Sunday, November 30, 2025

“No Idea”

I’ve had one MRI, and I know exactly what part of my body it was on, and precisely why it was done. I even know what the results were.

Trump is so used to lying, it’s impossible to know where the lies end and the inability to understand begins. Nor does it really matter.

He’s absolutely unfit for office. He’s a clear and present danger to the Republic.
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This Is Not A Man To Take Seriously

Now I’m hoping the new Congress kicks his ass out for crimes against maturity.

He’s a fucking embarrassment. If he’s not drinking again, then his brain is already pickled beyond recovery.
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Noem Is Definitely Counting On Trump…

...to get her out of this mess.

And the rot is clearly at the top:
Reporter: You have made so clear how you want to keep drugs out of the US—

Trump: Right

Reporter: Can you explain why you would pardon a notorious drug trafficker? 
Trump: I don’t know who you are talking about 
Reporter: Juan Orlando Hernandez

Trump: Many of the people of Honduras said it was a Biden setup. I looked at the facts and agreed with them.

Reporter: What evidence can you share that it was a setup?

Trump: You can take any country you want, if somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life.
But! Trump “looked at the facts”! As good an explanation as any. Trump earlier said he was told “by many people” that it was a bad situation, so he had to act. I doubt Trump has ever spoken to even one person from Honduras, unless they were doing gardening at MAL.
Reporter: Can you talk a little bit about the strikes and controversy around Hegseth—

Trump: I don’t know anything about it. He said he did not say that.

Reporter: You don’t know if there was a second strike to kill the two men

Trump: He said he didn’t do it

Reporter: Would you be ok with that if he did?

Trump: He said he didn’t do it so I don’t have to make that decision
AFAIK Hegseth has not made such a statement publicly, because it would put him at odds with the chain of command all the way down to Seal Team Six, and put Hegseth in a world of hurt. Of course, he’s there already. So there is no order, there is only his social media post?
That sure sounds like what he’s saying.
We close with the eternal question; when is the press going to notice that the POTUS is an innumerate, gibbering loon? How many times does he have to say this before the Sunday talk show hosts take notice? Of course, they only care about gossip, like: “Will Trump fire Hegseth? Or stand by his man?” Trump could just as well say he’s going to make the sun rise in the West tomorrow. The press would still ask: “What about what Kristi Norm said about court orders?”

I’ll retire to Bedlam.
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To All The Critics Of Sen. Kelly And The Other 5 Democrats

STFU.
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“Laws Are For Little People”

That’s a stronger denial than Hegseth came up with.
Karl: A U.S. District judge has now reopened a contempt inquiry into the decision to fly those planes of Venezuelan immigrants alleged gang members to El Salvador after he ordered the planes to be turned around. In a DOJ filing the department of justice says that you were the one that made that order. Is that right?

Noem: Yes, I made that decision, and that decision was under my complete authority in following the law and the constitution and the leadership of this president…
She cleaned that up from earlier in the day:
Welker: In a filing in federal court this week, the Justice Department said that when the administration was ordered back in March to stop sending detained migrants to a mega prison in El Salvador, you personally made the final call to continue the flights anyway. Is that correct?

Noem: The decisions that are made on deportations, where flights go and when they go are my decision

Welker: Did you defy the court’s order?

Noem: No, Kristen. And that’s one of the things that we continue to face across this country — activist judges who are using radical decisions that have no standing and no grounds to try to stop what President Trump is doing to protect America and to keep us safe.
Noem did defy the court order, she just confessed to it.
She’s counting on Trump to give her a pardon. But that kinda depends on how much money she’s worth. Trump is just as likely to drop her like a bad habit.
That would include Habba.
Immigrants are always more American than thou. Although at least Elmo’s white. He won’t be asked to remigrate to South Africa. We’ve seen him signing executive orders on camera after asking the aide what the hell he was signing, and getting the most elementary explanation possible. And explaining tariffs in the most ill-informed manner possible. And issuing tweets as if they were executive orders. And gibbering like a loon, in print and on camera. Even issuing executive orders that have no basis in law or reality.

This Administration is projecting like a cineplex. The same movie on every screen.
Welker: DHS posted, “Remigration Now.” This term has been used in different situations, including by the far right in Europe to call for the mass deportation of nonwhite immigrants. How specifically does the Trump administration define remigration?

Noem: Well, President Trump has been working towards cleaning up the mess that Joe Biden left us ever since he came into the White House.
Noem didn’t reject the premise of the question. Habba had better watch her ass. At least Halligan is blonde. Palate cleanser.
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“The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Lawyers “

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Self-Delusion Is A Powerful Drug

This drew so much attention (for clearly being fake), I thought I should say: “Yup.”
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But Joe Biden Upset George Clooney

 



And the price of eggs….


