Tuesday, December 09, 2025

Why Are We So Divided?

Meanwhile, in D.C.
“And so what you saw between 1965 and today was the single largest experiment on a society, on a civilization that had ever been conducted in human history," Miller told Fox News host Will Cain on Tuesday. "Not just the 76 million immigrants that were brought in, largely from the third world, but their descendants too."

"So you see, with a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example here," he continued. "But you see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate."

Miller began to shout as he continued.

"If Somalians cannot make Somalia successful, why would we think that the track will be any different in the United States?" he exclaimed. "If Libya keeps failing, if the Central African Republic keeps failing, if Somalia keeps failing, right? If these societies all over the world continue to fail, you have to ask yourself, if you bring those societies into our country, and then give them unlimited free welfare, what do we think is going to happen?"

"You're going to replicate the conditions that they left over and over and over again!" he yelled. "And we mask the impact of immigration on every public policy issue we discuss! We talk about test scores! If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of a sudden our test scores skyrocket!"
At least the kids are alright.
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Wish In One Hand…

He’s also a demented old fool. 

Piss in the other:
President Donald Trump's aides are reportedly begging him to stop talking about and blaming former President Joe Biden.

White House insiders have told Trump that his continued finger pointing at the former president has alienated voters and has contributed to the shift to support Democratic candidates, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday.

Trump has continued to make "fantastical claims" that the economy he inherited was Biden's fault, despite calls from Americans asking the president to address the rising cost of living and soaring food prices, The Beast wrote.

"The optics of Trump’s diminished response to voters’ economic concerns have become so damaging that the president will launch a public-appearance tour beginning in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to convince people the economy is improving under his second term," The Beast reported.

Trump — who promised electors an improved economy — has not shown those results and will apparently try to focus again on his economic message in his upcoming domestic travel and ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, where Republican candidates are expected to face a fight to maintain the majority in Congress.

“Joe Biden is no longer a threat to them because he’s out of office, he’s never going to be in office again,” an unnamed Trump adviser told CNN. “You’ve got to feel their pain. You’ve got to talk about it every day.”

His aides are reportedly hoping Trump will shift his tone to recognize Americans' affordability concerns and tackling these challenges.

“Everybody gets it at the White House,” another Trump adviser told CNN. “We’ve got a lot of work to go, and it’s frustrating for the president, but it’s what we’ve got to deal with.”
Well, not everyone. See which one fills up faster.

Trump starts his “Don’t Be Dramatic!” tour in Philadelphia today. Everyone is looking forward to it.
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Da Fuque?

 Everything old is new again;

Conservative economists and GOP lawmakers have been making similar arguments since high-deductible health plans started to catch on two decades ago.

Back then, a backlash against the limitations of HMOs, or health maintenance organizations, propelled many employers to move workers into these plans, which were supposed to empower patients and control costs. A change in tax law allowed patients in these plans to put away money in tax-free health savings accounts to cover medical bills.

“The notion was that if a consumer has ‘skin in the game,’ they will be more likely to seek higher-quality, lower-cost care,” said Shawn Gremminger, who leads the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, a nonprofit that works with employers that offer their workers health benefits.

“The unfortunate reality is that largely has not been the case,” Gremminger said.
A) People who need healthcare do have “skin in the game.” Their skin.

B) The Raw Story article starts with an anecdote: a pregnant woman develops a heart condition during pregnancy. Due to her high deductible ACA policy (which has lower premiums; no judgment here; been there, done that), ends up with $13,000.00 in medical debt. Where was she supposed to go for “low cost “ healthcare? A public hospital? The kind closing down because the ACA is closing down?

C) I live in one of the major medical centers in the country. The hospitals here do not compete with each other for patients like retail stores do. The idea of “high quality low cost healthcare” is like the idea of a low cost, high quality car: you get what you pay for, and even then you might get a lemon. A bad car purchase might hurt you financially. Bad healthcare can kill you; or leave you worse off than you were.
Federal rules that require hospitals to post more of their prices can make comparing institutions easier than it used to be.

But unlike a car or a computer, most medical services remain difficult to shop for, in part because they stem from an emergency or are complex and can stretch over numerous years.

Researchers at the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute, for example, estimated that just 7% of total health care spending for Americans with job-based coverage was for services that realistically could be shopped for.

Fumiko Chino, an oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said it makes no sense to expect patients with cancer or another chronic disease to go out and compare prices for complicated medical care such as surgeries, radiation, or chemotherapy after they’ve been diagnosed with a potentially deadly illness.

“You’re not going be able to actually do that effectively,” Chino said, “and certainly not within the time frame that you would need to when facing a cancer diagnosis and the imminent need to start treatment.”

Chino said patients with high deductibles are often instead slammed with a flood of huge medical bills that lead to debt and a cascade of other problems.

