I didn’t think anyone could think or act in ways more asinine that our absurd American Caligula. But, I must now acknowledge being wrong. There are others equally stupid and evil. Today, we mention just one, Rick Santorum. Speaking of the brave gun control activist high school students from ocean to ocean, he recently suggested on public T.V,
 
“How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations where there is a violent shooter.”
 
While I am left speechless at such extreme and willful evil ignorance, thankfully some are not. I’m not sure how long I laughed at this obvious response to the Santorum stupidity via twitter.
 
“Here are some stats made simple for Rick Santorum:
Survival rate of pulseless trauma victims who get CPR at the scene: VERY, VERY LOW
Survival rate of people who don’t get shot in the first place: MUCH, MUCH BETTER” (Rebecca Bell, MD).
 
So, to whom will Americans listen?
 
To the idiotic Santorums of the world? Or, perhaps the conniving propogandist of the obscene NRA spokespersons.
 
“Today’s protests aren’t spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.”
 
Or, maybe, a man of God?
 
“Dear young people, never get tired of being instruments of peace and joy among your peers!” encouraged Pope Francis via tweeter. Then, in his Palm Sunday homily,
 
“There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive.
​
“Dear young people, you have it in you to shout… It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, some corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?”

My readership, I am warned, may go down if I comment too often, too negatively, or too energetically on guns. That’s a shame. It is not a shame that some will not return to this site. That is their rightful choice. It is a shame that some have allowed themselves to be deceived by a doctrine of the devil, spoken by a lobby perverted by an obscene love of filthy lucre and drenched in the black blood of innocent American victims.

Here is just one example of the myriad false doctrines spouted forth by Satan’s minions in the gun lobby.
 

“There is no greater personal individual freedom than the right to keep and bear arms, the right to protect yourself, and the right to survive. It's not bestowed by man, but granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.”[1]
 

What a pack of lies and pile of bull crap! Forget the fact that there is nothing remotely sane in such words. There is not a single truth spoken in this crazed proclamation. There is nothing that is authentically “American” in this vile propaganda. And it is certain, certain, certain, that there is nothing godly or Christian in such blasphemy. The God of Heaven, the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus has nothing to do with such obscenity. He certainly does not “bestow” upon individuals or nations the “right to bear arms.” Such words issue straight out of the mouth of a false prophet of the great Anti-Christ. It is an example of Satan’s clearly stated intent to “buy up armies and navies and reign with blood and horror on this earth.”

I am sorry if this offends. But it is the truth. I do not do what I do on this site for popularity. I am trying to stop the madness, not endorse it. I will not itch the ears of those who have itchy fingers. I will and do, in fact, throw my lot in with the brave students all over this country who are speaking out, speaking truth to power. You’ve heard the blaspheme that has issued forth from the defiled heart and insane mind of Wayne La Pierre. Perhaps you have not heard the courageous and righteous words that have come from the mouth of one of these brave young students, Emma Gonzalez.
 
“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this—we call BS. They say tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS.”[2]
 
You go girl! These words are every bit as true as the following words, so wickedly misinterpreted:
 
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
 
Have so few words every been more thoroughly twisted into something so false; something that causes little but pain and suffering and death? Oh, how these few words have been perverted! Perverted by an industry whose only objective is to wallow in a pool of black human blood and mammon. Perverted by a lobby that profits from the sell of weapons of mass destruction. Perverted by citizens—and paying ones at that!—deceived by the ungodly propaganda of an unhallowed lobby.

“Well regulated.” Well regulated?

There is nothing “well-regulated” about anything involving guns in America. Those with their gun fetish are not part of a “well regulated” militia. They do not buy from a “well-regulated” gun industry. They do not have membership in a “well-regulated” lobby. I repeat, there is nothing about guns that is “well-regulated” in America. How many innocent lives have been stolen because of the poorly regulated gun industry! It is absolute madness.

We will not debate, here, and again, the clear and simple fact that “keeping and bearing arms” is about maintaining a “well regulated Militia.” If some want to own an assault weapon, then let them go join a “well-regulated” state militia. My tax dollars will pay for their target practice. Hell, they will pay for them to launch heat-seeking missiles and to drive Abrams tanks to get their testosterone fix.

Oh, and for those who entertain the gross absurdity that they can resist a tyrannical government by means of their pathetically feeble personal weaponry, perhaps you will want to see what such resistance looks like and results in. Have a look in the homily found on the “Just Society” page of this site: “Needed: Independent and Inventive World Creators.”