(The 11 stars of the Confederacy (around Lincoln’s head! These people are not very bright.) and the pseudo-Fraktur typeface, is not very subtle.* “Remigration” means “remove all non-white people. I guess Native Americans are safely on reservations and don’t really matter. Or something. Anyway, none dare call it racism, because that would be so unseemly. Or something.

Gossip is the only thing the political press will allow. And then only gossip on approved topics. Like how Joe Biden worried George Clooney at that party one time.)

*Yes, it was Hitler who eliminated Fraktur, but again, these people aren’t very bright.
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First Sunday of Advent 2025



Isaiah 2:1-5

War transformed into peace

2:1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2:2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

2:3 Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

2:4 He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.

2:5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!


Psalm 122

Gladness in God's house

122:1 I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"

122:2 Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

122:3 Jerusalem built as a city that is bound firmly together.

122:4 To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

122:5 For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

122:7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers."

122:8 For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."

122:9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.


Romans 13:11-14

Salvation is near; wake from sleep

13:11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;

13:12 the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;

13:13 let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

13:14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.


Matthew 24:36-44

The sudden coming of salvation

24:36 "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

24:37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

24:38 For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,

24:39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man.

24:40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

24:41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left.

24:42 Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

24:43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

24:44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Nothing to add today.  Discussions of the readings will come daily through the week. This, at least, is the plan. (“Do I look like a guy with a plan?”🃏)  This is just the weekly set up, to at least put the readings in the context of the lectionary, because it’s through the lectionary that we’re going to step through the four weeks of Advent. 

Well, I’m going to. You can do as you please.

We’ll see how it all works out.
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Saturday, November 29, 2025

Thanksgiving In America: A Recap 🦃

Not that law really means anything to this Administration. (I know, old news. But it appears Trump is aiming for a casus belli that provokes Venezuela so he can justify his war. He’s dumb enough to think that will work. Or even happen.) And about that:
This should worry everyone.

“US officials contacted by Reuters were surprised by Trump's announcement and unaware of any ongoing military operations to enforce a closure of Venezuelan airspace.”

Trump’s failing faculties could walk the US into war.
Single handedly, apparently. Or maybe he’s so incompetent he not only can’t engage Congress, he can’t even engage his own military. Or maybe Kegsbreth Hagueseth has his hands full bombing non-belligerent boats.
And it wouldn’t be this weekend without more from
Hagueseth:
Just as Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase worry about what the next Administration might pursue, so, too, should Hagueseth .  Wesley Hunt is seeking the GOP nomination for Senator from Texas. He’s currently so far behind Cornyn and Paxton he can’t even see them anymore.
I want people to understand something -- as someone that wore the uniform, as someone that fought in the Middle East -- there are people that want to see the end of this country. End of discussion."

"And if we don't take this seriously, we are going to continue to see more dead Americans."

- @WesleyHuntTX on the National Guard attack
Now do Trump’s obvious desire to invade Venezuela.

He is my representative. I’ve always considered him an embarrassment, but now he’s just embarrassing himself.

In other Texas news:
I do wonder if that has something to do with it. Or maybe it’s just a question of qualifying for the pension. There’s also the question of the family grift: Clean work, no heavy lifting, and it doesn’t take long to vest in the pension plan  What’s not to love?

 In other news: I just like seeing someone else say it.
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As One Does…

How do you think he lowered drug prices by 700%? But unlike the former President of Honduras, they were “narco-terrorists,” according to the Secretary of Defense. Which makes them “outlaws” without protection of any law, according to legal expert Stephen Miller.
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
The upside is, it might finally move the Congress to reclaim their balls and finally remove a criminal President from office for violating his oath to preserve the Constitution. Because I don’t think he’s going to so much as tell Congress what he’s doing before he announces what he’s done on Truth Social.

I know the War Powers Resolution is not ironclad, but:
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces. (Pub. L. 93–148, §2, Nov. 7, 1973, 87 Stat. 555.)
It's going to take some very twisted legal reasoning to say Trump can declare war in Venezuela because. And the nice thing about impeachment is that it doesn’t rely on legal reasoning.  Of course it might have to wait for a new Congress. But it will certainly inspire voters for Democrats. Unless Trump can cook up a Tonkin Gulf incident, or even a Maine blowing up in an American harbor, I don’t see him getting the nation to rally ‘round the flag. At this point, I don’t think anything short of a Pearl Harbor would do that.

Trump appears to think he just needs Truth Social.
The House and Senate don’t seem too charmed with the story about Hegseth ordering the death of survivors. It may end up being all for show, but it doesn’t foreshadow complete indifference for making the Department of War live up to Trump’s name for it.
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🇻🇪⚔️

Maybe the Venezuela saber rattling is a distraction. When the WSJ finds you out....