She and other researchers found in a study presented last year that cancer patients who had high-deductible health insurance were more likely to die than similar patients without that kind of coverage.
Republicans consider that “decreasing the surplus population.”

Aside from the fact that, if you have cancer, at least in Houston, you want to go to M.D. Anderson. But they don’t offer discounts.  OTOH, cancer treatment ain’t exactly like buying a toaster. Not that Trump and the GOP actually give a shit. Trump and the OBUglyB shifted funding from cancer research to making America free from brown people so Stephen Miller would feel safe.
Which is precisely what happened to Ms. Monroe, the woman who developed heart problems during pregnancy. She had a health savings account; it emptied out rapidly.
For her part, Monroe and her family were forced to move out of their house and into a 1,100-square-foot apartment.

She drained her savings. Her credit score sank. And her car was repossessed.

There have been other sacrifices, too. “When families get to have nice Christmases or get to go on spring break,” Monroe said, hers often does not. '
She is thankful that her children are healthy. And she continues to have a job. But Monroe said she can’t imagine why anyone would want to double down on the high-deductible model for health care.

“We owe it to ourselves to do it a different way,” she said. “We can’t treat people like this.”
Well, we shouldn’t. This whole issue is about: “Fuck the people.”
Burns asked, “In the meantime, I mean, two weeks, Mr. President, people will see those premiums go up. So will you tell Congress to extend those Obamacare subsidies while you work out another deal?”

“I don’t know. I’m gonna have to see. I’d like to get better health care. I’d like to have people buy their own health care, get much better health care, and what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies,” he replied, at which point she interjected. “So right now, people are buying their holiday presents. They’re planning for —.”

“Look, don’t be dramatic,” Trump sneered as she protested, “No, no.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” he repeated.

“They’re planning their budgets for next year, Mr. President," Burns continued.

“Here’s what I want to — I know. And what I want to do is help them,” he replied as she pressed, “So will their premiums go up?”

“I’m giving them money," Trump snapped.

"I want to give the money to the people to buy their own health care. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. The Democrats don’t want to do that. They want the insurance companies to continue to make a fortune. The Democrats are owned by the insurance companies. They want the insurance companies to get these trillions of dollars,” he stated.

“Trillions of dollars goes to the insurance companies. I want that money to go to the people and let the people go out and buy their own health care. It works like magic. But you know who doesn’t want it? The Democrats, because they’re corrupt people, because they’re totally owned and bought by the insurance companies.”

After some back and forth, Burns pointed out, “That’s going to take time, sir.”

“Ready?” Trump fired back. “ I want to give the people better health insurance for less money. The people will get the money and they’re gonna buy the health insurance that they want.”
They’ll just go down to Walmart and get it off the health insurance shelf. I hear prices are pretty good there.

"Don’t be dramatic.” Coming soon to a campaign ad near you.
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Conditor alme siderum

Nothing new here, but then, what’s new about the Advent story? But I want to lay out some reconsiderations about that story, and in my experience that means repetition. So there are the nativity stories (and this year the lectionary focuses on Matthew’s story); there is Israel’s scriptural narrative in that story; there are the other biblical birth stories; and there are the apocryphal infancy gospels. All play a role in Advent and Christmas, if only deep in the background. So I’ll be bringing my posts on these subjects back between now and December 24th. Some will be updated, some will be untouched. 

After all, politics is the same old story over and over again, isn’t it?

The birth of Jesus the Anointed took place as follows:  While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they slept together, she was found to be pregnant by the holy spirit.  Since Joseph her husband was a good man and did not wish to expose her publicly, he planned to break off the engagement quietly.

While he was thinking about these things, a messenger of the Lord surprised him in a dream with these words:  "Joseph, descendant of David, don't hesitate to take Mary as your wife, since the holy spirit is responsible for her pregnancy.  She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus.  this means 'he will save his people from their sins.' "  All of this happened so the prediction of the Lord given by the prophet would come true:

Behold a virgin will conceive a child
and she will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Emmanuel.

(which means "God with us").

Joseph got up and did what the messenger of the Lord told him; he took his wife.  He did not sleep with her until she had given birth to a son.  Joseph named him Jesus.--Matthew 1:18-25, SV.

The nativity stories are, indeed, two separate stories; and they were not originally widely known outside their communities (the one for Luke's gospel, the one for Matthew's) until a universal church was established, a far different entity than the house churches Paul planted.  Scholars call these stories examples of material from "special Luke" and "special Matthew" because they are unique in the canon, where much of Luke and Matthew is from Mark or a separate conjectured document, "Q".  John's gospel stands apart though, as I've argued, not that far apart.

