Marco Rubio is Having Trouble Finding the Narrow Gate.

Baby Marco got his whiny butt on Fox Noise and had this little hissy fit about the Pope:  " The Pope is wrong and has no authority on economic issues. Poor people do better when we have free enterprise. He's wrong on climate change. He's wrong on Cuba. I am very disappointed in this pope."

Well.

Once again, when push comes to shove, conservatives choose Mammon over God. As for Marco, what good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul? Thank God Jesus does not have to impress Republican primary voters. He can keep on giving salvation to the poor, downtrodden, and anyone who has the grace to give his life to Him.

As for Marco, you're heading in the wrong direction, brother. Such a wasted life.

Jesus wept.

The Koch Brothers Just Got Less Scary

       It is easy to demonize the Koch Brothers. Two rich billionaires use huge amounts of money to impose their fascist vision on a gullible America. To political observers disgusted and horrified by money in politics and ordinary people just sick of 30 second attack ads, they are the perfect monster. But maybe, just maybe, it's time to take hope and be less scared.
       Yes, the KB's have piles and piles of money. It has been widely reported that they are willing to spend $900 million of it to elect a President of their own choosing. But they seem to lack two things. One is an appealing message. Another is just good political judgment.
        Oh, the KB's have a message all right. That message is "We billionaires have a right to do what ever we want to make more money, without any interference from the government, no matter how many livelihoods we destroy and no matter how much damage we do to the environment"  Not exactly a winning message. Not having a positive message, they use their money to go negative, to destroy anyone who might get in their way. $900 million buys a lot of squid ink. It has worked very well for 35 years now. Who can blame the KB's for thinking it would work in 2016?
        As we now know, all that negativity has created a monster and his name is Trump. All of a sudden, the KB's have lost control. They have no idea how to stop Trump. And Trump does not care about them. Trump is veering into populist economics, claiming he will control plutocrats like the Koch Brothers. Trump is almost like a mirror, people see what they want to see in him. Yes, Trump might be a monster, but he is an unpredictable monster. We already know what evil the monster that is the Koch Brothers has in store for us. Is replacing the KB's with Trump a net plus for America? I don't know, but it sure is fun to watch these old men squirm.
      Also, The KB's might have a ton of money, but it looks like their judgment sucks. Their favored candidate for President? Scott Walker. Oops. It says a lot about their judgment and their souls that they thought that the totally repulsive Walker would be just a fine and dandy leader of the Free World. Who is the Clown Car will they turn to next? Yes, the KB's still have influence but they are not in control of events. And that makes them less scary.
       You know what folks? We never should have been scared. As I have said before, the worst thing about money in politics is the learned helplessness it breeds in Progressives. But we don't have to take this. Look at Bernie Sanders. He is virtually being ignored by the mainstream media. He certainly does not have $900 million to spend on his campaign. But he is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire as I write this. Why? Because his message is so strong it cannot be suppressed. Hey Democrats, I got a radical idea: spend less time fundraising and more time working on how to make the country better. We need not be afraid of scary monsters like the Koch Brothers or Donald Trump. We have the power to slay them. 

