If His Lips Are Moving – He’s Lying
Our Old Testament reading this morning is from Leviticus, that ancient book of do’s and don’ts tha tpeople cherry pick even today, even after Jesus came to clear up our misconceptions and told us many of these rules were not God-given, but man made, traditional customs.
Leviticus 19:
33 When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. 36You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord.
But Welcoming the Stranger is a theme throughout the book. Not cheating. Telling the truth. These rules don’t change.
Often when I don’t write, it’s because I am stunned into silence. I don’t care whether you believe as I do or not – worldwide, people share some basic beliefs because they help us survive. Kindness to one another. Compassion, even to those we might not like much. Humanity in our dealings with one another, dealing with one another straight up, giving an honest measure – often even a little more, a “bakers dozen” of 13, an extra inch of fabric, a good measure.
I knew a woman I privately considered as dishonest, and one night we were discussing the love of money as the root of evil in a group, and she said she never considered money her own, that it is God’s money, flowing through her as a conduit, going where it is meant to be.
I told AdventureMan when I got home, and he liked it, too. We decided to tip generously, to let our excess flow through our fingers, trusting God to put it where it is needed, and we would have no idea. We’ve never regretted that philosophy.
I fear for our world. I fear for the selfishness and greed putting our world at risk. I fear that the pulling back of environmental restrictions will impact on our ability as human beings to continue to live on earth. I picture Octavia Butler’s enclaves of the ultra rich while the rest of us scrabble for scraps in a world where rich and poor are breathing bad air, sweating in tropical heat and where plague and filth become common because we no longer invest in public health.
The “Truth” our leader speaks changes, not even daily, but sometimes within an hour, within 15 minutes. It’s not a War? When missiles are still destroying innocent lives? When ships cannot pass freely through a waterway that has been unguarded and open for years? When we pour the life blood of our country into guarding a war we never chose, and pulling our troops out of countries who for over half a century have been allied in creating widespread wealth, and a better world.
I gasp at his audacity, telling his citizens that a legal election was not a legal election, and that his own attempts to meddle in election results never happened, or was not illegal, or whatever the lie is today, or in his most recent speech. His truth changes according to his imagination, and he goes after those who expose his untruths.
Do you remember the wall that the Mexicans would pay for? Now we have a billion dollar ballroom, a monument to gilded vanity, that was touted as built by wealthy donors, but he is handing taxpayers the bill. The taxpayers who will pay are the same ones who have recently given up health care insurance they can no longer afford, or the dream of home ownership, or the dream of sending their first generation of American citizens to college.
What a tragic twist of fate, that the Trump years would bankrupt an entire country the way he bankrupted his own casinos and businesses. When will this stop?
What Country am I Living In?
As an American, I’ve lived in a lot of countries, often countries that controlled news coverage and punished those who reported news the leaders found embarrassing.
Many experienced people found ways around it. They phrased their reports carefully, leaving the reader to read behind the lines.
It’s not what you expect in a Democratic Republic. It’s not what I expect in the United States of America, where the very first amendment to our Constitution verified our right to have our own opinions and our freedom to state them (given that they were not, of course, a threat against someone else, or shouting “Fire” in a crowded theatre.)
And now the elected leader of the United States is trying to control any negative reporting about his War, a war that surprised his own country, his own people. A War which has not been supported by Congress, which has the right to declare War. As billions go up, literally, in smoke, or down in flames, Trump and Hegseth want the FCC to pull the broadcasting license of anyone reporting the events that are really happening. Trump has a long history of calling reality “false news” and claiming his big fat lies are truth. Like his endless whining about the election he lost to Joe Biden by more than 8 million votes. And he claims it was a fraudulent loss, a rigged election.
How on earth could that ever be a secret if it were to have happened? Crazy, delusional, whoppers!
And now he wants people whose reputations are on the line, newsmakers, journalists, photographers, soldiers, sailors – people who can see what is happening with their own eyes, hear the blasts and report the damages, and hold those accountable for their actions – he wants them to toe the party line? He wants the TRUTH to be what he pretends it is?
George Orwell got it right, he just got the year wrong. With this administration, we no longer have guarantees of personal privacy. We no longer have guarantees guaranteed by our Constitution. The Police are no longer our friends.
The president believes the truth is what he says it is and that the rights of the people are those he says they have. How have we allowed this to happen?
He CREATES situations, or makes them up, and then creates an oppressive measure to deal with it – look at what ICE, once respectable, has become. An entity protecting our entry points has become a gang of thugs who operate outside the law. When courts rule against them, they ignore the rulings.