But Biblical scholarship is not the issue here; story-telling is.  Luke's narrative, the one everyone loves and remembers Linus reciting, is about shepherds and angels, about the Christchild born in a feeding trough among the humblest of peasants (his parents were just above the shepherds in the social-economic pecking order).  Matthew's story is different:  it's about the recognition of the nations, especially their recognition of the kingly role of the Messiah.  But Matthew's story is also, from the very beginning, about death.  We used to remember that; the relic of our remembrance is the number of recordings (I have one on almost every Christmas choral album I own) of the Coventry carol, the lullaby of the weeping mothers over the deaths of their children on the orders of Herod.  That's what that picture above is about.  The story is from Matthew, but the shadow of death hangs over the narrative from the beginning.

Joseph is visited by the angel in Matthew's story; Luke again upends social expectations because Gabriel first appears to Zechariah, the priest, but the priest is struck dumb for his response to the angel.  Mary, a woman, is visited, and she responds in a way that uplifts her.  In Matthew the annunciation to Joseph makes him decide to set the marriage aside.  When I was a child this confused me; "marriage" meant a wedding ceremony, but the relationship between Joseph and Mary was closer to a modern engagement.  Still, it was more binding than that, because we've lost the concept of a breach of promise; we even let people out of marriage much more easily than even in my childhood.  Mary and Joseph were "married" in the sense of betrothal, and bound together as man and wife; of course Mary's pregnancy would mean the "death" of that marriage, and shame on Joseph because he had been cuckolded.  Joseph's sainthood rests almost entirely (at least from Biblical accounts) on his response:  he resolves to end the marriage quietly, rather than bring penury on Mary.  An unmarried mother would be more than the mother of a bastard; she would be a beggar, probably a prostitute, her only chance to make any money.  There is a certain death-in-life sentence hanging there, which Joseph wants to mitigate.  But neither does he want to raise another man's child.  There is a lot going on in these few sentences, and none of it good for Mary, or Joseph. So far, this is not a heart-warming family tale for the children to gather 'round and hear.  I remember my childhood and the adults, my father included, trying to explain this part to me, and moving on quickly to the star and the shepherds because they couldn't.  If not death, there is darkness here, and the story grows darker as it moves along.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, when Herod was king.  Astrologers from the East showed up in Jerusalem just then.  "Tell us," they said, "where the newborn king of the Judeans is.  We have observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage."

When this news reached King Herod, he was visibly shaken, and all Jerusalem along with him.  He called together all the ranking priests and local experts, and pressed them for information.  "Where is the Anointed supposed to be born?"

They replied, "At Bethlehem in Judea."  This is how it is put by the prophet:

And you, Bethlehem, in the province of Judah,
you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah.
Out of you will come a leader
who will shepherd my people, Israel.

Then Herod called the astrologers together secretly and ascertained from them the precise time the star became visible.  Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions  "Go make a careful search for the child.  When you find out where he is, report to me so I can come and pay him homage."

They listened to what the king had to say and continued on their way.

And there guiding them on was the star they had observed in the East; it led them forward until it came to a standstill above where the child lay.  Once they saw the star, they were beside themselves with joy.  And they arrived at the house and saw the child with his mother Mary.  They fell down and paid him homage.  Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts:  gold and incense and myrrh.  And because they had been alerted in a dream not to return to Herod, they journeyed back to their own country by a different route.

After they had departed, a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying "Get ready, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt.  Stay there until I give you instructions.  You see, Herod is determined to hunt the child down and destroy him."

So Joseph got ready and took the child and his mother under cover of night and set out for Egypt.  There they remained until Herod's death.  This happened so the Lord's prediction spoken by the prophet would come true:  "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod realized he'd had been duped by the astrologers, he was outraged.  He then issued a death warrant for all the male children in Bethlehem and surrounding region two years old and younger.  This corresponded to the time that he had learned from the astrologers.  With this event the prediction made by Jeremiah the prophet came true:

In Ramah the sound of mourning and bitter grieving was heard:
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refused to be consoled:
they were no more.

After Herod's death, a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt;  "Get ready, take the child and his mother, and return to the land of Israel; those who were seeking the child's life are dead."

So he got ready, took the child and his mother, and returned to the land of Israel.  He heard that Archelaus was the King of Judea in the place of his father Herod; as a consequence, he was afraid to go there.  He was instructed in a dream to go to Galilee; so he went there and settled in a city called Nazareth.  So the prophecy uttered by the prophets came true:  "He will be called a Nazorean."--Matthew 2: 1-23, SV

The magi, the astrologers, come to Bethlehem, seeking the child because reading the stars has revealed to them that a new king has been born.  Matthew here is making the story a cosmic event, based on the idea that a new star indicates the birth of a new and important person.  The star that guides them to the home of Mary and Joseph doesn't show up until after they go to Herod; a reasonable choice for strangers looking for a new prince.  When it turns out Herod has no children born in the last two years, they are guided by a quite fantastic star directly to the home of the Holy Family.  The star is the heavenly messenger who twice tells Joseph what to do at critical junctures in the narrative.  This time it has to put the travelers on the right path.  Nativity scenes and Christmas plays mash these events into the Lukan narrative and make it all happen on one night; but in Matthew's story Jesus' actual birth is uneventful, and two years later the "Wise Men" arrive bearing gifts.  Very, very significant gifts; very, very clearly symbolic gifts.