The Politics of Heaven and Hell

    One of the reasons I believe that religion has lost its grip on the popular imagination is the refusal of religious leaders to discuss Heaven and Hell. We have lost the desire for Heaven and the fear of Hell. How can you be surprised? The image of heaven is a bunch of cherubs sitting on clouds and strumming harps. The image of Hell is one of a creature with horns and a red flannel suit scorching people by fire. The first seems hopelessly boring and the latter is too comic to be scary. It is a scandal that these are the prevailing visions of the afterlife. No wonder people say, "I don't care if I go to Hell, all my friends will be there" Was it not Billy Joel who said I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun?
    My objection to this attitude is that it has tragic consequences in THIS world. First of all, the hope of an afterlife is not an escape hatch for the problems of the world. The hope of Heaven is designed to give you strength to make the current world a better place. After all, a person who believes that he is truly immortal is much more likely to stand up to the princes who are despoiling this world. How can they hurt us if we are going to live forever? This should have real world consequences in this life. But I am going to dare to take it farther. I am going to dare to say that we all have experienced Heaven in this life. I will also dare to say that we have all experienced Hell. And I will triple dare state that our decisions involving other people, including our political decisions , are the major factor whether we experience Heaven or Hell on earth.
      I believe we experience Heaven on Earth when we are in the company and experiencing the love of other people. Think about your most incredible joyous experience. Were you not in the presence of other people? Perhaps it was at a party. Or you were with your family. Or alone with your loved one. Or, especially in the service of others. All of these things have the same thing in common: we were feeling so much love and giving so much love to someone else that we forgot about ourselves! I am going to go out on a limb and say that these experiences are times you at least tasted a tiny part of Heaven.
      If there is a Heaven, there must be a Hell. Yes, we have been there also. Every time you have been there you have been alone. I am not talking about peaceful solitude. (Nor am I talking about those people who are downright hellish to be with!).  I am talking about Loneliness. Heartbreak. Hatred. And, especially that one deadly sin that does not even bring us cheap pleasure, and that is ENVY. How many times have you sat alone, plotting revenge on your neighbor? Or just feeling jealous? Or just feeling downright miserable. All alone, just you and your miserable hate-filled thoughts to keep you company. Welcome to Hell, brother.
    What does this have to do with politics? well, I doubt the politicians ability to bring Heaven on earth , but they can sure bring Hell. War. Poverty. Famine. Disease. Genocide. Racism. Hatred. And what is the one thing they have in common? The worship of the self  and the fear and hatred of your neighbor. Yes, Hell. Hell for you and Hell for your neighbor. Wage war on your neighbor. Neglect him. Vilify him. All because I am better that him. Because I am afraid of him. Maybe I just don't like him! To Hell with him. So off to hell he goes, in thousands of evil ways. Divide and conquer has been the successful strategy of many a politician. But what the pols don't tell you is the Hell they put you in. You can't enjoy your things because you might lose them. Someone might take it from you! Kinda hard to love your neighbor when he might take your job. The world is a dangerous place! Look out for number one! Yep, Hell can be that deathbed in the hospital, all alone, your toys far away. Maybe at that time you pray to God to take you to Heaven. Maybe he grants your request. But wouldn't it been better not to have spent your time on earth in the prison of the self? Or forcing people to become selfish just to defend themselves from you?
       I'm going to take my dare even farther. I am going to speculate what Heaven is like after we die. I have taken most, if not all,  of my ideas from spiritual writers. Why not? Why not speculate about this glorious place called Heaven in glorious communion with others? Certainly not by myself! Are you ready? Here goes! Heaven and Hell will be very recognizable to us. They will look like the world. If fact there will just be one thing different in each place. Heaven will be the world without sin. Hell will be the world without love. I will write further about my musings about Heaven and Hell in another post. But first I want you to contemplate my two little ideas. And maybe, just maybe, you will feel the same hope that is now surging within me. Maybe, just maybe we can share it.

Donald Trump and the Continued Perversion of Manhood

    UPDATE: Absolutely nothing has changed
. Men, especially white men, seem to be eating up Donald Trump's shtick. The Donald is tough! The Donald is a leader! The Donald is whipping those sissybricthes like Jeb Bush and Rand Paul! The Donald screws supermodels and has no time for ugly women like Hillary and Carly Fiorina! The Donald is going to make America Great Again! Why? The Donald is a billionaire! The Donald kicks ass! Implied in all this is that the Donald is a Real Man, and only a Real Man, a Strongman, can save us!!!.

     Nothing can be further than the truth. The fact that Donald Trump is looked on by so many people as the Ultimate Male is just a shining example of how the concept of maleness has been twisted and perverted by the miasma that is modern life. Once upon the time, the Trumps of the world would have laughed out of town for the phonies and posers they are.

     The word husband comes from the word "husbandry". Husbandry was the whole process of an independent, free man taking care of his family and his estate. This man was a loyal companion to his friends, and did not shirk from leadership responsibilities. He acted for the good of the community and not just out of self-interest. He took care of the land, taking care to preserve it and not pollute it or harm his neighbors. He took a leadership role in his family but did not abuse or oppress his wife and children. Other male archetypes, such as the knight, the hunter, and the warrior were from the same bent. This man was always willing to sacrifice, even to die for his lord, his king (or queen), his country, his family and especially his comrades in battle. The there running through all these archetypes is self-sacrifice.  There was no greater honor than to lay down ones life for his friends. The selfish dandy was recognized for what he was: a man of weak character whose selfishness placed in danger everyone around him. No, this was not always put into practice, but is was an ideal sincerely strived for and universally admired. The man who succeeded in living these ideals was a man of respect. He was a Real Man.

