really being inventoried as far as I know, and then when they are done with their stints, if they are from European countries they can drive back in their cars and take the weapons with them. I think a lot of weapons will be available for more shootings sprees everywhere and for the black market.
Apparently, there is a certain comfort in that "circular thinking". There is no threat from hearing new ideas or more accurate information. In a way, it is simply lazy.
I am proud to say that I am a card carrying member of a cult that loves an ever evolving science, new improved ideas and a strengthened democracy. My cult is inclusive. It is as diverse as the human species. But it takes effort to understand the various values in this wide ranging cult. We have to care enough to look at life from the point of view of "others". It's hard work being part of this cult. But the rewards are magnificent.
Bill, thank you. Understanding and appreciating the beautiful human mix is difficult, but well worth every effort. The effort in itself can produce surprising friendships. I will also comment that our President Joe Biden has shown us how to accommplish this through patience, persistence, respect and understanding. As difficult as this working together and healthy relationship business can be, we can see the difference it makes in Democracy.
Hey, your sentence, ‘ ... care enough to look at life from the view of “others”’ is true in my mind but it clashes w your sentence, ‘In a way, it is simply lazy.’ does not reflect the first one. There are psychological and emotional reasons, that if understood, makes MAGA peoples position understandable. so, what can we do so that they don’t feel the need to reject and be separate in such frightening ways? 
There certainly are reasons why MAGA folks feel the way they do. Psychological, emotional, brutal bigoted indoctrination by parents and peers among others all play a role I am sure.
The answer, sadly I am afraid, is that the vast majority are unreachable.and hopelessly committed to their hate and vitriol. They want us to die.
But there is a huge middle of Independents and thoughtful Republicans who can be talked with. The backlash to the Dobbs decision is a game changer that brings me hope.
Been screaming this for years, it’s why FB and T considered me to be violating their “community standards”. But it was truth, that kind of thinking was cultivated by Rupert’s propaganda machine, way before chump.
Republican lies about Obama were constant and outrageous, and somehow the public and press, and for that matter Obama, became inured to it, though actually the Big Lie treatment, where the whole party brazened it out despite glaring counter evidence, began with Reagan.
Strangely lies in a courtroom, that judges compliance with law, are considered criminal actions, and a lawyer yelling at a judge "you lie" would not be tolerated; and yet we allow those who define our laws and appoint judges to provably lie there is no tomorrow, and laugh up their sleeve, or quite openly, and expect no consequences. Yet certainly the functions of the other two branches of government are every bit as critical and and in need of professionalism as the judiciary, into which we are seeing the corruptions of the other two creeping.
And from the standpoint of numbers, the extent to which human rights are violated and justice perverted, unjust and oppressive law is every bit as corrupt as an unjust court process, yet affects a much wider swath of people, as laws supporting slavery did. We are encouraged to treat party politics as televised spectator sport, focused on subjugating the opposing "team", when democracy and justice unravel when the process is not conducted, so far as is practical, in good faith. Most people actually demand that of sporting events, yet far less so from the charting our own future and providing "liberty and justice for all".
When Trump was asked what his favorite Bible verse was, he retorted that that was private. Light under bushel, then? Nope. Trump never showed the slightest interest in religion so far as I know until he found a way to milk it. He is pretty much the opposite of everything Jesus advised but his fanatical fundamentalist following could care less. Same thing with Bosonaro. Nothing's too crackpot once the cult has ahold of your brain. You love Big Brother.
Similar feelings Jeri. Think about the maxim sometime: "Man plans, God laughs." Perhaps God got over the joke and sent tfg to teach humility, defined as "get over your self-importance among My many great creations." My religious friends might be offened.
I find that wearing a mask really helps with my allergies when gardening or when the pollution level is high. Right now where I live the ragweed is really high. We gardened the other day and my daughter and I were trading the eye drop bottle back and forth. The next day I used a mask and my eyes were fine. It is great for dusting too. So, alone with dust and pollen is a mask is still a useful thing. Also, my daughter had to get antibiotics this Friday for tooth extraction gone bad. We were lucky to avoid the holiday ER which her allergist told me had a 19 hour wait. Why? Because all of the families who do not have health insurance were there after the first weeks of school with their children who have covid. So, the lovely no covid policies in our schools are kicking in. Our city needs to have covid clinics. Glad we could avoid those lines.
Wearing a mask when changing the cat litter avoids an asthma attack in my experience.
I do still wear a mask in stores and libraries, as protection against not only covid but also colds and flu. The community chorus in which I sing still requires proof of vaccination and N95 masks.
The synagogue choir in which I sing is now masks optional, with no one wearing them - which is one reason it's much smaller this year than in the past. We live in interesting times.