No. No citizen outside a “well regulated Militia” should be given possession of a military-style weapon of mass destruction such as the assault weapons being used to slaughter innocent victims in America’s streets, malls, parks, schools, and homes.

Every branch of government, and the electorate that empower them, are covered from head to toe in the black blood of countless thousands of their innocent fellow citizens. If a foreigner was killing our people, as, for example, during 911, we would, as we did then, pass thousands upon thousands of regulations—willingly obstructing dozens of “citizen’s rights.” Such regulation would not only NOT be resisted by the citizenry, but actively demanded and supported. But gun-toting white boys can kill with impunity, all in the name of “The Constitution.”

It is our “unwell regulated” mythical citizen militia that is unconstitutional.
​
But now, a group of surviving youth have decided not to go as sheep to the slaughter. They are fighting back. I say, “Give ‘em hell! You can count on my help. I pray that God comfort those martyred with the gun lobby’s aid. But more, I pray that He blesses and sustains your righteous labor against that lobbt’s fiendish evil!”


[1] NRA CEO Wayne La Pierre at CPAC.

[2] As found in “Has the NRA Finally Met its Match?” by Katha Pollitt on thenation.com.

While I have been daily active on several pages of this site, I have been somewhat quiet on the blog and “Mad State” pages. Part of the reason for this quiet has to do with other projects on which I am excitedly working, including several associated with various pages of this site. However, equally responsible for my recent silence on the blog is simply the sheer depth of and speed with which Caligula’s flood of madness flows. No sooner is one about half-way through a written response to the latest madness than another equally mad eruption breaks out.

I’ll just have to learn how to more briefly respond to Caligula’s incessant and putrid excretions.

Anyway, we have heard much recently about the Mormon boy who, apparently unrestrained by both religious and governmental leaders, can’t help beating women—whether wife of girlfriend. Some (naively) have marveled that such a person would be permitted to work in government, period, let alone in such a high and intimate position in the White House.

But really, now, what’s a Caligula-led White House to do? It needs a staff. But, even in a city overflowing with hubris and falsehood, no one with even a scintilla of self-respect and integrity will work in Caligula’s blackened white outhouse. A wife beater is simply the very best they can hope for. So, come on! Give the guy a break. (Yes I am being facetious). Besides, how can you expect a man such as Caligula, a man without character and integrity, to be capable of judging the character and integrity of anyone else. It is simply impossible.

From day 8, one cabinet member, aide, staffer, director, etc. after another has left Caligula’s cesspool of corruption under the cloud of scandal. It will not end any time soon. In fact, it will not end until the greatest scandal of them all, Caligula himself, is flushed out.
​
Until that happy day, they really should just paint the white house black.

The Gauls’ September 11, 2001 raid of the World Trade Center, so exaggeratingly disruptive to the psyche of American society, was child’s play compared to the Republican hordes’ sack of Rome conducted on December 19 and 20, 2017.

Of course, their sack of Rome is simply a culmination of a pillaging that the venerable Ronald Reagan, first American president to act upon Milton Friedman’s false economic gospel of violent plunder, started a generation ago. I say it is the “culmination.” But that suggests that the Republican’s latest “tax overhaul” represents the last of their rapacious assaults on America. It does not. There are still more walls to scale. Many more homes to burn to the ground. Many more innocents to slay. Trust me, they have gotten a taste of blood and will need more.

“Government,” the jolly faced old man declared during one of his demented moments, “is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." The Republican Gadianton robbers have been conspiring against the government ever since.

Please do not misunderstand. When I speak of Republican hordes, I am not talking only about the 298 Republicans sitting in the House and Senate. As I have said so often, the blame does not rest only with the 298 poison arrows that are those 298 Republican thugs. They only represent the poisonous tip of the arrow. They are simply doing the bidding of their constituents. The real blame, the real crime rest on the 10’s and 10’s of thousands of voters, who, knowing full well the philosophical ideals and destructive intent to plunder of those 298, bent the bow and released the string with its poisonous arrow by electing such gangsters to office in the first place. Unbelievably, insanely, madly, the electorate has knowingly, willfully, brazenly handed their government over to a bunch of Gadianton Robbers who despise government, and have but one aim: to undermine and destroy it. Ronald’s belligerent dictum has become self-fulfilling prophecy.

Oh, and I should say, don’t blame Caligula either. This isn’t his doing. This pack or Republican wolves would have passed this bill with any sitting Republican president. Caligula just happens to be the patsy in place at the moment. He is simply their errand boy, being told which dotted line on which to sign.

Will I weep when the east wind blows, ripping up roots and toppling branches?

