Category: Hard Times at Christmas

A Few Questions

She said a lot there, but everyone is asking the same things here in the United States.

What I’m getting from this is disturbing because it seems that nobody knows what the U.S. is allowed to do, what our constitution provides for or forbids, what the UCMJ allows or what constitutes criminal actions, and equally important, what international law says about combat actions in international water during peacetime. Especially against civilians.

I’ll let you in on something really messed up: there are no countries that are allowed to do this. It could constitute a war crime, but there is no war, so these horrors are crimes against humanity, and terrorism; Murder and the threat of more. Except, I don’t understand why it’s happening if Trump just pardoned Juan Hernandez, former president of Honduras, who was convicted of trafficking cocaine into the United States by the ton.

How in perdition does that make any sense?

Answer: it doesn’t.

I honestly knew nothing about the 2 September incident in which the so-called “double tap” strike took place until mere days ago.

I’ll tell you my take as a Christian first: I believe the “first strike” to be immoral. Killing is immoral. My renewed faith has no room for arguing this point. Defense against an aggressor in a declared war is one thing; this is nothing similar at all. Jesus never said to go forth and kill and then pretend it never happened. Killing and lying are not just sins, but they go against the conscience most people are inherently equipped with.

So too, Pete Hegseth proved to be a coward, speaking boldly, indeed arrogantly, and then lying to cover himself from any fallout. Which he’s finally getting anyway.

FAKE NEWS

This is something we all have to contend with. It’s a problem because, first of all, some people like to disseminate lies. Secondly, propaganda is effective. Hitler had a dedicated propaganda minister, and the Allied resistance countered Nazi propaganda with outrageously funny and equally effective stunts through the use of radio and printed material. The underground was often connected between occupied countries and those involved risked their lives in their own fight against Nazis.

The Resistance against Nazi Germany was often funny, and one case in particular taught the Kriegsmarine in Norway an unforgettable lesson. Germany had confiscated the entire country’s catch of sardines because canned food lasted longer on U-boat sorties. U-boats were hot, cramped, and they went on long “Wolpack” patrols across the Atlantic to sink Allied escorts and troop ships, but also to stem the unbelievable flow of planes, tanks and a staggering amount of food, medical supplies, uniforms and blankets, a never-ending amount of ships, and while the Germans, including armored cavalry, pilots, and infantry, had been told that the U.S. military was weak and could never outfight Aryans, the Kriegsmarine knew better. Not only could they not stop the shipping, but the Americans became much more efficient at detecting and damaging or sinking their subs. It became necessary for the Nazi armed forces to take drastic measures. Occupied countries had crops and meat confiscated. Troops were resorting to horses and carts for transportation of troops and supplies, and horses were used to pull artillery, some of which were very antiquated pieces from World War One. Combat photography and film footage proves all of this, and perhaps there was a time when they may have prevailed except that Operation Barbarossa had already beaten them. It is the judgement of many scholars that it was inevitable; invading the Soviet Union was a dreadful move. By the time of the flight back to German territory, retreat and surrender was no longer worthy of discussion. Men froze to death lying on their backs, some with an arm bent upward. And the entire war was like that. By the time the U.S. sent its military to engage Germany, it sealed the deal.

The taking of food and even linen for bandages in Nazi-occupied Europe forced the citizens into serious resistance tactics. Men and women alike fought. But in Norway….all of their sardines?

This was too much for Norwegians to take. Fuming, they contacted Allies and ordered a lot of croton oil. They canned the tiny fish with this oil, which is a rather “violent” laxative. In other words, U-boat crews on submarines that had a single toilet were taken out of action and couldn’t return to port fast enough. The interior of the U-boats were wall to wall diarrheic disasters, their men severely dehydrated. There is no mention I could find on the vessel’s turnaround time, but if it took a week, and the crew had to be replaced, then it took the boat out of action and plausibly saved at least some Allied shipping across the Atlantic. The story spread throughout the underground and the Maquis made sure that everyone got the news. The O.S.S. and British agents were probably rolling around on their office floors, stomachs cramped as badly as a German submariner’s, but for a different reason: they were laughing.

When properly coordinated, propaganda is effective. You just can’t overdo it because that’s when the resistance begins.

Today, however, the Trump administration is constantly putting out senseless, uncoordinated and often contradictory fake news, and that alone is funny, yet people are dying. Many more are suffering.

And here’s the thing: sure, this administration is all for cutting out all healthcare even as Trump’s mouth spits lies about healthcare reform. Which, it turns out, would result in a lot of deaths. And this is not World War Two.