I believe that in all seriousness the Republican Party has become a cult. I think that we as humans, myself included tend to display elements of cult behavior, but I think the cult has taken possession when people begin to act on a belief system that can be empirically proved to to be absurd, and even dangerous. Medical professionals have told of COVID deniers who rejected the realities of their illness until petty literally their dying breath. When that kind of thinking is being cultivated, that is a cult. Any significant number of people believing just about anything that is said by Trump, especially lately, requires the circular thinking of a cult.
I am reading Katheen Belew's Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/history-white-power-movement
It gives me a better sense of who is in MAGA, what they want, and why they see Trump as more likely to give it to them than anyone else. He is a part of this movement and he does not hide his White Supremacy politics.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/
I am at the point where she is discussing that the White Power movement, post Reagan has decided that there is no way that they are going to get the government to actually become what they want it to be, so they are now for creating their own white state, which starts in the Pacific Northwest and ends up taking over all of the USA and Canada for White People only. This is the goal! In fact their goal is to have a White world and get rid of everyone else, modeled on the book The Turner Diaries. It is their sort of road map for life. Since Trump is not a US patriot either I can see how he can seem to be someone who would be helping them to fulfill what they feel is a Christian, anti-communist mission. Belew is considered an authority on the White Power movement and this book is really deepening my understanding of who I am sharing a country with. They ARE A HUGE PROBLEM and I believe they are the core of what MAGA is about. I think they are underestimated because too many people just accept WHITE POWER! While everyone who is MAGA may not be actively part of the White Power militia, they certainly embrace the ideology. https://www.vox.com/2018/8/10/17670992/study-white-americans-alt-right-racism-white-nationalists
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist
I do not know what you do about having a huge contingent of people in your country who basically want to overthrow the government. How can they participate in a democracy when they don't believe in democracy? They are trying to legislate and vote it away! What can be done? What should be done? Democracy is for people who believe in democracy. What do we do about the rest of them?
A timely book review from The Guardian.
The Two Parties Finally Agree on Something: American Democracy Is in Danger”, was the headline in the New York Times. A Washington Post editorial declared the president was “wrong to conflate upholding the rule of law with his own partisan agenda, which he called ‘the work of democracy’”.
In his brilliant new book, Dana Milbank, a Post columnist, does not offer any of the squishy-soft judgments to which most of his Washington colleagues have become sadly addicted.
“He comes straight to the point that eluded the authors of that Times story and that Post editorial: “Republicans have become an authoritarian faction fighting democracy. There’s a perfectly logical, if deeply cynical reason for this. Democracy is working against Republicans” who have only carried the popular vote once in eight presidential elections since 1988.
As America “approaches majority-minority status”, Milbank writes, “… white grievance and white fear” have driven “Republican identity more than any other factor – and drive the tribalism and dysfunction in the US political system”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/05/the-destructionists-review-republicans-trump-gingrich-nixon-bush?utm_term=6315ddbba89c7e65ccb00379a217423b&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email
Thank you for your post. Ari Melber did an excellent program on the strength of racism in America last week. As a southerner who grew up in the shadow of the Confederacy and taught at an HSBC, I have lived the “problem,” having had a racist mother and a very non-racist father.
MAGA and racism fit together like Trump and his father making certain there weren’t blacks (or as few as possible) in the apartments Fred Trump built with federal money. The Trump-Putin confluence is built on racism among other “values.” Racism may yet destroy our democracy that so many immigrants of many colors fought to defend.
May I take this space to put out a call to all who read this to do at least one action before the November 8th vote to add another vote/voter to save this country? My permission: yesterday I finished writing the 825 GOTV postcards (for which I bought the stamps), which are to be mailed to three states in October.
Good luck to us all! And many thanks to HRC.
I did not know the acronym HSBC until I looked it up thanks to your comment. Thank you! I have learned more from just the comments today then I Iearned in a year of HS US history class!
hanks for the wisdom, the action and the call to action. Yes!
I have just finished Rising Out of Hatred by Eli Saslow. It is a biography about Derek Black, White Nationalist heir apparent, who repudiated his beliefs after college among liberals who did not ostracize him, but debated with him and provided data. This book also describes the agenda of white only, deporting everyone else.
There are too many Trump supporters to ignore, and we have to find a way to live with all but the truly lawless ones, but there is a lot of behavior going on that has to be successfully resisted. Biden is distinguishing between saner Republicans and maniacal MAGAs, which I don't see as an entirely distinct division, but it gives the less fanatical ones an out. And I have met a number of intelligent, educated and seemingly otherwise civilized people who are somehow infected with the MAGA malware. If Trump in particular and his principle enablers can be sufficiently discredited, a would like to hope they can be turned. For reasons that seem too complex to be entirely explained, obsessive trends in public thinking seem sometimes to just burn themselves out, especially when reality proves less pleasing than promised. That said, evil never sleeps, and community solidarity needed to keep those who live to conquer contained.