   Somewhere along the line, we lost our way. The Fake Real Man of today does not seek to co-operate, he seeks to dominate. The accumulation of money and power to crush others is the hallmark of the New Fake Man. I will look out for Number One and have no obligation to my fellow man. This New Fake Man is often seen on Wall Street, making billions producing nothing of real value and shouting into his Blackberry clutched by his soft pink hands. Indeed, the New Fake Man scorns honest physical labor as fit only for lesser subhumans. The New Fake Man is really not man at all but just an image, a brand. Trapped by the consumer culture, desperate for his paycheck, caged in his cubicle, he finds himself totally unable to strive for the old ancient ideals. Those who fail in the winner-take-all society ( which is almost everyone), often find themselves expressing their maleness in strange and bizarre ways. Guns. Violence. Domestic Violence. Screaming at the TV because Eli Manning threw yet another interception. This New Fake Man has trouble relating  to women, who still yearn mostly for the old-style Real Man. In his frustration he resorts to domestic violence. Or serial infidelity. Or porn. In his heart, he wants to be a Real Man but doesn't know how. He is angry. He is frustrated. He desperately searches for a strongman. A savior. A cause in which he can forget about his miserable existence. Someone like Donald Trump.

     Folks, this is not to mock the modern American male. He is trapped in a cheap, banal consumer, kleptomaniac culture with precious few opportunities to be a Real Man. So what is his solution? Why, he can escape from the society that binds him. Transcend it. Rise above it. If you want to be a Real Man, turn to a Real Savior. Someone who loves you. Someone with the power to allow you to shake off the chains, frustrations and failures of this world and live for Eternity in the next. Yes, this is Jesus Christ, the ultimate Real Man. All the attributes of a Real Man can be found in his Sacred Heart. All the love for your fellow man can be found on the Cross. The legions of New Fake Men, personified in its most monstrous form by Donald Trump, want to keep the whole world imprisoned in an iron cage of selfishness. This is killing our world, our friends, our families and our neighbors. Folks, I am a very weak man. But in my weakness I am strong. In my weakness I turn to Jesus. And become the Real Man He created me to be.

           

 

Hey Hillary, Thanks for nothing

UPDATE  Why did Hillary Lose??? Maybe its because she left a stunning trail of incompetence. One last reminder before we throw her into the dustbin of history.

GAY RIGHTS- Hillary did not come out for gay marriage until late in the game.  People like Hillary and Obama are getting credit for the gains that gays have won themselves through their brave and tireless actions. Without their activism, Hillary type liberals would have trapped gays in "civil unions" without the right to express their love like the rest of humanity. And do not forget, it was the the Clintons who cooked up the ludicrous "Don't ask, Don't tell" chains on gays in the military. Again, it was gays themselves who had to free themselves from this ridiculous "solution". Whenever it got too hot, the Clintons tried to distance themselves from their gay supporters.

THE PATRIOT ACT- Hillary voted for this civil rights crushing pile of paranoia. Bernie Sanders voted against it. In America's darkest hour, when she needed leaders to defend freedom from those who would use fear to take it away, Hillary was asleep at the switch.

EDWARD SNOWDEN- Hillary would toss in jail the man who exposed the fact that our government was illegally spying on us. Snowden's disclosures were simply exposing the evils of Washington and its armies of useless (but dangerous) bureaucrats. Snowden posed almost no threat to national security. What he exposed is how dangerous our out of control government can be. Never mind. Hillary will lock him up. (Sanders supports Snowden)

WAR & PEACE- Hillary supported the Iraq War, again going along with the crowd. She has halfheartedly admitted her mistake. 4,500 war dead  probably do not want to forgive. Despite her crocodile tears about her Iraq vote, Hillary pushed an aggressive forging policy as Secretary of State and continues to do so.

FREE TRADE-It was the Clintons who cooked up the job killing NAFTA. Clinton is all for each and every one of these monstrosities. Americans have been waiting for 20 years for jobs that never come. These agreements have killed off tens of millions of American jobs, but the elites of both parties still pushed them. Hillary was all for TPP as Sec. of State, but has been dodging the issue now when it became obvious this might be a problem. Oh, yes, Donald Trump has promised to end free trade agreements, hereby attacking Hillary on the LEFT. How is she going to defend her record? How stupid to become so elitist that she would be vulnerable to demagogues like Trump.

BANKRUPTCY REFORM- People have forgotten this little Hillary gem. First, the credit card companies were allowed to charge interest rates that would had made Fat Tony Salerno blush. They justified this usury by claiming that we need to be able to do this because all of the people filing for bankruptcy. So what did the credit card companies do? Go to Congress and get  cabal of big business stooges of both parties to pass bankruptcy "reform", making it harder to discharge credit card debt, much of it interest from the brutal interest rates charged. Bipartisanship at its finest. And Hillary went along with it, standing with the loan sharks instead of their victims. Much later, Hillary says she's going to "fight" for workers and the middle class. Really?