I mean, don’t look over there:
Or it’s a distraction from this: If you pull the wings off enough flies, people start to distance themselves from you.
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I DECLARE….

 BANKRUPTCY!

“Because I have invoked FAVORED NATIONS STATUS FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DRUG PRICES ARE FALLING AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, 500%, 600%, 700%, and more. No other President has been able to do this, BUT I HAVE!” Trump proudly touted Saturday on his social media platform Truth Social.

“This is a revolution in medicine, the biggest and most important event, EVER. If this story is properly told, we should win the Midterm Elections in RECORD NUMBERS. I AM THE AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT. TALK LOUDLY AND PROUDLY!”
MFN is a clause included in international trade agreements.
Most favored nation refers to a status conferred by a clause in which a country promises that it will treat another country as well as it treats any other country that receives preferential treatment. Most favored nation clauses are frequently included in bilateral investment treaties. Under such a clause, if the host state lowers a tariff for one trading partner, it must lower it for all trading partners. The purpose of the most favored nation clause is to ensure equality between trading partners and that benefits later extended to other parties are also extended to the parties making the current agreement.
You don’t “invoke” it; it’s already active. You may complain to a trading partner (or these days, to the WTO), but the U.S. already has that status with most of its trading partners. Or perhaps did, until Trump’s Day of Liberation.

Which is not to overlook the innumeracy of this President. Since none of the drugs I take are putting money back in my pocket, I don’t think prices have dropped more than 100%. It dropped at all, as far as I can tell.

I suppose the Sunday talk shows tomorrow will have to discuss in somber tones the latest Beltway gossip, rather than noticing for even ten seconds that the POTUS is a gibbering loon. Trump’s been saying this for months. Is anyone going to point out it’s absolute nonsense? Or worry about why he keeps saying it?

If this story is properly told, he’d be in a private room in a rest home for the severely demented.
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Burnt Norton and Advent


I was watching Ralph Fiennes recite “The Four Quartets,” (which is really pretty good if you can make yourself receptive to it; well, I have to do that, anyway), and I couldn’t remember where the places were that provide the titles for the poems. So as I listened, I turned to Wikipedia (as one does). Now I wouldn’t go to Wikipedia for literary criticism (it’s been a long time since I was studying that academically. Experience has impressed upon me that I’m a dinosaur in that field now), but the general exegesis of the poems reflected there struck me as fodder for Advent meditations; if only as a general statement of principles.

I think the consensus view there is wrong, but that isn’t the subject here. I wouldn’t even turn to Wikipedia, except that it’s universally accessible to anyone accessing these posts, and that makes it available so you can clarify what I’m referring to (or disagree, if you like). Anyway, the general principle there made me think about Advent in new ways, and how I could use it (if not the poems themselves; that might be too much), to examine some ideas around the season.

You’ll find links to the individual poems on Wikipedia at that link above. All of them describe the difficulty of salvation, and what must be sacrificed to obtain it; and so we never gain salvation, nor can we. And so, it is useless and God is useless because our situation is irredeemable without God, and we cannot redeem it with God, and so there is ultimately only despair. Despair and (vain) hope that the impossible can be done by humankind, and what is offered finally becomes acceptable. But cannot be accepted, because it is only metaphysical; and we know that is neither possible, nor attainable. ”to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.”

What a load of crap.* Making it impossible, resting it on a “faith” we think humankind once had, but has now lost, and can never recover, we despair for what we cannot have because we cannot accept it and cannot believe because we no longer “believe.” 

To be clear, I think Eliot was more clear sighted, and intelligent, than that. (I’ll also freely state I think Auden is the better Christian thinker/poet.) For the simplest reason (I told you I wasn’t going to exegete the “Quartets.”), that Eliot ends his cycle referencing (and reviving for an audience who’d probably never heard of her) Julian of Norwich. “Little Gidding” introduced me to Julian, and I think spawned a renewed popular interest that made her name recognizable to the general public. And Julian was anything but despairing about God or salvation.

Julian wrote, and rewrote, her “Book of Shewings” (her language was Middle English), following visions she had during a near death experience. Her visions are complex, but a theme running through them is reconciliation. In her vision she despairs for the state of the world, but Christ tells her that everything will be saved, “and all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

That alone is good for a protracted meditation during Advent. It expresses the precise nature of the season, and the preparation for the Christmas celebration. This salvation, in Julian’s vision, is not a matter of acceptance, or confession, or faith, or “belief.” Which is why all things will be well.