But a new Holocaust? Can that happen?

This is all about deporting arbitrary people to other countries, mostly under the assumption that they’re illegal aliens, despite being naturalized and even U.S.-born citizens.

A senator who just loves deportations recently wrote on social media how thankful he is that his parents brought him to the United States (!).

This administration is full of hypocrisy and lies, and it’s so stupid that, if people weren’t suffering and dying, it would be hilarious. One funny thing is a senator introducing a bill which, if passed, would see Melania Trump deported, her dual citizenship cancelled. I tell you, it boggles the mind.

But as I’ve said, people are dying. And the suffering is getting more widespread. Very few things are funny.

I misread, or actually did read, something about a foreign leader being transferred to the Hague and the ICC to face charges of crimes against humanity. It’s likely that I crossed stories, but at first I thought a foreign leader had been detained for the same things as our Navy attacking boats for trafficking drugs.

Actually it was a Libyan official who ran a prison in which he encouraged atrocities including various manner of torture including murder, rape, extreme violence and more. The U.S. and Germany protested, but the ICC overruled them. Knowing nothing further, I can only guess that “illegal aliens” sent to Libya and El Salvador were supposed to undergo such acts and conditions.

Doing so constitutes multiple crimes against humanity under the Trump administration. ICE is allowed to wear masks and vests and be heavily armed and freely roam like Nazi SS and Gestapo men, taking prisoners. ICE agents are feared, but more than anything, they are bitterly hated, and a reckoning is coming.

Even now, as I think about it, I get sick in my body and spirit. Is there really no limit to the evil this administration willingly plans and then commits?

Media like NewsMax and Fox are just as immoral, eagerly egging the administration on and heaping praise on a band of criminals with outrageous lies that defy belief that anyone could be so dishonest as to utter them. Propaganda used to manipulate the public. No matter how stupid, they all spit it out.

NewsMax even put out a poll saying the Fox News reported that Trump had a very low approval percentage. NewsMax wanted to prove them wrong. They’re fighting each other!

No one knows how many families have been separated or how many children have been sent to God-knows-where, or trafficked. Yes, who in this administration would have a problem with that, given how the Federal Bureau of Investigation, once legendary, has worked overtime scrubbing and redacting the material in the so-called “Epstein Files?”

It’s been claimed that the redactions are to conceal the names of victims, and I hope it’s true, but wait! If our military shoots people clinging to a wrecked boat, is it so farfetched to think that the Feds would cook the books to exonerate Trump?

You know what war crimes and crimes against humanity look like. You know what “ethnic cleansing” looks like. Now comes my question:

Are you really supportive of this kind of inhumanity? Or do you condemn these things?

The answer, that’s for you. It isn’t for me. Because if this goes on, it will get worse. I saw the video of the boat. It looked like a small open boat to me, and watching it explode sickened me. You want more? Or are you willing to stand for what’s right, risking your life to speak against evil?

And one more question. If you are in any branch of the military of the United States, and you receive an order to do something you know is illegal, how will you respond?

How will history, and God, judge you? You can’t get away. Everyone will know. Is “I was just following orders” a good enough excuse, like most Wermacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine claimed after VE Day? Right up to the minute they were imprisoned or executed?

It’s up to you.

President Trump wrote on social media that the six lawmakers were “traitors” and guilty of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”–the Hill

Never, in modern times, have we heard a sitting president say such a thing.

Who the six lawmakers are that he is referring to does not matter. What he said, does matter.

In World War Two, only one of many deserters was executed. Edward Slovik was shot by a firing squad on 31 January, 1945. He was the only soldier executed for that crime since the U.S. Civil War. It happened days after the end of the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army.

Executions of U.S. soldiers did happen during the war. Well over 150, all for crimes of rape and murder. But only one was killed for deserting. And he was a marginal case.

When the six lawmakers were referred to by Trump as deserving execution, what they had done was to call for military leaders to disobey illegal orders to commit violent actions against anyone or any country that we are not currently at war with.

And those six brave and righteous souls are not backing down.

The fact, however, that the six were not joined by other lawmakers is something I find deeply troubling.

The United States has, under president Trump, become a watercooler and dinner subject of conversation the world over, and few speak of us citizens kindly. Not even in our longest standing allies’ countries.

I am sick at that fact, but more sickened-deeply sickened in my heart, at what this country has become, and thus earned the hatefulness and derisiveness aimed at us.