WALL STREET- During the New Deal days Roosevelt and the Democrats had a very radical idea. They decreed that banks should not be allowed to take your savings and but them into bad or risky investments. You know, stuff like chinchilla farms and ......subprime mortgages. They passed a law. Called it Glass-Steagall. Prevented regular banks from acting like investment banks. Worked great for 60 years. But the Clinton administration had a better idea. Repeal Glass-Steagall! Set the banks free! The Great Recession would NOT have occurred if Glass-Steagall were not repealed and the banks properly regulated. This alone disqualifies anyone involved in it from any consideration to be president, especially a Clinton. You say you remember the Clinton Years as prosperous ones? You can call it prosperity. History will call it the High-Tech Bubble. Want to contribute to Hillary's campaign? Cash in your Pets.com stock.

 It is common  knowledge that the Clintons and Wall Street are closer than stink on shit.  Yeah, Hillary is going to stand up for ordinary people and piss off a billion dollars plus load of campaign contributors. Wall Street is Ready for Hillary. Pardon me if I'm not.

MINORITIES- Hillary has gone from laughing at Bernie Sanders to watching him creep up in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire to falling behind Bernie Sanders. in Iowa and New Hampshire. But not to worry, say the pundits. Those two states are all white. Hillary's support among blacks will eventually swamp Bernie and propel her to the nomination. God knows blacks have suffered enough and are free to support whomever they wish and for whatever reason. At the risk of being called a Privileged White Male, I would like to bring up some reasons blacks might reconsider.

Sister Souljah- Remember her? The Clintons turned her name into a verb. To "Sister Souljah" someone is for a white politician to pander to racist whites by mocking or humiliating a black person that white people find annoying or scary. Especially helpful to a "liberal' who wants to show she won't be pushed around by "those people".

Ricky Ray Rector - he was an Arkansas death row inmate who was about to be executed despite being so feeble minded that he literally did not know what was happening to him. But, unfortunately for Rector, he was black. During Bill Clinton's first campaign, he made a big show of rushing to Arkansas to oversee his execution. But of course Clinton's physical presence was not needed for the deathwork to take place. Actually what was needed was to have Rector's black face splayed on all the news shows. The Clinton's showed their approval for the death penalty, a barbarism that affects blacks much more than whites.

Welfare Reform- The Clinton's were in trouble. Again. What to do? Call in Dick Morrie to "triangulate". Reform federal welfare by ending it. The Clintons pander to whites and get a big bounce in the polls. The teeming masses of the poor (white and black) get more misery. but at least Bill and Hillary socked it to  the welfare queens!

The Crime Bill- America's crime rate has been going down for a generation. But hysteria about (black) crime caused the Clinton Administration to pass a "Crime Bill". The effects of this bill has been the mass incarceration of thousands and thousands of African-Americans. First this bill made the penalty for crack cocaine  100 times by weight more than powder. Makes no sense, unless you consider that the users of crack were almost all perceived to be black, while much more expensive powder was the drug of choice for wealthy whites. The Clintons enthusiastically supported the privatization of government services including the privatization of prisons. These prisons are loaded with people incarcerated under laws like "3 strikes and you're out" which Clintonite liberals gleefully pushed to show whites they are "tough on crime". Clintonite liberals also pushed the "broken windows theory" in which many folks, almost all poor, are harassed and jailed for the tiniest of offenses. An incredible amount of African-Americans are now in the system either jailed or on probation. The Clintons and their useless liberal ilk did much to aggravate this problem.

Hillary's race-baiting of Obama in 2008- In her desperation to catch up in the late stages of the 2008 primaries, Hillary and Bill turned to making thinly-veiled racial appeals. It almost worked too, as Clinton won a string of primaries that had a lot of older white working class votes. Hillary openly bragged about her appeal to white voters. Hillary gleefully tried to tie Obama to now forgotten figures like Jerimiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Bill compared Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's. Google "Hillary race baiting Obama" to refresh your memory. When push comes to shove, the Clintons do not hesitate to use GOP code words to win a few more cheap white votes.