To shift this discussion to Isaiah (the Hebrew Scriptures selection for the First Sunday of Advent this year; you’ll see), the holy mountain isn’t a matter of belief, the reversal that is God’s justice is not solely a matter of belief (it can be known without believing; that is the nature of reversal, whether it is justice or Greek tragedy. Even the tragic hero doesn’t believe the reversal, until he can’t deny it. That is when the iron bites, and the tragedy is fulfilled. Greek tragedy is all about the recognition. Without it, it’s just a dreary story. When Oedipus realized what he had done; when Creon’s prayer for release through death is not granted; that’s when the tragedy slams shut the door and offers no escape from responsibility.) God’s justice reverses human injustice, and it is true whether you see it that way or not, whether you accept the explanation, or not. You are left out, but you are still let in. You are saved, and not damned, whether you think in terms of soteriology, or not. Salvation doesn’t require your acquiescence, your acceptance. It is there, apart from you or a part of you depending on…you. You move toward it, you move away from it: the responsibility is yours. It is the simplest of choices, not dependent upon systems and events of history and others finally thinking as one, finally setting aside as one whatever is considered the obstacle to the final answer, the balancing side of the equation. There is no “to come.” There is no “some day, one day.” There is only here, now, always. The still point of the turning world. Wisdom. Recognition. And where does that come from?

Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it? 

I am drawing from the analysis presented in the Wikipedia articles about the poems of Eliot’s Four Quartets (even though I’m barely presenting it here). Not because I agree with the consensus presented there, but to use it as an arguing point. I think Eliot is actually wiser and more clever than these explanations (or at least his poems are), but the point of my purpose is to discuss the wisdom Paul calls the world’s, against God’s wisdom which, Paul says, the world calls foolishness. And what is more foolish than thinking a child’s birth is so important a ritual year begins with anticipation of it? The birth of the Pharaohs were considered auspicious and notable, because the Pharaohs were gods. That’s probably why the observance of the birth of the Christchild began with the church in Egypt, 2 centuries before the church in Rome took it up. Yet the Christ is not worshipped as a Pharaoh, and the birthdays of the Pharaohs died with them, as ours do with us. Which proves nothing, but points to something curious; to wisdom, or foolishness. Two more conditions, to reference Eliot, which often appear alike. I can’t give you the final answer. I can only adopt Wittgenstein’s analogy of the fly in the bottle. He called the fly modern (contemporary is more accurate) humanity trapped in the bottle of philosophical error. He saw his task as trying to show the fly the way out of the bottle. I’m not Wittgenstein, but I feel the same way about the discussions of salvation in the analyses of the four poems. It’s like watching a fly, and wishing you could show it the exit from what it thinks is an inextricable dilemma. Except the fly didn’t make the bottle; and humanity made its own spiritual prison, and can’t see the way out of it. They cannot let go of the original error.

“And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Not when the fire and the rose are one, but when the wisdom of God (“a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything”) becomes the wisdom of humankind, and everyone wants to share in what is freely available on God’s holy mountain. Not because it is God, but because it is good. That’s the point of Isaiah’s vision (and Julian’s). It doesn’t matter what you believe. It is there, and you can learn from it. It is there, and you can be a part of it. Either way, it is there.


*Part of my complaint is very particular. To hold what I’ll unfairly call the “consensus view” of the four poems, you have to think Eliot’s views didn’t change from the “bit of rhythmic grumbling” that he later described “The Waste Land” to be. Eliot’s adoption of Christianity was fully as valid, and complex in character, as Auden’s (although I think Auden was the better religious thinker). Anyway, to cut to the chase:  in order to accept the “consensus view” on what Eliot says about Christianity in his last great poems, you literally have to throw out the baby and the bath water AND the tub, and presume the nervous breakdown he had, and the events of his life after “Waste Land,” simply had no effect on him.

But my exegetical preference is to leave the author’s biography out of it also, and to not try to analyze the author’s intent, either. So maybe that’s the problem.

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November 29 Dorothy Day

A brother said to an old man:  There are two brothers.  One of them stays in his cell quietly, fasting for six days at a time, and imposing on himself a good deal of discipline, and the other serves the sick.  Which one of them is more acceptable to God?  The old man replied:  Even if the brother who fasts six days were to hang himself by the nose, he could not equal the one who serves the sick.

--Desert Wisdom

"After 1976 Dorothy [Day] virtually withdrew from the affairs of the world of the Worker movement.  Her lot, as she knew, was to await death.  Content to spend as much time as she could in the company of her daughter and grandchildren, she remained in her room at Maryhouse, coming downstairs only for the even Mass that was said at the house.  In her room, which overlooked Third Street, she could look out onto the dismal prospect of a narrow street, shadowed by five-story buildings, shoulder to shoulder, whose unkempt and desolate appearance suggested that they, like the people who passed before them, felt that their existence mattered not at all.  In front of these buildings, parked cars at the curbs were jammed against one another.  One structure, ugly with shattered windows and an aspect of grotesque garishness, was fronted by motorcycles--powerful brutish machines with signs and symbols that proclaimed their  owners' defiance of civilized norms.  The building was the home of the Hell's Angels, a motorcycle gang about whose doings fearful stories were told.