Gold is the recognition of a king.  Funny the Holy Family didn't live the high life on it; the gold is almost a McGuffin; it disappears from the story the moment it is mentioned.  The other two gifts would be downright disturbing to the parents:  frankincense and myrrh.  Nobody told me as a child that these were not just perfumes, but used on the corpses of the wealthy to hide the stench of death and decay (the same reason we embalm corpses now, and for the tradition of burial six feet underground).  The gifts are not meant to be literal, any more than the visit of the Magi is meant to be historical (nor the Star of Bethlehem meant to be physical, despite the best efforts of planateria and science centers each year to "explain" the star).  They are symbols in Matthew's narrative, meant to convey the themes of his gospel.  Jesus is unique not because Mary is a virgin, a woman who has never had intercourse, but because he comes directly from God.  The gifts are symbolic recognition and even assertion of his royal lineage (Matthew's gospel opens with Jesus' descent from King David), and of his crucifixion and death.  The resurrection means nothing if Jesus never died.  The gifts of frankincense and myrrh foreshadow, for Matthew's original audience, the story to come.

As does the aftermath of the visit, the Massacre of the Innocents.  The children die in a slaughter of almost Hollywood proportions (faceless nameless deaths meant to convey the character of the villain more than shock the conscience of the audience), all to underline the danger to Jesus and the Holy Family.  If Jesus is not mortal, there is no danger to him; if he is not human, he cannot die, and the resurrection is an empty boast.  The Holy Family may be blessed by God, they may be, in the words of Rufus Wainwright, "each one quite odd/a mensch, a virgin, and a God," but if Jesus is not human there is no point to the entire gospel.  That humanity is underscored by the Massacre:  this is the deadly world those without temporal power live in.  Jesus is not only human, Jesus is powerless.  The Family escapes only because an angel warns them, and they manage to make it into Egypt just as Herod's soldiers come calling with swords drawn.  Even if the event (like Luke's census) is invented rather than historical, it serves the narrative purpose:  God is involved in history, but is not running history, not, at least, on the quotidian level.  This is not a tale for children at all.  It suits better all those internet memes about stories with themes we can now find disturbing.  Looked at closely this is not a story for children at all.  Small wonder we fold the star into Luke, and ignore the rest of what Matthew has to say.  Because Matthew is saying what the medieval period learned all too well:  in the midst of life, we are in death.  And the best indicator of life and humanity, is the ability to die.  Jesus is God.  Jesus is mortal.  Death awaits all mortals. Death threatens Jesus, directly, from the very beginning.

And the story doesn't end until Herod dies. Only then is Joseph told it's safe to return, but fear of death makes him return, not to Galilee, but to Nazareth.  Death drives the first two chapters of Matthew; a narrative foreshadowing of the end of the gospel, and a thematic reminder that this is the story of a human being, no matter how much he was also God.

Definitely not a story for children.  Small wonder Linus went with the Lukan version.
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Second Tuesday of Advent 2025

 


Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

The righteous shall flourish

72:1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.

72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.

72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

72:5 May he live while the sun endures and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

72:7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

72:18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

Again, a reversal; but of a different kind than I’ve emphasized before. Justice for the poor is prosperity for all. Not such a new idea. Jeremiah knew it.* But it reverses our notion of “trickle down” economics, and moral opprobrium for the poor (if we think of them at all.)  And since this is a democratic republic where we, the people, are sovereign, substitute “king” for “the people,” and see how this lands.

Easier to say “the king” should do this for us, and during Advent to understand the “king” is the coming Christ, than to say, if the king should look out for the poor, the king is now us.

Are we our brother’s keeper? If not us, then who?

The reaction of people against the actions of ICE, is a reaction recognizing injustice. Injustice being done in our name. The reaction to the bombing of boats in the Caribbean, and the “double tap” to make sure everyone aboard is killed, is a recognition of injustice. And we seek a reversal, a restoration of justice. “Give the king your justice, O Lord!” But we don’t have a king. If we want justice, we must see that the oppressors are crushed, and that the poor receive justice. Elected officials act at our tolerance. We have to see that justice is done. The Psalmist had to rely on a king. We have to rely on us.

Give the king your justice, O Lord. And may we use it wisely.


*Woe to him who says,
"I shall build myself a spacious palace
with airy roof chambers and
windows set in it.
It will be paneled with cedar
and painted with vermilion."
Though your cedar is so splendid,
does that prove you a king?
Think of your father: he ate and drank,
dealt justly and fairly; all went well with him.
He upheld the cause of the lowly and poor;
then all was well.
Did not this show he knew me? says the Lord.
But your eyes and your heart are set on naught but gain, set only on the innocent blood you can shed,
on the cruel acts of tyranny you perpetrate.