I’m guessing this is why major religions all promote the golden rule? And why Bannon announced in the beginning their intention has always been destruction? Where were the warnings about using airwaves and cyber space to propagate jealousy, greed, lies, and worship of the other “Gods” (money & power)?
I imagine you were not raised in the South. Those of us oldsters who were, remember seeing confederate flags everywhere and shotguns hung across trucks back windows. Oh and to actually see the KKKers in town was a sight before sore eyes, too! Our small town was black and white. Our schools did not integrate until 1964, until after LBJ, deemed segregation in the South, was over. The furniture factories in our town carted in people from Guatemala and now there is a population of Spanish-speaking people with Southern accents. I don’t find that to be a bad thing! While the South has always had mean and hateful white people, their love spread to Oakland, CA where the Hell’s Angels was formed. Many in that group were white supremacists.
By the way. I have been a staunch supporter of SPLC for over 23 years. Bless them.
An important fact about Tolkien: he wanted to create a “mythology” of the English. Due to the nature of immigration to England over centuries, all of its “myths” were adopted from other cultures. In Tolkien’s mind, the hobbits represented the English soul. Other than that, the over-riding themes are good versus evil in a Catholic tinted world. As for “whiteness”, it is not possible to divorce this author from the world that he lived in (the British Empire). All of the good and the bad of that empire are inherent in those books. Why can’t we understand that most work of artists reflect the values of their time, not ours? My favorite illustration of that fact are the Renaissance painters in. Florence: painting all of their middle eastern nativity scenes with people dressed as 15th century Florentines. Only rarely are artists able to transcend their own era and speak to the ages.
Yes. My son and I were talking about much of what you say here as we watched the new episodes. But your words say with elegance what we were fumbling around trying to say . Thank you and I am copying your comment to show my son. Thank you.
Thank you.
It amazes me that some people are convinced that totally fictional characters like Tolkien's elves must all look like white people. It's probably the same people who are sure that Jesus of Nazareth, a brown-skinned Jew speaking Aramaic and advocating like most Hebrew prophets for feeding the poor and welcoming the stranger, was a white man speaking English who hated immigrants.
It continues to be scary to realize that there are so many people filled with such hatred. The idea that this movement stems from the idea that the White Power adherents are finishing off "the job" that was not completed in Vietnam of ridding the world of communists, which somehow translates to everyone who is not one of them, is so crazy. It is unfortunate that so many people are so angry and are also raising children to be this way? As a parent I just don't understand the parenting style that is based on raising your child with hatred. Also, while there is so much accusation of Democrats being child traffickers, apparently there is illicit child sex among those espousing White Power politics too.
https://www.vox.com/2021/1/15/22231079/capitol-riot-women-qanon-white-supremacy
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2011/07/15/yet-another-white-nationalist-leader-felled-child-sex-charges
We are not the only country with this problem. Lis Truss being nominated as PM just points out this anti immigrant hostile hate others in British Tory politics too.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/racism-racialisation/transcript-toward-global-history-white supremacy
The world could be a much better place without all this hate, but they don't seem to see it. They want to drag everyone down with them.
https://abc.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-mariana-van-zeller/episode-guide/season-02/episode-06-white-supremacy/vdka25839232
And white power people are so pointless, considering that we will all have to adapt to dessertification by gradually darkening our skin to protect ourselves from the Sun's rays.
Last night at dinner we were having a divide on better to die by too hot or too cold. My aunt is of the opinion that with cold one just goes to sleep. A friend lost her father a few years ago in Arizona when it was 120 degrees and his air conditioning was broken and he did not say anything to them about it while she was traveling. Ironically, she and her family were traveling in Iceland at the time when the neighbor called her and told her he had found her father in his home. I know that they are saying that the South and Midwest where I live will have dangerously hot temps for many days in a row. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-extreme-heat-americans-will-live-in-dangerous-areas/
I don't think skin color alone will help adapt. We will need to redesign our cities and how we live. A show I just watched did confirm my worries about all of these White Supremacists going to fight in Ukraine, which I had been hearing. They are getting weapons there, which are not really being inventoried as far as I know, and then when they are done with their stints, if they are from European countries they can drive back in their cars and take the weapons with them. I think a lot of weapons will be available for more shootings sprees everywhere and for the black market.
Yes. It is hard to understand such "possession".
Apparently, there is a certain comfort in that "circular thinking". There is no threat from hearing new ideas or more accurate information. In a way, it is simply lazy.
I am proud to say that I am a card carrying member of a cult that loves an ever evolving science, new improved ideas and a strengthened democracy. My cult is inclusive. It is as diverse as the human species. But it takes effort to understand the various values in this wide ranging cult. We have to care enough to look at life from the point of view of "others". It's hard work being part of this cult. But the rewards are magnificent.