When Trump looks at the polls and sees that he cannot win an election, he creates the “SAVE” act to deter, discourage and delete voter’s rights. Both ICE and “SAVE” address problems which do not exist, other than as avenues to giving this monster greater and greater power to feed his endless greed.
Do not listen to this man. Do not believe a word he says. Look, instead, at his actions. He fires the watchdogs. He fires those who would limit his power. He is what he always has been, a fraud, a con man, a liar, and altogether a very flawed man. He piles up wealth by making agreements that fill his pockets, his family’s pockets, and his cronies’. He bullies those who stand up to him. This is not a man of strong character; this is a human wrecking ball.
Washington Post: Trump to Claim Emergency Election Powers due to “China Interference in 2020”
Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
No Grown-Ups in Charge
We thought we would change the world, my generation. How on earth did we end up with a President who has the self-control, self-restraint, self-discipline, and dignity of a two-year-old?
How did we end up with a President who supports COAL, flying in the face of science, and wants to roll back protections against climate change, air pollution, water pollution, vaccinations, human rights, and stewardship of earthly resources?
What happened to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, where we worked on harmony and understanding, and the dignity of ALL human beings?
How did we get stuck with a government of morons, whose first move was to remove all the bureaucratics who knew what they were doing? How did we allow all the oversights to be abolished?
How do we continue to allow the oligarchs to forbid the completion of a bridge between Canada and Michigan because of a conflict with a rich man who owns a competing bridge? How do we allow a Presidency which makes private deals to enrich his sons and son-in-law with opaque deals outside the public view?
How do we accept a new army of MERCENARIES, attracted by a $50K bonus for signing on, who have paltry training, disobey standard policing standards and who act with disregard to our national constitution?
I may be old, but I am not blind, nor am I stupid. I see, to my horror. I witness, and I document. I am part of a large and growing crowd of witnesses, (dead and alive!) who will call this administration to account for their grave injustices.
Pam Bondi, who cannot answer questions, who is protecting her boss, mentioned over one million times in the Epstein files, pointing her finger.
This week I attended a school service at our church, and the Old Testament reading was from Isaiah. It heartened me; this is what we are teaching our children
ISAIAH 58: 6-10
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.”
Let us shine. Let us seek to shine.
Bravo, Judge Leon!
Judge Leon blocks Pentagon and Hegseth in prosecution to punish Mark Kelly over ‘illegal orders’ video
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, noted that while serving in the armed forces, military forces have limitations on some of their freedoms, but said that no court had ever extended that doctrine to retired service members, and he would not be the first to do so.
“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” the judge wrote.
Leon quoted singer-songwriter Bob Dylan to say, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” ”
The Judge had some pithy and appropriate things to say about military retirees and their rights to free speech, and in particular to Kelly’s position not only as a retired veteran, but also as a current Senator, where his responsibility to represent his electorate would be severely hampered by intimidating threats to take away or reduce his pension, or bring him back on duty to court-martial him for his “crime.”
His crime? Senator Kelly appeared in a video with five other veterans serving in the Senate reminding service members they have a responsibility NOT to obey illegal orders.
After WWII, many German leaders tried to excuse their crimes by saying “We were only following orders.”
When orders violate the Constitution, we do not have to comply. Constitutional rights apply to all people living in the United States, all residents; every person is authorized due process of the law.
These Constitutional Rights are being tested. Judge Leon is a Bush appointed judge, a man with years of judicial procedures behind him.
We are finding some ironic ways in which our President is unifying us. Republicans and Democrats alike recoiled in horror at the goon-squad “policing” in Minnesota. Republican and Democrat judicial appointees are correcting mistaken applications of power and brute force, and corraling them back where they belong. And God Bless Bad Bunny for reminding us that America is two continents, and that we are all stronger together. The vast majority of Americans on both continents were ready for some joy, and words of brotherhood, liberty and equality. We have more in common than we have differences.
If the United States of America is to continue to be a land welcoming those seeking opportunity and freedom, we all have to work towards this together, supporting our common values and finding ways to cooperate, even in areas where we disagree.
By the way, under the catagory of unanticipated consequences, Senator Mark Kelly received a huge surge of financial contributions to defend himself against this intimidation by our Secretary of Defense. This is a man who could successfully run for President, with his presence, his courage, his background and his steadfast approach.
EPSTEIN Files, Please, DOJ Pam Bondi
While we watch aghast as ill-trained ICE agents take down and kill American citizens, and Pam Bondi demands voter registration rolls from Minnesota (and according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Democracy Docket, looking for “sensitive” voter registration information from ALL states), 2 million (estimated) Epstein files have yet to be released.