Jeremiah 22: 14-17 (REB)

If that makes you think of Trump, I won’t argue with you.
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Monday, December 08, 2025

Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter!

Reports now of heavy clashes ongoing along the border between Cambodia and Thailand, after localized skirmished earlier today, with Thai F-16s carrying out a series of precision-strikes on positions of the Cambodian Army in response to a deadly attack by Cambodia on the Anupong Operations Base, which killed one and injured two other Thai Soldiers.
BREAKING: Thai army launch air strikes in response to repeated clashes with Cambodian troops along disputed border on Monday morning in apparent collapse of ceasefire. One Thai soldier killed and four injured, according to Royal Thai Army spokesman. Civilians in area ordered to evacuate. Thai PM Anutin canceled all plans for today including a visit to relief efforts in southern Thailand after flood disaster.
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What The Meaning Of “Is,” Is

WELKER: Lawmakers say the two men appeared to raise their arms potentially to signal a surrender. Why did Admiral Bradley interpret these actions as anything other than them trying to survive?

TOM COTTON: They were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren't floating helplessly in the water. I don't think it matters all that much what they were trying to do.
In the same interview: A) Will someone please explain to the Senator how boats work. Specifically, that capsized boats are not considered seaworthy.

B) I’m old enough to remember when Charlie Pierce regularly labeled Sen. Cotton a”bobble throated slap dick.” It’s still the right label.
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So Much Whinging! We’re Getting Tired Of All The Whinging!

I knew clients like this, whining because the law wouldn’t give them what they wanted (that’s not what it’s there for). 

Lawyers are supposed to know better.
Obviously it’s not just Habba. Quelle surprise.
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When You Really, -Really, REALLY Don’t Know What You’re Doing

"See? We stopped killing people. It’s all good now!”

“Then why did you ever start?

“——-“


It’s literally amazing how they can always manage to make things worse.
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It’s The Stupid, Stupid

Politico:
the center of their midterm message as they seek to protect their majorities in Congress. But as cost-of-living concerns mount across the political spectrum, the GOP is struggling to act decisively to address them.

Already top Republicans acknowledge they haven’t done enough to sell the “one big, beautiful bill,” the party-line centerpiece of their economic agenda they enacted over the summer. Now internal divisions and the need for bipartisan support in the Senate are threatening any attempt to follow up on it.
You mean they haven’t figured out how to convince people that rising food prices due to deporting farm laborers, and rising prices due to tariffs, and eliminating the ACA to give tax cuts to billionaires, is all good for John Q. Public?

Imagine that.

Maybe it would be better to say the GOP went on an epic bender last summer, and now the bill for the party has been presented. Because it’s not a matter of “messaging,” it’s a matter of “what the hell did you expect?”
Yet top GOP leaders in Congress are keeping expectations low for major new economic legislation. Instead, they are betting on having an easier time addressing affordability questions next month, when new programs enacted as part of the megabill start impacting voters — like no taxes on some tips and overtime income.
Never mind. It really is idiots all the way down.
A plethora of rank-and-file options are under development, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) backing a two-year extension of the subsidies with new eligibility restrictions, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wanting to provide more flexibility for health savings accounts and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) proposing to make it easier to deduct medical expenses on their income taxes.

“It’s a disaster,” Hawley said. “Health care, as it currently is, is too expensive for everybody.”
I mean, seriously.
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Music for Advent: The Christmas Song

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And This Will Be A Sign Unto You

Stop what you’re doing and watch this:

Pope Leo XIV just went viral belting out “L.O.V.E” with Michael Bublé at the Vatican’s Concert with the Poor, a Christmas event where the front rows are filled with homeless and low-income guests.

No VIP boxes, no hedge-fund donors, just the Church’s first American pope turning a Christmas concert into a love song for the forgotten — and Michael Bublé calling it “the greatest night” of his career.

The full story is below.
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Second Monday of Advent 2025

 


Isaiah 11:1-10

A ruler brings justice and peace

11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear,

11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

11:6 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them.

11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

11:9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

11:10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Reversal is the theme this week. The reversal which is God’s justice.

True to the Hebraic witness, this justice comes from a ruler who will “judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth.” And the spirit that guides this ruler comes from the spirit of the Lord, “ the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” Which could lead us off to a discussion of Sophia. No, not a woman, but wisdom. Because wisdom comes from God, and is a sign of God’s spirit.

But for now, just pay attention to the catalog. The spirit of the Lord will give the ruler wisdom (Sophia), understanding, counsel, might, and knowledge. All of which leads in two directions, which are actually one: justice for the poor and the oppressed; and a “peaceable kingdom” in which all creatures, animal and human, live together in harmony. Predators and prey live peacefully together. And “ They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” The reversal of conditions is final and absolute, when the ruler receives the spirit of the Lord and puts on his “armor of light (righteousness and faithfulness) then all shall be well, and all things shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.  