"It was in this part of New York that Dorothy had spent a half-century of her own life, where just blocks away she had lived in 1917 as the acting editor of the Masses and where in that cold winterof 1918 she had whiled away the nights with Eugene O'Neill and the young radicals and artists of the Village.  A few blocks to the west and south was New York's Lower East Side, the home of the Jews.  She had never left them.  Mott Street was two blocks away, the street of the Italians.  She remembered sitting on the front steps of the Mott Street house, watching them celebrate the feast of San Gennaro.  Perhaps she remembered that night soon after the war had begun, the cool clear air and the half-moon shining brightly over Mott Street.

"Dorothy died on November 29, 1980, just as night began to soften the harshness of the poverty and ugliness of Third Street.  Her daughter, Tamar, was in the room with her.  There was no struggle.  The last of the energy that sustained her life had been used.

"The funeral was on December 2 at the Nativity Catholic Church, a half block away from Maryhouse.  An hour before the service, scheduled for 11 o'clock in the morning, people began to assemble in the street.  Some were curious onlookers, the hollow-eyed people and stumbling people who roam the streets of lower New York, but others were drawn there by some sense of propriety of paying their last respects to the woman who had clothed and fed them.  There were American Indians, Mexican workers, blacks and Puerto Ricans.  There were people in eccentric dress, apostles of causes who had fealt a great power and truth in Dorothy's life.

"At the appointed time, a procession of these friends and fellow workers came down the sidewalk.  At the head of it Dorothy's grandchildren carried the pine box that held her body.  Tamar, Forster, and her brother John followed.  At the church door, Cardinal Terence Cooke met the body to bless it.  As the procession stopped for this rite, a demented person pushed his way through the crowd and bending low over the coffin peered at it intently.  No one interfered, because, as even the funeral directors understood, it was in such as this man that Dorothy had seen the face of God."

--William D. Miller


This morning to ward off the noise I have my radio on---Berlioz, Schubert, Chopin, etc.  It is not a distraction, it is a pacifier.  As St. Teresa of Avila said as she grabbed her castanets and started to dance during the hour of recreation in her unheated convent, "One must do something to make life bearable!"

...

I feel that all families should have the conveniences and comforts which modern living brings and which do simplify life, and give time to read, to study, to think, and to pray.  And to work in the apostolate, too.  But poverty is my vocation, to live as simply and poorly as I can, and never to cease talking and writing of poverty and destitution.  Here and everywhere.  "While there are poor, I am of them.  While men are in prison, I am not free," as Debs said and as we often quote.

--Dorothy Day 

Hospitality of the heart transforms the way to see people and how we respond to them. Their needs become primary. Tom Cornell tells the story of a donor coming into the New York house one morning and giving Dorothy a diamond ring. Dorothy thanked her for the donation and put it in her pocket without batting an eye. Later a certain demented lady came in, one of the more irritating regulars at the CW house, one of those people who make you wonder if you were cut out for life in a house of hospitality. I can't recall her ever saying "thank you" or looking like she was on the edge of saying it. She had a voice that could strip paint off the wall. Dorothy took the diamond ring out of her pocket and gave it to this lady. Someone on the staff said to Dorothy, "Wouldn't it have been better if we took the ring to the diamond exchange, sold it, and paid that woman's rent for a year?" Dorothy replied that the woman had her dignity and could do what she liked with the ring. She could sell it for rent money or take a trip to the Bahamas. Or she could enjoy wearing a diamond ring on her hand like the woman who gave it away. "Do you suppose," Dorothy asked, "that God created diamonds only for the rich?"

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Friday, November 28, 2025

💩 Shit’s About To Get Real

To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.
As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be “lethal, kinetic strikes.” The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.

The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.

Our warriors in SOUTHCOM put their lives on the line every day to protect the Homeland from narco-terrorists — and I will ALWAYS have their back.
The US military carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean on September 2, killing survivors of the initial strike, sources said.

People briefed on the “double-tap” strike said they were concerned that it could violate the law of armed conflict, which prohibits the execution of an enemy combatant who is “hors de combat,” or taken out of the fight due to injury or surrender.
Tom Nichols:
You're not seeing the defense and international conflict experts disagreeing because if the facts are true, it's one of the most basic things in the law of armed conflict: You cannot kill people who are "hors de combat," taken out of the game by injury or attack. This is Geneva 101 stuff.
Or there won’t be any such thing as shit.💩 
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Desperately Trying To Avoid Being A Lame Duck

So sad.
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Asking For A Friend

Trump: I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.