“What east wind?” One of my “friends” asks. Every time I see him, it’s “have you seen the light yet? Have you seen what’s happened to you 401k in the past year?”
​
“Yes. I am making out like a bandit. Literally. And, in the past two days, the Republicans have legalized additional banditry. You can have every damn cent of it back. I’ll even give it back with interest. I don’t want it. It’s a prostitute’s earnings. Blood money. Filthy lucre, slippery with the blood of innocent sacrificial victims.

You gotta feel for those poor Alabamians, I’m telling you, especially those of the Evangelical (un)-Christian persuasion. My word, look at the tough call they have been called upon to make—no fault of their own, mind you.

On the one hand--we’ll call it the left hand, for the benefit of those evangelicals—they can choose an alleged and likely pedophile who has spent his life in camouflage, wrapping himself in sheep wool. On the other hand—the right hand—they can choose a man who possessed the moral fortitude to aid in the trial and conviction of cowardly racist thugs who bombed a church and killed innocent children.

Hmm. Let’s see. What would Jesus do? Pedophile or Defender. Hard to say. It’s nip and tuck, you know. A game of inches.

Kind of makes you wonder what all those evangelicals think Jesus was up to when he extended his invitation, “suffer the little children to come unto me.”

The absurd dilemma so many evangelicals face should come as no surprise. It is an outgrowth of their perverted faith. Jesus had hardly taken his place at the right hand of God before Christianity became obsessed with dogma, giving more weight to what one thinks than how one acts. It has been a Christian vice for two millennia. American evangelicals have taken the vice and turned it into an art form.

Ideology trumps behavior every time. Of course, one can control one’s ideology. Who can control their behavior? The evangelical solution is just another manifestation of the Pharisaical sleight-of-hand. Rewrite the rules to safeguard your perversion. Call evil good and good evil so you can call yourself good.

Just in case you missed American evangelicals’ wolfish canines during the 2016 presidential election, those good ol’ evangelicals of Dixie are unabashedly baring their fangs, red and dripping with the blood of children, for all to see.
​
Don’t ask an evangelical, especially one from Dixie, what Jesus would do. They haven’t a clue.

I have been away on vacation, but Caligula’s madness has continued unabated, assisted and encouraged, of course, by his deplorable followers. It would be a full time job to comment on each of his moments of madness. One must pick and choose. Today, I choose this one.

We hear in the Isaiah passage that heads this post the prophetic voice. It is the voice of God heard from Zion. It is a voice of peace, a message of reconciliation. It is a voice of disarmament.

In Caligula, we hear the prophetic voice of a false prophet, an anti-Christ. Compare Caligula’s “prophecy” uttered this week, to that of Isaiah’s above.

“He [Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister] will shoot them [North Korean missiles] out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of additional military equipment from the United States… The prime minister of Japan is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should. It’s a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for Japan.”

Here, Caligula, like Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Bush and Obama before him, conducts himself more like an arms dealer than a head of state (was he wearing a plaid sport coat when he spoke these blasphemous words?). Here, Caligula encourages a nation that, half a century ago, turned its back on its previous warmongering ways and “retooled its swords into plow blades spears,” to now forsake its repentance, and, as a dog, turn “to his own vomit again” and as a “sow that was washed [turn] back to her wallowing in the mire” (See 2 Peter 2.22).

Of course, in addition to expanding the madness of war it has the added benefit of enriching the bank accounts (kept in tax havens where no government can get to them, of course) of the American Military Industrial Complex—indeed the biggest the planet has ever seen. Now, isn’t that something of which to be proud!

So, you tell me, to which prophetic word does Caligula give voice--the true or false; that of Christ or of anti-Christ? Make no mistake about it. Caligula is a prophet. He is a false prophet. He speaks nothing but “damnable heresies.” America has made its choice, and made his voice its own.
​
We desperately need more true prophetic voices to proclaim boldly and loudly against his “damnable heresies.”

What, I often wonder, does it mean to win a war?

I ask this question for two reasons.

First, I ask it in light of the so-called “war on terror”—given the terror of war, isn’t this an oxymoron? But what will winning the “war on terror” look like? When will we know it is won? And will the shambles that have been left behind be worth the win?

If I were to play prophet, I would say this war will never be won and will never be over.

But then, that is the pattern of America’s wars since World War II. One could argue that that war was won. We have been at peace with Germany, Japan, and Italy for three-quarters of a century. Such a lasting peace between previous foes qualifies, it seems to me, as success—a war truly won.