Bill, thank you. Understanding and appreciating the beautiful human mix is difficult, but well worth every effort. The effort in itself can produce surprising friendships. I will also comment that our President Joe Biden has shown us how to accommplish this through patience, persistence, respect and understanding. As difficult as this working together and healthy relationship business can be, we can see the difference it makes in Democracy.
Hey, your sentence, ‘ ... care enough to look at life from the view of “others”’ is true in my mind but it clashes w your sentence, ‘In a way, it is simply lazy.’ does not reflect the first one. There are psychological and emotional reasons, that if understood, makes MAGA peoples position understandable. so, what can we do so that they don’t feel the need to reject and be separate in such frightening ways? 
There certainly are reasons why MAGA folks feel the way they do. Psychological, emotional, brutal bigoted indoctrination by parents and peers among others all play a role I am sure.
The answer, sadly I am afraid, is that the vast majority are unreachable.and hopelessly committed to their hate and vitriol. They want us to die.
But there is a huge middle of Independents and thoughtful Republicans who can be talked with. The backlash to the Dobbs decision is a game changer that brings me hope.
Yes
I am right with you, Bill!
Been screaming this for years, it’s why FB and T considered me to be violating their “community standards”. But it was truth, that kind of thinking was cultivated by Rupert’s propaganda machine, way before chump.
Republican lies about Obama were constant and outrageous, and somehow the public and press, and for that matter Obama, became inured to it, though actually the Big Lie treatment, where the whole party brazened it out despite glaring counter evidence, began with Reagan.
Strangely lies in a courtroom, that judges compliance with law, are considered criminal actions, and a lawyer yelling at a judge "you lie" would not be tolerated; and yet we allow those who define our laws and appoint judges to provably lie there is no tomorrow, and laugh up their sleeve, or quite openly, and expect no consequences. Yet certainly the functions of the other two branches of government are every bit as critical and and in need of professionalism as the judiciary, into which we are seeing the corruptions of the other two creeping.
And from the standpoint of numbers, the extent to which human rights are violated and justice perverted, unjust and oppressive law is every bit as corrupt as an unjust court process, yet affects a much wider swath of people, as laws supporting slavery did. We are encouraged to treat party politics as televised spectator sport, focused on subjugating the opposing "team", when democracy and justice unravel when the process is not conducted, so far as is practical, in good faith. Most people actually demand that of sporting events, yet far less so from the charting our own future and providing "liberty and justice for all".
I don't think there's any doubt about it.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=praying+over+Trump&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=praying+over+trump&sc=2-18&sk=&cvid=BD018CE056CE423F9F9C9A5997F511BF&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=
When Trump was asked what his favorite Bible verse was, he retorted that that was private. Light under bushel, then? Nope. Trump never showed the slightest interest in religion so far as I know until he found a way to milk it. He is pretty much the opposite of everything Jesus advised but his fanatical fundamentalist following could care less. Same thing with Bosonaro. Nothing's too crackpot once the cult has ahold of your brain. You love Big Brother.
Sometimes I think chump is a cosmic joke, making fun of everything America pretended to be.
Similar feelings Jeri. Think about the maxim sometime: "Man plans, God laughs." Perhaps God got over the joke and sent tfg to teach humility, defined as "get over your self-importance among My many great creations." My religious friends might be offened.
How odd, I was trying to find what Gids laughter sounds like this morning and found this on Gelos, the Greek god of laughter:
https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Gelos.html
Maybe Gods laughter is silent?
He is a great pretender. He is much like Joseph Smith. A con artist. A quintessential used car salesman. A beggar. He is the largest lemming.
OMG!
😉
There are also those on the “other side” wearing masks alone in a car.
I find that wearing a mask really helps with my allergies when gardening or when the pollution level is high. Right now where I live the ragweed is really high. We gardened the other day and my daughter and I were trading the eye drop bottle back and forth. The next day I used a mask and my eyes were fine. It is great for dusting too. So, alone with dust and pollen is a mask is still a useful thing. Also, my daughter had to get antibiotics this Friday for tooth extraction gone bad. We were lucky to avoid the holiday ER which her allergist told me had a 19 hour wait. Why? Because all of the families who do not have health insurance were there after the first weeks of school with their children who have covid. So, the lovely no covid policies in our schools are kicking in. Our city needs to have covid clinics. Glad we could avoid those lines.
Wearing a mask when changing the cat litter avoids an asthma attack in my experience.
I do still wear a mask in stores and libraries, as protection against not only covid but also colds and flu. The community chorus in which I sing still requires proof of vaccination and N95 masks.
The synagogue choir in which I sing is now masks optional, with no one wearing them - which is one reason it's much smaller this year than in the past. We live in interesting times.
Why does that upset you so much? Is it harmful to you? Do you want people in your community to tell you what you can and can’t wear in your own car?
We just forget to take them off after our doctor’s visit when we learn we have a terminal illness.
So.......?