 Are social media posts by sitting Presidents unsigned but effected executive orders?

Or are they just performative?

(I especially like the bit about perjury. It’s so absurd to even refute it would elevate Trump’s ignorance above what it deserves. The man is absolutely clueless about what he is doing. And he’s committed enough crimes just bombing fishing boats to have him removed from office. I wonder if Roberts considered a POTUS could be this blatantly murderous? I wonder if he even gives a shit now? In a just world  Trump would face the same criminal justice as Bolsonaro. But thanks to our enlightened Supreme Court, he can’t.  Pack the Court. Impeach and remove them. Amend the Constitution and repeal Presidential immunity, and while you’re at it, term limit them out of existence. Whatever the fuck it takes.)
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This Would Shut Down Fox News

This should shut down Fox News. But, you know, that pesky First amendment. And the fact the audience for Fox News elected Trump. Twice.
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“…is it still Biden’s fault?”

So we can’t blame Biden and all Afghanistan refugees and all green card holders in America? Besides, Pirro got back in line quick. The suspect was vetted by the CIA in order to work for them in country, and vetted again prior to being granted asylum earlier this year.

But don’t you dare blame anyone but the shooter. And Biden.
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Come For The Insulting Language

Stay for the white supremacy language about what immigrants cost “real” Americans.

According to the analysis done by HuffPost, Trump's various golf trips, including to his own Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, have racked up around $71 million since the start of his second term in January. Given the requirements for long-distance travel from Washington, D.C., including the need to move extensive presidential security and support systems with him, the cost of each of these trips to Mar-a-Lago is roughly $3.4 million. Trips to his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., cost about $1.1 million, while overseas visits, including the trip he made to his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, can cost close to $10 million.

Based on projections by HuffPost, Trump's golf trips will exceed $75 million in expenses if he makes just two more visits to Mar-a-Lago in December, an entirely possible figure given that he made four golf trips in November alone.

This total sum for the year would be significant in comparison to his first term. According to HuffPost, Trump's golf trips racked up a total cost of $151.5 million during the entirety of his first presidency. The outlet's projection for 2025 means that he would surpass half the total cost of his first four-year term in just one year. Based on the numbers for this year, the outlet also projected that Trump's golf habit could end up costing American taxpayers over $300 million over the course of his entire second term.
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Apres 🦃

 Racism? In this Administration? Impossible!

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

He’s trying to make Stephen Miller sound better. Like knows like. This doesn’t get any better until at least 2029. The wages of hatred.
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Advent Approaches

 It cannot be determined with any degree of certainty when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the Church. The preparation for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord was not held before the feast itself existed, and of this we find no evidence before the end of the fourth century, when, according to Duchesne [Christian Worship (London, 1904), 260], it was celebrated throughout the whole Church, by some on 25 December, by others on 6 January. Of such a preparation we read in the Acts of a synod held at Saragossa in 380, whose fourth canon prescribes that from the seventeenth of December to the feast of the Epiphany no one should be permitted to absent himself from church. We have two homilies of St. Maximus, Bishop of Turin (415-466), entitled "In Adventu Domini", but he makes no reference to a special time. The title may be the addition of a copyist. There are some homilies extant, most likely of St. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles (502-542), in which we find mention of a preparation before the birthday of Christ; still, to judge from the context, no general law on the matter seems then to have been in existence. A synod held (581) at Mâcon, in Gaul, by its ninth canon orders that from the eleventh of November to the Nativity the Sacrifice be offered according to the Lenten rite on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week. The Gelasian Sacramentary notes five Sundays for the season; these five were reduced to four by Pope St. Gregory VII (1073-85). The collection of homilies of St. Gregory the Great (590-604) begins with a sermon for the second Sunday of Advent. In 650 Advent was celebrated in Spain with five Sundays. Several synods had made laws about fasting to be observed during this time, some beginning with the eleventh of November, others the fifteenth, and others as early as the autumnal equinox. Other synods forbade the celebration of matrimony. In the Greek Church we find no documents for the observance of Advent earlier than the eighth century. St. Theodore the Studite (d. 826), who speaks of the feasts and fasts commonly celebrated by the Greeks, makes no mention of this season. In the eighth century we find it observed not as a liturgical celebration, but as a time of fast and abstinence, from 15 November to the Nativity, which, according to Goar, was later reduced to seven days. But a council of the Ruthenians (1720) ordered the fast according to the old rule from the fifteenth of November. This is the rule with at least some of the Greeks. Similarly, the Ambrosian and the Mozarabic Rites have no special liturgy for Advent, but only the fast.