Recently, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced her resignation as of the 6th of January. She was a MAGA supporter and a person held in contempt and bitterness by the political left but suddenly broke from the Trump administration. In a statement she claimed to have opened her eyes to corruption by both major parties and, amid death threats, denounced everything Trump had planned.

Others have been less kind, like John Kennedy, who said on the senate floor, “if you weren’t born on American soil, get out!”

This would include Melania Trump.

The problem with evil, and everything that goes with it, like racism and hatred, is that sooner or later it becomes its own worst enemy. It gets ironic and grows tentacles that cross each other. This exclamation also applies to many who are Trump supporters and even to members of our military. In fact, countless war veterans have already been deported. I’m not going to look for statistics, because I can’t trust anything this government does or says.

The holidays are upon us.

Instead of family gatherings, we should all be shut in for safety against those who would take our freedom.

Instead of gifts, Christmas will be a hard day for too many for me to celebrate. Prices are so high that any gifts must be bought by people who are giving up meals to do it, yet a recent statement by Trump claims quite delusionally that prices are lower than ever and getting lower.

And still we face having our military being abused. Given illegal orders to do illegal things. It would kill innocent people no matter the target.

It would start World War Three.

This is not the United States as we have known it. Vietnam was a terrible mistake. The gulf wars were highly questionable with false evidence given as reasons to open fire.

They were a national disgrace.

We have fought justified wars. And World War Two was a nightmare that shook the four corners of the world. But that war was forced upon us.

We’re not supposed to be the bad guys. And we are about to become exactly that.

To all outside of my country, I beg you, forgive us. We were supposed to be better than this.

I don’t know what will happen. All I can do is pray. Please pray with me.

“We have no interest in seeing World War Three. Unless we start it.”– Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) to James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), Tomorrow Never Dies, 1997

Happy Holidays 2022

The Christian Tech Nerd Rides Again

There is only one Christian blogger on WordPress that I trust: Jack Flacco. He’s a kind man, full of hope and inspiration. I’m embarrassed when I see that he has liked a post I’ve written when I’ve used foul language.

A lot of Christians claim that they are under attack. What they don’t know is that they bring it on themselves. You and I know why. They’re liars, cheaters, haters, war mongers and nihilists. When I got an email from the Christian Tech Nerd the other day, I missed the obvious: how did this poser get my email address?

Last Christmas I posted a blog titled “A Lie”. I wrote that this blogger was a fake. That the pictures used for her own likeness were of the softcore porn model Shyla Jennings. It’s not who she is and I wasn’t convinced then, nor am I now, that the author is a woman or even a Christian.

She sent me a link. It was to a YouTube video. Ya wanna know what it was about?

You won’t believe it: a doomsday prepper site. I backed right out. Cookies were apparently already planted but I don’t care. The actions of this blogger proves that whoever it is, they are not Christian. Profiteers, grifting from people’s fears. They’re everywhere.

I’ll let you in on a little something: if doomsday comes, having a bunker, MREs, tactical equipment? No good. Even if you managed to live for a month after some conflagration, you’d still end up exposed and out in a zone of death. No Christian should ever engage in this kind of scam. They also should cease predicting the date of the rapture. Jesus said that even he did not know the date; only the Father did. So trying to be god isn’t very smart. It shows instead a stupidity that defies God’s instructions to live the best we can.

I no longer read eschatological articles nor do I engage in the interpretations of scripture. One day at a time is all I can handle, and when my time is up, it’s up. I will no longer engage in frightening people who really just need to have some hope and to be free to live..

On the Reader page I found another article. This was from the “reincarnated prophet Elijah” who was cursing certain select bloggers, and Christian Tech Nerd was one of them. The reason he was condemning her to hell was strange and had nothing to do with “her” porn star past.

This circus is getting downright evil. Chilling. I guess that the age of bloggers has truly passed after all. “Elijah.” Good grief!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

I write this while most are under intense weather conditions. Here, the temperature this morning was about 4°F. The Wind made it feel like -15°F. North, lake effect snow, Midwest, terribly cold and in places, snow. It’s the coldest this holiday than any I remember since 1984.

I beg you, please pray for the homeless, and the mentally ill who are terrified of shelters because of bad experiences or just a plain fear. Yes, women and girls get sexually attacked in those places. They would rather die of exposure than to ever go back. This world is not forgiving to the weak, the sick or the poor. Lives that began with promise and innocence become full of nightmares. Pray for them, please. Being attacked or dying of exposure isn’t a choice anyone should have to make. Living homeless with no hope is no way you live. Here, in the land of hope and dreams and freedom, we are not civilized.