This is the fuel of the apocalyptic, this revelation of cosmic justice. After all, it’s not that big a step from “Give the king your justice, O Lord, to: fuck this shit!


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Sunday, December 07, 2025

Idiots All The Way Down

Then that source is very stupid. And likely not a lawyer; or at least a trial lawyer.

It’s not “judicial activism,” it’s a TRO. Those are usually issued ex parte, with the opposition getting a full hearing within 10 days, or the TRO expires.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you support this pardon of the former Honduran president?

ERIC SCHMITT: I'm not familiar with the facts or circumstances

STEPHANOPOULOS: What do you mean you're not familiar with the facts? It's been front page news

SCHMITT: You spew Democrat talking points every single week, which is probably why your ratings are so bad
Oh, look!👀 It thinks it’s so clever! Who you gonna believe? Me? Or your lyin’ eyes? 👀  

And: “I wanna vote for the guy’s party that says they can’t do anything about the economy until maybe next year.” Said nobody, ever.
What, you thought those pardons were magnanimous? Everything he does is transactional. It has nothing to do with immunity. It’s the unreviewable pardon power and the historical failure of impeachment, for which we, the people, are as responsible as anyone. How many Senators lost office for failure to remove Trump the first two times? And the pardon power? Time to amend Art. II, isn’t it?Alternatively: Imagine being this small and pitiful. Says the guy who has no idea what his own country thinks of him. He just wants "a little taste." Maybe Netflix can get him an Emmy. Or just call it an Emmy.
Yup. Idiots are in charge in Washington. It’s idiots all the way down. And even some of the idiots are disgusted:
I know his reasons are not mine, but the enemy of my enemy is free to kick ass where I would, whatever the technique.
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“Mother, Here’s Your Boy!”

However Lonsdale started this: He didn’t like the response he got. Apparently edge lords are very thin-skinned.
Derek.

I have worked my whole career to protect people.

Palantir was specifically setup to REPLACE the unaccountable and unchecked tech that existed before we arrived on the scene 22 years ago. It has audit trails like nothing else to watch the watchers. And is far more advanced - we then helped stop a huge number of attacks that wouldn’t have been stopped.

Right now our cities are dangerous thanks to bad choices, and we see a huge amount of vulnerable people being hurt and killed. Criminals released dozens of times to keep hurting people.

I believe in second chances. But with repeat violent crimes - making the right decisions to protect the innocent is our job as leaders.
It’s a representative democracy. Who chose him as a leader over government actions? The market? The shareholders of Palantir? And technology has never been the problem. How people use it , always has been. Don’t look now, Lonsdale, but you are “people.” Okay, Derek first:
What would be your preferred method of execution? Hanging? Lethal injection? Gas chamber? Electric chair? Or shooting? Maybe drawn and quartered for full effect?

Do you feel this deterrence would be greater if we all took part? Like we all press a button simultaneously for the electric chair? Or do you feel it's enough if we watch? Should we watch in person or should it be pay-per-view?
Now Lonsdale;
We have a large criminal population that is not scared enough of the consequences of felony violence.

I would bias towards only doing this for the third violent crime. At the same time we should have better incentives, and accountable cultures for rehabilitation. There’s a lot we work on fixing in criminal justice. But we can’t just keep letting people hurt others, or tolerate subcultures that assume they can get away with repeated violence.

Hanging seems appropriate; this sends the right message and would likely lead to protecting a lot of innocent lives, and making our cities safer for all, especially the most vulnerable.
The timeline is a little rocky, but that seems to be the point where Lonsdale blocked Guy. I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is chasing down Linus, when he stops and begins to reason with her. She ends his argument by knocking him to the ground. As she walks off she tells Charlie Brown: “I had to hit him quick. He was beginning to make sense.”

Lonsdale’s argument reminds me of a minor character in Cat’s Cradle. He’s also an advocate of public hangings to deter crime. A few people hanging from lampposts with signs around their neck reading “Mother’s, here’s your boy!” would do the trick, he figures.

Which makes me think of Tower Bridge in Elizabethan times, when the heads of traitors (a generously defined group) were left for daws to peck at and rot away. Or the public executions of the Reign of Terror. Or lynchings in 20th century America, that spawned a trade in turning the photographs into postcards long before you could do that on the internet. Yeah, public executions teach one thing: the power of government (or those with more power than you) over the individual. What Lonsdale is “leading” to is the abolition of due process so these executions can happen quickly, as well as publicly. Criminals forfeit their rights, in his scheme; which was pretty much the lesson taught by Elizabeth and the Reign of Terror. During the lynching crazy, blacks simply had no rights. What did we learn from all of that? That it works pretty well, as long as you have the power to decide who the criminals are. But when you don’t….

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?” 