TRUST ISSUES- The most dangerous place in the universe is getting in between the Clintons and someone writing them a check. David Sirota reports on numerous times a foreign country has written a check to the Clinton Foundation and then seeing the Clinton State Department doing that country a favor. Yes, the current E-mail scandal is overblown, but what was Hillary thinking of when she put the State Department's server in her own private residence? What could possibly go wrong? You would expect the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Dogpatch County, Arkansas to know this is a bad idea. I could care less if there was any "wrongdoing" at the time. Leaving yourself vulnerable because of this ridiculous unforced error is just so stupid.  Yes, many of the Clinton "scandals" are bogus. But the Clintons arrogance and stubbornness and just plain greed keeps getting them into trouble over and over again. This becomes a big problem for the world when you are the "inevitable" nominee of one party, when the other party is going gaga for the fascist demagoguery of Donald Trump. Hillary sometimes seems shockingly ignorant of the awesome responsibility thrust upon her.

COMPETENCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT- What has Hillary accomplished in her career except the furtherance of her own ambitions? She has screwed up two very big things in her career that seemed to be sure things: health care reform in 1993, and her presidential campaign. Remember that in 1993, the stars were all in line for health care reform. It was a done deal. Bob Dole told the Republicans not to fight it,  just try to get some sort of compromise.  But Hillary had to do everything in secret and came up with a mishmash that was easy for the conservatives to demonize.  Then in 2008 Hillary grabs defeat from the jaws of victory. The campaign was incompetent. Wasted money. Staff Infighting. Loyalty to the wrong people. In short, in two very visible instances, when Hillary actually had to Run Something, she cratered. Badly.

Again, what has Hillary actually accomplished? We are told as a Senator she "worked hard", she "studied all the issues", she "was well liked and made a special effort to get along". All fine and dandy. What is missing is any real accomplishment. What is missing is good judgment on the most important issues she had to vote on. Her tenure at State was much the same thing. Lots of compliments on her work habits and frequent flier mileage. No real accomplishment. Looks like Hillary is a solid assistant coach who is hopelessly over her head when she has to run things. Are things getting better in 2016? So far we have watched Bernie Sanders morph from a total unknown to a nuisance  candidate to gaining in the polls to actually leading in Iowa and New Hampshire. And Hillary seems totally at a loss as what to do about it.

And last but not least....

THAT STUPID LOGO.....Haven't you noticed that the arrow is pointing rightward....?

Well, despite these small issues, I think Hillary is doing just fine.

Liberals benefit from the Rise of Good Religion.

    Their is no secret that the majority of liberals are skeptical of religion in America. How can they not be when the face of religion in America are Sarah Palin, the truly loathsome Kim Davis,  and many, many others too numerous to mention? Or they may look to the Islamic hate of ISIS or the rise of Jewish intolerance in Israel. Atheists are prominent in liberal publications such as AlterNet. We have a rise of people calling themselves "nones", people who yearn for spirituality or a connection to a Higher Power, but don't want to deal with the haters or drones who are filling too many pews in America. Hell, if what is being taught in wingnut churches was the authentic teaching of Jesus, then I would be an atheist too. Fortunately, it is not.
     Skeptics can complain all they want, but religion is not going away. You think the idea of God is crazy? Well I think this suffering, crying foolish world is crazy. Despite our Enlightenment, our science, our technology, our knowledge ad all our toys, humankind still sheds every bit as many tears as before. The crushing problems of poverty, hunger and disease have not been solved. Here in the west, we suffer fear, anxiety, and despair under our high cathedral ceilings that no Xanax can cure. When I was a kid, I used to think that 2015 would be something like the Jetsons and I thought that would be cool. Instead, I got pop up ads and 140 characters. Don't get me wrong, I love Twitter and  the Internet and without it you would not be reading this. But it is a poor substitute for the Utopia that was promised, not to mention the grace of God. Do not begrudge us religious people our God, especially when all the alternatives have failed.
    Bad religion runs rampant because not enough Good People are around to turn it into Good Religion. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are not religions of hate but fill their places of worship with haters and take out the lovers and hatred will flourish. Certainly Jesus is not a hater. You cite religious wars and violence? As if secular people are incapable of this. The Bible is loaded with violence? As if the secular alternative has been so peaceful. The churches are so loaded with hypocrites? Well, get involved, and don't be a hypocrite, and maybe things will change. If you don't believe, don't begrudge me for trying to change thing from the inside.
    You see, there is only one reason to believe anything, and that is because it is true. It would be folly on my part to believe in a God that doesn't exist just because it makes me feel good. But it also would be folly to deny the possibility of God existing just because you don't like the worst examples of Christians like Sarah Palin. I cannot prove that God exists, but I can marshal evidence for that proposition and believe in it Likewise, the atheist cannot prove that God does not exist, but can only give evidence for their belief. So we cannot agree on matters of faith but CAN agree on what is loving, decent, fair and just in society. We have come to the same conclusion from different paths. So we can coexist. And fight the darkness together.