It starts with a prayer. Most charities are unworthy of your donations, keeping most for “overhead” and corrupt CEOs and financial officials. But in the new year, we will search for the best of them together. We can make a difference. We owe a debt of honor to help the people who cannot help themselves.

We need clarity and new laws. Right now even a forensic case being watched at a hospital can only be kept for so long. The limit for mental health hospitalization is 72 hours. Turned back out on the streets whether they really wanted help or not. Cruelty is the law of the land. And I cannot hate someone because they’re sick, taking drugs or both. Mental illness and substance abuse together is referred to as “dual diagnosis” but beyond being tagged with that, there’s no help unless a combination of way too many things happen, in just the right order.

If you are unfamiliar with an area, don’t approach the denizens of the alleys and doorways. For now, remember, prayer is a powerful thing. Praying for others with a sincerity and pity is noble. Honorable.

As for all of you, I thank you for letting me be a small part of your life. May your holidays be peaceful, and may you be loved, warm, dry and healthy.

Pat Robertson Prays To Jesus For An Election Result Reversal

Televangelist Pat Robertson has come up with some goofy ideas in his time. He once thought God wanted the United States to assassinate Hugo Chavez.

Aside from the fact that Robertson claims to be a Christian and not an orthodox Jew, meaning that the law would permit execution by mobs with stones as opposed to the forgiveness and mercy preached by Jesus of Nazareth, theres a bigger issue here.

Robertson announced that “we cannot let this stand” and in so doing actually incited rebellion by Christians against the laws and government of the United States. He also came dangerously close to pleading to Satan for him to cease making people believe that Joe Biden won.

Technically this is a misuse of the tenets and intent of Christianity. It, like so much of what he says in the name of God, is heresy.

That’s scary. Heretics, as judged by inquisition in the past, were often executed. Usually in public and by extreme methods. Those who were spared were often forced to undergo torture to determine if they were witches or possessed by demons as well as spreading ideas and views not condoned by the church. At first the Roman Catholic Church but even, and especially after the reformation, it kept happening. Protestants are not guiltless in evil practices now or through their history.

Only today, for the most part, it is not the Roman Catholic Church engaging in heresy, but ultra conservative Christians from the protestant churches. Pope Francis is often referred to as a heretic for being too progressive. That is nonsense; he merely recognizes that all people have the right to seek God and pray in His house. He raised eyebrows when he told a boy that his father was surely in Heaven. The boy grieved for his papa, who was an atheist but had his four children baptized. Watch this extraordinary video and you can see Christ working through Francis. Because surely this is what Jesus would do:

Francis has never liked the actions or the words of President Trump. He knows that Trump is no Christian. I wonder what he’d say about Pat Robertson.

Calling out on television for Democrats to be executed by firing squad was one recent example of one televangelist going far outside the laws set forth by Jesus in his New Covenant. From the days before Constantine, Christians have shed blood and rebelled with murderous results, always against the teachings of Christ, in whose name they killed.

Today, there is genuine reason for concern. In the latter books of the Bible, whether Protestant or Catholic canon, there are many warnings about “apostasy” in the prophecy of the last days. It is even mentioned in Daniel.

Apostasy is, simply put, false teaching. In other words heresy in word and put into practice. And it is everywhere, never more so than the protestant right, the Evangelical churches and in televangelists. I have said before and repeat it here: no one can support Donald Trump and be a Christian. The two are grossly at odds with each other. Donald Trump cares nothing for God, and he panders to evangelicals for their support. Money. Votes. Otherwise he has no use, only contempt, for them.

The proof is glaring: three thousand children were kidnapped by the United States, children of immigrants. Most are lost forever as the bureaucracy failed to monitor and document their dispersal to facilities in various states, including at least one operated by Betsy DeVos. Conflict of interest? Nope. She did whatever Trump wanted her to do.

Then there was the travesty of his foreign policy. A disastrous mess wherein allies were denigrated and enemies put upon pedestals. The Russia scandal was, and remains, all too real. Vladimir Putin had long before compromised Trump through financial debt and illegal dealings as well as a possible sexual scandal. Men were convicted of complicity with Russian operatives and more in the 2016 Trump campaign and more is being revealed as I write this.