--New Advent

In short, Christmas, via Advent, was already impinging on November (with observances starting as early as November 11th for Christmas Day on December 25th, or maybe even January 6th (now Epiphany)) by the 6th century.

The more things change....



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Thursday, November 27, 2025

The End Of 🦃 Day In Trump’s America

REPORTER: Officials say the suspect in the DC shooting was vetted and it came up clean

TRUMP: He went cuckoo. He went nuts. There was no vetting

REPORTER: Actually, your DOJ IG just reported that there was thorough vetting of Afghans who were brought into the US. So why do you blame Biden?

TRUMP: Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? You're just asking questions because you're a stupid person
180,000: the number of Afghan refugees admitted to the U.S. since 2021.

1: the number of those refugees who have committed a crime that became a national news story.

So let’s blame them all, huh? We elected a xenophobic racist. What did we expect?
Q: You just detailed that this suspect was flown in under the Biden administration. But was he granted asylum under your administration?

TRUMP: Uh, when it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out no matter how you want to do it. But we're gonna be getting them all out now. *slams table*
Not very likely:
As stateless refugees or asylum seekers, [Afghan refugees] are protected by the well-established non-refoulement principle and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. They receive the maximum government benefits and protections in countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For example, those that receive green cards under 8 U.S.C. § 1159 can immediately become "non-citizen nationals of the United States" pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1452(b), without needing to meet the requirements of 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a). This allows them to travel with distinct United States passports.
Oh, there's more:
Unlike in certain other countries, all admitted refugees and those granted asylum in the United States are statutorily eligible for permanent residency (green card) and then U.S. nationality or U.S. citizenship. All of their children automatically become Americans if they fulfill all of the requirements of 8 U.S.C. § 1408(4), 8 U.S.C. § 1431(a) or 8 U.S.C. § 1433(a). This extends their privileges, and gives all of them additional international protection against any unlawful threat or harm.
Not exactly an analysis of immigration law; but I don’t think Trump is going to be seizing and deporting 180,000 people on an executive order. Especially since they are not here illegally.

So he decided to be demented about other things, too:
That would be the income from the tariffs that you are changing almost daily, and the Supreme Court is expected to end? Tariffs that are taxes on Americans? Tariffs that are causing inflation and are likely to cause your party to lose Congress?

He’s a deranged xenophobic racist, who is completely disconnected from reality.
On the Presidential Thanksgiving Day call to the troops. I wasn’t kidding. And sure enough, it gets worse.
Trump during his Thanksgiving call with service members: "We're ordered a lot of Coast Guard cutters. Brand new, beautiful, the best machines in the world. I'm a looks person. I wanted the hull to be perfect. You know, I sort of redesigned the hull a little bit. The hulls. But we ordered a lot."
Is there nothing this man can’t do? Or claim he can do? Say goodnight, Gracie.
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A Thanksgiving Commentary

You read this prayer. Now I invite you to think about it.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, we call to remembrance thy loving-kindness and the tender mercies which have been ever of old, and with grateful hearts we would lift up to thee the voice of our thanksgiving,

For all the gifts which thou hast bestowed upon us; for the life thou hast given us, and the world in which we live,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the work we are enabled to do, and the truth we are permitted to learn; for whatever of good there has been in our past lives, and for all the hopes and aspirations which lead us on toward better things,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the order and constancy of nature; for the beauty and bounty of the world; for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; for the varied gifts of loveliness and use which every season brings,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the comforts and gladness of life; for our homes and all our home-blessings; for our friends and all pure pleasure; for the love, sympathy, and good will of men [sic],

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the blessings of civilization, wise government and legislation; for education, and all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel of those who are wiser and better than ourselves,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all true knowledge of thee and the world in which we live, and the life of truth and righteousness and divine communion to which thou hast called us; for prophets and apostles, and all earnest seekers after truth; for all lovers and helpers of mankind, and all godly and gifted men and women,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the gift of thy Son Jesus Christ, and all the helps and hopes which are ours as his disciples; for the presence and inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, for all the ministries of thy truth and grace,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For communion with thee, the Father of our spirits; for the light and peace that are gained through trust and obedience, and the darkness and disquietude which befall us when we disobey thy laws and follow our lower desires and selfish passions,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the desire and power to help others; for every opportunity of serving our generation according to thy will, and manifesting the grace of Christ to men,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the discipline of life; for the tasks and trials by which we are trained to patience, self-knowledge and self-conquest, and brought into closer sympathy with our suffering brethren; for troubles which have lifted us nearer to thee and drawn us into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the sacred and tender ties which bind us to the unseen world; for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth, and fills the saddest and the last moments of life with the light of an immortal hope.

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

God of all grace and love, we have praised thee with our lips; grant that we may praise thee also in consecrated and faithful lives. And may the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.