By this standard, however, America, with “its vaunted military machine, its brave soldiers, and its brilliant generals” has not won a war since. Korea? Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? And how about the myriad of known and unknown “covert” and proxy wars in which our “intelligence” agencies have engaged—say Iran, for example. Egypt? Russia? Somalia? I would go broke buying ink cartridges to print the entire list. America hasn’t “won a war” in a generation. From whence does the American arrogance come? Not from winning, that’s for damn sure.

Not a single win. All we have done for the past generation is break things. Just call us “America, the beautiful world breaker.”

Oh, but, there have been winners.

Lockeed Martin? In a single year, they have been known to win some 66,000 contracts worth $45 billion—88% of their total revenues!

Boeing? In a single year, they have been known to win some 12,000 contracts worth in excess of $30 billion

Raytheon? In a single year, they have been known to win some 10,000 contracts worth more than $20 billion—93% of their total revenues!

General Dynamics? In a single year, they have been known to win some 20,000 contracts worth $20 billion.

Northrup Drumman? In a single year, they have been known to win some 10,000 contracts worth more than $10 billion.

United Technologies Corporation? In a single year, they have been known to win some 24,000 contracts worth 10’s of billions of dollars.

L-3 Communications? In a single year, they have been known to win some 7,500 contracts worth nearly $10 billion.

BAE Systems? In a single year, they have been known to win some 10,000 contracts worth 10’s of billions of dollars—92% of their total revenues!
 
Well, we could go on. We have just scratched the surface of America’s war winners. America’s warmongering is no longer intended to bring peace, only profits. And after all that spending, year, after year, after year, after year, we do not have one victory to show for it. Not one lasting peace.

And we have only dealt with the relatively trivial economic side of things. Shall we begin to list the number of American military personnel killed, physically maimed, and psychologically stunted and ruined? Shall we count the innocent men, women, and children we have terrorized, made homeless, and killed? What is the cost of all that?

Not peace, that’s for damn sure. And not “freedom” either. No America freedoms won in all of this! Only the captivity and enslavement of the American soul.
 
“In a rare act of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, the Senate passed a $700 billion defense policy bill on Monday that sets forth a muscular vision of America as a global power, with a Pentagon budget that far exceeds what President Trump has asked for.
​
“Senators voted 89-9 to approve the measure, known as the National Defense Authorization Act; the House has already adopted a similar version” (“Senate Passes $700 Billion Pentagon Bill, More Money Than Trump Sought,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg, N.Y. Times).
 
As I have said before, our political leaders—left and right--can agree on nothing except the need to “buy up armies and navies and reign with blood and horror on this earth.” Wonder whose brilliant idea that was?

The passage that heads today’s post, speaks of the relationship between collusion of the wealthy and government officials and “murder.” “Murder,” in this context, includes actions other than those that involve the active and violent physical taking of another life.

According to Isaiah, murder includes those circumstances when vulnerable people suffer and die because government officials pass immoral laws due to the corrupting influences of bribes and kickbacks provided those officials by the wealthy class.

“Murder,” then, is far more encompassing than our current legal system acknowledges or prosecutes. There are many wealthy murderers in America. There are murderers sitting in every branch of the U.S. government.

In just the past few days, spiteful and ignorant actions have been taken regarding health care that will cause suffering. Vulnerable people will not receive the health care they need because they will not be able to afford it. At the same time, of course, insurance companies’ profits will soar.

Vulnerable people will die because of these unjust and immoral “executive orders.”

The prophetic voice announces in such moments as these: Murder has been committed.
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There will, of course, be no trial. We do not try the rich, powerful, of politically connected for any of their many crimes. Murderers will go scot-free. But judgment is coming. Oh, it is most certainly coming.

I am often asked why I harp on past racial injustices practiced in the U.S. “Those are all in the past. Get over it.”

My answer is two-fold.

“First, we need to be aware of the role that institutional racism and oppression of African Americans played in the founding and progress of our country. It is highly unlikely that America would have become the economic powerhouse that it became without the free labor provided by African slaves. During America’s development, cotton was king, not just in the U.S. but globally. We could compete on the world’s cotton markets, supplying American and British mills with cheap cotton because it cost nothing to pick the cotton. Just saying. Things would have been much different if cotton growers had had to pay a wage to cotton pickers. The economic benefits we all enjoy today are built largely on a bedrock of slavery.”

“Secondly, institutional racism is not only part of our past, it is, shamefully, part of our present. One is never sure whether those who maintain there is no or little institutional racism today are simply honestly ignorance or willfully so. Either way, it is ignorance. For, racism in America is alive and well. We are not a “colorblind” society. And all too often African Americans still do not have unfettered access to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

It often starts from the cradle and does not end until the grave—sometimes it puts individuals in the grave. Just yesterday the largely black Columbus Ohio school district sent students home early. They announced that they will do so again today and perhaps tomorrow—this because the unusually hot September temperatures have raised temperatures in many class rooms to dangerous levels. And why are so many classrooms so hot, you ask? You guessed it. No air conditioning.