The pandemic has offered Trump every chance to make good decisions and to mitigate the impact. He has steadfastly refused all opportunities and instead committed more crimes against humanity, this time directly victimizing the citizens of the country he swore to faithfully serve. The coronavirus continues to spread, but Trump takes credit for a vaccine, a bold lie, just one of many thousands he’s told in the time since he announced his candidacy in 2015. And the results of those lies are tragic: so many shattered lives, so many dead. Children traumatized and forever wounded. Inept, ignorant leaders have gone in and out the revolving doors of the White House. It never ends.

This Christmas season, an important holiday for Christians, is not a happy time. The people who started the year 2020 with jobs and whole families are mourning the deaths of a quarter million kin and friends, they have no food to eat, their friends have abandoned them, and they cannot heat their homes as winter weather moves in. Utilities shut off service, moratoriums on evictions have expired, and anyone proud of what Donald Trump has done is brainwashed or delusional, which should really scare you. There’s no cure for that except the power of the very God so many claim to serve, yet fail to do while inflicting pain and engaging in terrorism through speech and hateful behavior.

The miracle Pat Robertson prays for will not happen. The electoral votes have been officially sealed by Congress and Joe Biden is our president-elect. I find it comforting and hopeful that he and his vice president will repair some of the damage done by Trump and his unholy political allies, but it will take time. They will be dealing with Mitch McConnell, for one thing, a man so devoid of humanity that the words “let them die” have actually come from him. Food stamps, disability benefits, social security and every kind of aid the poor and infirm depend upon to survive have all been targeted by McConnell and others. He’s inhuman yet Pat Robertson and the base Evangelicals back him.

Which doesn’t make sense because Evangelical leaders like Robertson have Christian charity programs, which makes them the super-hypocrites of the modern age.

I contend that these people are not only not true Christians, but that they are frauds who never believed in the divinity of Jesus.

They take photographs and videos of truckloads of bottled water arriving at scenes of recent disasters but Jesus warned, “when you give alms, do not be showy. Do it quietly.” It’s good that they help. But the way they present themselves as good guys in white hats saving the world is a sin, a lie and wrong.

What’s even worse is that some pastors claim the “seed gospel”, a money scam that, once begun, can bilk gullible people out of thousands of dollars. They promise you riches and prosperity but what usually happens is that people get relieved of their savings, and, their faith shattered, leave the church and become bitter opposition to all Christians everywhere. That’s a terrible, horrible way to end up.

People who go to a church seeking God, seeking spiritual help especially in times like this, often end up worse off than before they went.

Now, Christians, real believers, are leaving the churches.

Jesus surely hates what has been done in his name. One of his warnings went like this: “In this world you will have a lot of troubles, but be brave, for I have conquered the world.”

You know he never promised anything else; of the rich, he said that a camel could more easily pass through the eye of a needle than could a rich man enter God’s kingdom. That’s not subtle; the reference to a needle’s eye was a narrow and low city gate. Even a horse would have trouble with some of them since the whole idea of a wall and gate was for defense against military attack.

He also said that anyone who wanted to follow him had to take up their own crosses and follow him while bearing that burden. Carrying a cross was not meant as a separate ordeal in itself. It meant trial, torment, being hated, hunted, scorned, beaten and killed. His charge was to lead simple lives and to have faith. And a little bit of faith can do wonders.

After the events in my post “Attacked!” I asked for help from a Catholic priest. I know he did the Rosary and prayed. Since then no further attacks have happened, and the only thing bothering me is the usual nightmares. Demons love to play in dreams. As spirits, they can do that. And the closer you get to belief and Christian faith, the better the chances are of drawing an attack. Satan doesn’t want you to start believing in him. But when you do, he hates it and goes to work.

In these days of suffering and death, I find comfort that the Virgin Mother is open to our pleas. Cry out to her, and she will intercede and pray for you; this is powerful faith. Pat Robertson doesn’t understand things like that. He’s lost his way, he speaks heresy and promotes hate.

The protests in Washington are all about Trump being wrongfully deposed. Behold, a preacher who holds up a demon as God’s chosen.

Men like Robertson drive and fuel the bigoted hatred they are supposed to proclaim are hateful before God.

Remember what Christmas is really about. Remember one special woman who believes in you as much as she believed in God when she was visited by an angel. Think about love, forgiveness, compassion, anonymity and charity. Help people who need it, and don’t regret it for a minute. Remember he whose life we’re about to celebrate in our hearts, no matter our situation.

Above all else, try not to feel hate. It will never help you with your troubles. It has never served me well.

God bless you, and, for what it’s worth, have a happy Christmas as best you can.