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
May I suggest the executives at Palantir read something other than Vonnegut and Tolkien (from which they derive all the wrong lessons)? Maybe some Robert Bolt? Or Turgenev?

By the way, Palantir is perfectly comfortable with these antics. They’re using it as a recruiting tool.
 
Pretty much all you need to know.
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A Government of Men, Not of Laws

Just show us your papers l, or let us handcuff you and search your personal belongings…and we’ll let you go in a few hours…a few days ..maybe a week or so. But eventually. No harm, no foul. Right? But it does anyway because what else do we have to go on? Besides, Justice Kavanaugh said it was okay!👌  Well, you gotta listen to what we say he meant! Otherwise it sounds really bad! Non-white people aren’t entitled to a presumption of innocence.
SEN. CURTIS: All of us need to wake up every morning and say, 'what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome' regardless of an individual says

BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage

CURTIS: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter
You fucked up! You trusted us!
BASH: If you were to take the confirmation vote again today, would you vote to make Hegseth defense secretary?

CURTIS: That's a question I can't answer without as much thoughtful research as I did the first time I did that vote

BASH: Now you have evidence

CURTIS: But if you by what's in the newspaper, it's near impossible to know exactly what's going on
I did do my own research, but that was a long time ago! I’m only a U.S. Congressperson! I have to trust the newspaper!
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Leviticus 19

33 “Do not mistreat foreigners who are living in your land. 34Treat them as you would an Israelite, and love them as you love yourselves. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
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Second Sunday of Advent 2025



Isaiah 11:1-10

A ruler brings justice and peace

11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear,

11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

11:6 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them.

11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

11:9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

11:10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

The righteous shall flourish

72:1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.

72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.

72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

72:5 May he live while the sun endures and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

72:7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

72:18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

Romans 15:4-13

Living in harmony

15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

15:5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,

15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15:7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the ancestors

15:9 and in order that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the gentiles, and sing praises to your name";

15:10 and again he says, "Rejoice, O gentiles, with his people";

15:11 and again, "Praise the Lord, all you gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him";

15:12 and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the gentiles; in him the gentiles shall hope."

15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3:1-12

Prepare the way of the Lord

3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,

3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'"

3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

3:5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him,

3:6 and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

3:8 Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance,

3:9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."



There’s a theme this week (well, there’s always a theme to the lectionary readings. They aren’t chosen at random.), and I’m going to freely exploit it.

I’m also skipping the epistle this week, for no better reason than Wednesday is Thomas Martin’s death day, and Friday is the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. So I’m not going to crowd either day.
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Saturday, December 06, 2025

On The One Hand

On the other hand: (The rest of the speech was not uphill from there.)

But, you know; the price of eggs…or something.

We have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
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Say It With Me, Kiddies

"It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.”

(Yeah, I know, it should be the crime. But the story of the crime is soon exhausted, while the story of who knew and who tried to hide it, goes on and on and on. Gossip loves nothing so much as a story that promises ever new characters and expanding scandals. And news is mostly gossip.)
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All Of The Reaganaut Republicans…

... have been driven out of the GOP.  So…

…not the flex he thinks it is.

(Although I’m good with it. Comparing Reagan to Trump lowers Reagan to where I think Reagan should be. But I’m hardly Hegseth’s target audience. For the life of me, I can’t figure out who that audience is.)
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Nu-uh!

Not that anyone will ever confuse CNN with the agora; or the Lyceum; or even a high school debate. Nixon was impeached because what he did could not be allowed to happen again. Had he not resigned, he would have been removed from office. Compared to Trump, Nixon was a choirboy. And at least he was a competent (if corrupt) President.

Let Trump call the impeachment process “RIGGED!” all he wants.
Mockler: I used to go to Trump rallies and I would debate with his supporters. That was my thing, debating his supporters. There was this one woman with American flag face paint. I asked her who her favorite podcaster was. She said Dan Bongino. I asked her if she would vote for Putin or Kamala if she could choose. She said I'd vote for Vladimir Putin…
She got her wish.
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Music for Advent: St. Nicholas, by Benjamin Britten

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First Saturday of Advent 2025: St. Nicholas' Day



SAINT Nicholas. Day of death: (according to the martyrology) December 6, about 360. Grave: originally at Myra; since 1087 at Sari in Italy. Life (highly legendary): Nicholas was born at Patara in Asia Minor to parents who, having long been childless, had petitioned God with many prayers. Already as a youth Nicholas became noted for his zeal in helping the unfortunate and oppressed. In his native city there lived a poor nobleman who had three marriageable daughters; he could not obtain a suitor for them because he could offer no dowry. The contemptible idea struck him to sacrifice the innocence of his daughters to gain the needed money. When Nicholas became aware of this, he went by night and threw a bag containing as much gold as was needed for a dowry through the window. This he repeated the second and third nights. During a sea voyage he calmed the storm by his prayer; he is therefore venerated as patron of sailors. On a certain occasion he was imprisoned for the faith. In a wonderful way he later became bishop of Myra; his presence is noted at the Council of Nicaea. He died a quiet death in his episcopal city, uttering the words: "Into your hands I commend my spirit."