AMEN.

These are not the sentiments we are taught by the world. They aren’t even the common sentiments of this secular holiday. 

For all the blessings of civilization, wise government and legislation; for education, and all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel of those who are wiser and better than ourselves,

We despise Trump's narcissism and Musk's egotism, but are we culturally really that far removed from them? I know people who aren't at all egotistical or convinced of their own importance. But our culture teaches us we should be, and many of our churches gladly reflect that culture.  Imagine them, instead, emphasizing this teaching.  And if you don't get that lesson in church, where do you get it? The world may tell you “Be nice, be kind, be thoughtful,” but will it teach you the virtue of humility? When was the last time any secular public figure or forum praised “all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel of those who are wiser and better than ourselves"? My mind goes to the neo-atheists who insist science is all you need to know: literature and art are meaningless, or at best just entertainment. And yet here is a prayer of the church offering thanks for “all the privileges we enjoy….” We in our lives; enjoy. Who even speaks of “we,” anymore, except to exclude and draw boundaries and set apart our group from others. Sociology teaches us that people think in terms of groups. It’s as endemic to us as our sense of identity. But the very experience of religion teaches us that can be overcome. Except the very practice of religion too often just reinforces group boundaries and identity. Still, if we don’t get the lesson of humility in church, where do we get it?

And where else would you hear this?

For all the discipline of life; for the tasks and trials by which we are trained to patience, self-knowledge and self-conquest, and brought into closer sympathy with our suffering brethren [and sisteren]; for troubles which have lifted us nearer to thee and drawn us into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ,

Self-knowledge, self-conquest, patience? Who in the world teaches that anymore? Do we expect AI to acquire enough data to have “self-knowledge”? And yet we want it to replace people (well, somebody does) because, what? People are expendable? And too expensive? Or just can’t be owned? Does that bring us into greater sympathy with our suffering brothers and sisters? Isn’t that where our interests should lie? When politicians talk about getting God and the Bible back in schools, is this what they’re talking about?

Yeah, I don’t think so either. If it was, they wouldn’t talk about God and the Bible at all. Just like “discipline of life.” In the world, that means fealty to the machine, to commerce, to the system. Let it be and it will provide; and if it doesn’t, you don’t deserve it. (12 million Americans on food aid, and not a one of them deserves it, the Administration tells us.) “O machine, O machine!” If there is an alternative to this, a radical alternative, a completely different way of seeing ourselves in the world, and what the world should be, where do we learn it? Who is teaching it?

For all true knowledge of thee and the world in which we live, and the life of truth and righteousness and divine communion to which thou hast called us; for prophets and apostles, and all earnest seekers after truth; for all lovers and helpers of mankind, and all godly and gifted men and women,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the gift of thy Son Jesus Christ, and all the helps and hopes which are ours as his disciples; for the presence and inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, for all the ministries of thy truth and grace,

WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For communion with thee, the Father of our spirits; for the light and peace that are gained through trust and obedience, and the darkness and disquietude which befall us when we disobey thy laws and follow our lower desires and selfish passions,

There is the church, and there is the world, and they teach and support and counsel and uphold very different ways of being in the world. One is very utilitarian; and the other is very focused on others, and servanthood, and stewardship. 

Like the prayer for the harvest.  It’s not a prayer of gratitude for what we possess, it’s a prayer of recognition for the physical world we live in; for the people, for family and friends. And it’s all directed outward; it’s about them and the world, not about us and what else we need. It’s not just humble, it removes us from the center and places that “center” out there. It makes us the servant, the last who is first only because we are last. Who preaches that anymore? Or makes us think of ourselves as a whole, a community, a society, and not first as an individual, a”me” who must be served before I can serve?

I’m not decrying a church or a creed or Christianity in general, I’m just asking a general question. Where else in the world do we learn that the first of all should be last of all and servant of all? If you look at the words of John Kennedy, that’s where he was putting us: in service to the party, and in turn in service to the nation, and in turn in service to the world. I don’t mean his words were Christianity, but they were a far sight wiser than our common public discourse today.

Where do we go to hear such words today? To think such thoughts, to imagine such a world. To paraphrase Walker Percy: “Find it!”

What happened to marriage and family that it should have become a travail and a sadness?...God may be good, family and marriage and children and home may be good, grandma and grandpa may act wise, the Thanksgiving table may be groaning with God's goodness and bounty, all the folks healthy and happy, but something is missing...What is missing? Where did it go? I won't have it! I won't have it! Why this sadness here? Don't stand for it! Get up! Leave! Let the boat people sit down! Go live in a cave until you've found the thief who is robbing you. But at least protest! Stop, thief! What is missing? God? Find him!

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