Minnesotans are the least likely “domestic terrorists” ever, dressed in their buffalo plaid wool shirts and snow boots. Minnesotan, those white bread Scandinavian immigrants from long ago, Paul Bunyan-esque in strength an behavior, amicably welcomed their Somali newcomers, and are now protecting them as best they can while staying alive.
We all have to step back and ask ourselves “Am I a DOMESTIC TERRORIST?”
Look at these good church-going Minnesotans, shuttling immigrant children to school, picking up and delivering groceries to them surreptitiously, taking families hidden in their SUV’s to medical appointments. Do these seem like people who are afraid of their immigrant neighbors?
I respect Customs officials. I respect the rules of our nation. I do not respect those who overstep their jobs, who take delight in the adrenaline rush of attacking protestors, who shoot, rather than exhibit the self-rstraint we expect of law-enforcement. Most of us have no problem with ICE going after, as they state, violent criminals, few as they are.
It’s a Numbers Game
What we object to is going after people who are NOT criminals just because the Toddler-In-Chief wants to be able to show numbers. Trump, you started off your campaign in 2015 going after those rapists, criminals and drug addicts. We didn’t believe you then, and we sure don’t believe you now. We believe our own eyes. We are witnesses to violations of our Constitution by people who should be models of legal behavior.
Corrupting the FBI to investigate political appointments, and firing prosecutors when they tell you there is not evidence to get a conviction is not the American Way.
We know you want to keep your party in power. We know you’re afraid you are going to lose big in upcoming elections, and that is the purpose behind bullying the blue states and trying to intimidate their officials is to get an upper hand on the elections. YOU, who complain about rigged elections, YOU who whine that you really won the 2020 election (and your own elections supervisors would not support your claims) YOU are trying to bully, intimidate and subdue the population so that YOU can rig the elections!
Props to Minnesota! Props to them for showing fortitude, for being good neighbors, for welcoming the stranger (as Moses and Jesus taught us) and for showing self-restraint in the face of thugs and goons itching for a fight. Trump is eager to invoke the Insurrection Act, we know because he says so! Props to you, Minnesota, and to you, Portland for having the maturity and persistence and yes, a sense of humor to outlast, outplay and survive this despicable tyrant.
Orwellian Insurrection Talk v. Free Elections
I am haunted by memories of our Janus-like leader telling people while running for the office of President that if we voted for him, we would never have to vote again. What could he have meant by that? Aren’t elections part of what we value as a Democracy?
I am troubled by a leader who insists that what we saw with our own eyes on January 6th, that the thugs beating policemen, breaking and entering the Congress, chasing down Mike Pence with a noose was NOT an insurrection, not at all what he was going for when he told followers to “Fight Like Hell!” or we would have no Democracy. This leader who said he would be with them, and scurried back to the white house to watch events unfold on his Presidential television. He didn’t call off these hooligans and goons until HOURS after the violence began.
He PARDONED these thugs who invaded the Congress. He now calls it a “Day of Love.” Like we can’t see with our own eyes?
Just in time for Black History Month, he continues to dismantle exhibitions exploring the relationship between the enslaved and the enslavers. If it makes white people uncomfortable, isn’t that appropriate? Is slavery something we want to return to? And who, exactly do we enslave. Like are camera bearing Democrats candidates for the new underclass?
Armed with Whistles and Phone Cameras
J.D. Vance tells us to “lower the temperature” and help the ICE forces. J.D. Vance, you are talking to Minnesotans! You are talking to the descendants of Norwegians, the very nationality our orange leader wants to come to the USA! You are talking to people who have peacefully incorporated people from many nations, welcomed them! YOU created a spurious policy, based on a poorly made video by a social influencer. Yes, there was a child care scandal, and the people charged were not Somali but US citizens! YOU are creating the rise is heated emotions, and those you are shooting are armed with whistles and phone cameras!
Who has a history of creating violent insurrections? Who has sent unwelcome storm troopers into Minnesota? Who is poking Minnesota officials? Who is creating the problem and like every school boy bully, blaming the victim – “You started it!”
Go HOME, ICE. You are not welcome, you are not needed. You are invading the homes of US CITIZENS without a warrant, and laughing! You are shouting “Boo HOO!” to witnesses when you shoot a non-violent demonstrator 10 times! 10 Times! If that isn’t excessive force, what is?
I applaud the citizens of Minneapolis who are standing against this villainy and this bullying. I applaud their self-restraint and their persistence. I applaud Portland, Oregon for utilizing the legal system to lower the temperature and resist the pressure to give the radical bullying thugs any opportunity to raise the stakes.
Self restraint and Persistence while we activate the legal system is our only hope if we want to continue to have free and safe elections, and I believe that is what this is all really about.
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