Nicholas is highly venerated in the East as a miracle worker, as "preacher of the word of God, spokesman of the Father."

--Pius Parsch

Gift giving and Christmas are tightly connected.  In Italy it is La Befana, an old woman, who brings gifts to children.  It's based on a legend that the Magi stopped at her house on the way to Bethlehem, and she treated them hospitably.  There are all kinds of legends around Christmas, including those involving St. Nicholas “(highly legendary)".

I have a representation of La Befana dropping gifts into a chimney, a la Santa Claus/St. Nick.  I understand that in the early days of America houses had one chimney and centrally located fireplaces in each room connected to the one chimney, so the chimney was quite large.  The idea of Santa, from Moore's poem, slipping down the chimney, was not such an outlandish one.  Though, by Moore's time, chimneys were already relocated to the edges of the house, and one house might support several chimneys.  Building technology had changed, IOW.  So most likely Moore didn't invent the idea of Santa and the chimney as an entry point, but it required more and more reliance on fantasy as chimneys turned to stove pipes, and then disappeared altogether.  The Lovely Wife says she knew as a child Santa didn't come down the chimney because they didn't have one; that he came through the front door, and her mother let him in.  I can't remember being bothered at all with how Santa got in the house; I was too busy playing with what he'd brought on Xmas morning.

Giving is a large part of our Xmas celebration; but giving to whom?

"What keeps you from giving now? Isn't the poor person there? Aren't your own warehouses full? Isn't the reward promised? The command is clear: the hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person in debt is beaten now-and you want to wait until tomorrow? "I'm not doing any harm," you say. "I just want to keep what I own, that's all." You own! You are like someone who sits down in a theater and keeps everyone else away, saying that what is there for everyone's use is your own. . . . If everyone took only what they needed and gave the rest to those in need, there would be no such thing as rich and poor. After all, didn't you come into life naked, and won't you return naked to the earth?

"The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry person; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the person who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the person with no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help."
Basil
4th Century

"The large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are big enough to hold crowds--and also big enough to shut out the voices of the poor....There is your sister or brother, naked, crying! And you stand confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering."
Ambrose
4th Century

What was that about Advent being the time for rousing, for waking up to the truth of ourselves?  "The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation, surrender."  Every year I try to imagine any church leader, any pastor, any TV evangelist or writer of popular Christian books, echoing the words of Basil and Ambrose from 1700 years ago.

I must admit I don't have that much imagination, except to imagine that, unlike John the Baptist, they wouldn't draw that many people to the wilderness to listen to them.

If you go back to John the Baptist, you get the same message Ambrose and Basil are offering here.  But not back to Matthew's story; this time, go to Luke's;

So [John] would say to the crowds that came to be baptized by him, "You spawn of Satan! Who warned you to flee from the impending doom? Well then, start producing fruits suitable for a change of heart, and don't even start saying to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' Let me tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham right out of these rocks.  Even now the axe is almost at the roote of the trees.  Every tree not producing choice fruit gets cut down and tossed into the fire."

The crowds would ask him, "So what should we do?"

And he would answer them, "Whoever has two shirts should share with someone who has non; whoever has food should do the same." 

--Luke 3:7-11 (SV)

A little extension of Matthew's version there, but salient in light of what Jesus said about Elijah, which his disciples understood to mean John the Baptist.  Elijah is an interesting choice, because Elijah was (is) such an important prophet it was expected he would return before the Lord comes, before, as Malachi puts it, that "great and terrible day."  Jesus compares John to Elijah.  It's hard, in other words, to be a greater prophet than Elijah; but John is the Elijah who has come as herald.  We focus on the "herald" part of that; we should focus on the "great prophet" part of that.  As Malachi puts it, Elijah is above Moses, above all the prophets we think "great" because we remember them in Advent, or take their words out of context to predict the end of the world.  We should pay more attention to Elijah.

We should pay more attention to John, too.  To give your extra shirt to a shirtless man; to share your food because you have this day your daily bread, is not a suggestion.  As Ambrose says, as Basil says, the commandment is clear.  And the commandment comes from John: standing by that river, wearing animal hides and shouting at people who come to listen despite his anger.  I know lots of preachers who love to spew fire and brimstone and imagine they are John, painting the horrors of sinners in the hands of an angry God.  But John is more radical than that, goes further than they would.  He offers salvation, and it isn't in confession or belief or even claiming repentance.  It is in producing fruits suitable for a change of heart.  It is in giving away what you have an excess of; and "excess" means more than you need for today.

The commandment is clear.  The voice is that of Elijah.  The voice is that of God.  Baptism is the least of it.  John is more than a herald.

Advent can be a real kick in the head.
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