I’ll tell you one thing for sure. There are no such shenanigans going on in our nearly all white school district. Plenty of money here to air condition our palatial schools. Rather, I noted yesterday when I picked up my grandchildren from elementary school that there were several youngsters wearing something with long sleeves to keep warm in the irresponsibly frigid airconditioned temperatures of their school.

The state of Ohio, through their unequal and immoral school funding practices, engages in blatant and institutional racism. In addition, Ohio, like so many states, give a nod and wink to individual racism by allowing white people to create segregated schools via charter school funding. Again, this is simply racism. It is immoral and ought to be unconstitutional.

As an aside, this talk of school reminds us that yesterday was the anniversary of the courageous “Little-rock nine.” Do we find monuments built by predominantly white local governments dotting the southern landscape to commemorate their patriotic feat, I wonder? Surely we all know that what those nine students endured took more courage, nerve and verve than nine Stonewall Jacksons. And the nine did it for a just cause, unlike the treasonous rebel.

Anyway, the racial disadvantages continue as one ages. We think now, for example, of “Whataburger’s” alleged hiring practices in Florida.” According to a recent lawsuit, a store manager


“who is white, was pressured by the restaurant’s general manager to hire white employees but not black ones. Among other things, the general manager, Johanna Risk, directed her to review applications and only interview applicants who had white-sounding names.

“Ms. Burrous opposed and refused to participate in the racially discriminatory hiring directive to hire white — not black — applicants…. Instead, Ms. Burrous continued to hire the most qualified applicants for vacant positions, regardless of race or color..

[The general manager] “told Ms. Burrous that Whataburger’s ‘customer base is white and we want the faces behind the counter to match the customer base,’ the lawsuit says.”[1]


This is not a unique case. It happens every day. As another author has reminded us,


“Employers see names like LeKeisha or Lisa and make substantive decisions based on implicitly held assumptions about the names themselves, even though the résumés are exactly the same.”[2]


We are not even talking about establishing preferential hiring practices for African Americans now. Just simple fairness. But nope, we are not even getting that.

And we won’t talk, here, about the shamefully large number of African Americans, male and female, who die at the hands of America’s police forces nearly every day.
​
Yes, there are simply too many ignorant of our past and blind to our present. Whether this ignorance and blindness is willful or not, it will engender a constricted future, not only for African Americas, but for all Americans. And, as Martin Luther King reminded us, the social inequality will produce spiritual death.


[1] Jeff Burlew, “Lawsuit: Whataburger ex-manager said she was told to hire white employees,” USA Today

[2] Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, chapter 3

If one still needs it, the past week provided yet more evidence of Caligula’s madness.
 
But first…
 
Question:   Since when did Christians cheer and egg on vile public displays of hate-filled profanity?

Answer:     They don’t. There were no Christians in that insane gathering in Alabama—only vile white supremacists were allowed entrance.
 

Question:   How did a man so seemingly ignorant of human psychology ever succeed, even in the insipid craft of business?

Answer:     Graft, corruption, intimidation, victimization, bullying—need I go on?
 
​
As soon as—and I mean the very second—I heard Caligula’s hateful and profane comments directed at those he called SOB’s, I knew, I knew with certainty that Sunday NFL games would witness a significant increase in protests against the kind of ignorance and white supremacy he represents.
 
Could that vile man really not know this? Or did he know it? Is this precisely what he was after?
 
This whole episode demonstrates unequivocally that the man is nothing but a stupid, insecure, and paranoid provocateur—whether by design or ignorance is immaterial. He is a man that feeds on satanic contention. He aims to stir up the hearts of men with anger one for another.
 
Now, I do not mean to diminish the vileness of his provocations against American Athletes. We have a very serious white supremacy issue in America. Our police forces are openly murdering people—black people—on American streets. Our judicial system is a racist’s wet dream. But, as several Athletes themselves have asked over the weekend, isn’t a problem such as that that we face with North Korea enough to keep him busy? Shouldn’t he be focused on something like that?
 
Probably. And yet, do we want him focused on North Korea? Look what he has done, the provocation he has instigated, in the past week. “Rocket Man”? Really? What are you, a schoolkid on a 1st grade schoolyard? “Totally destroy North Korea”? Who does he think he is, Doctor Evil?
 
But, it is no joking matter.
 
Did he not know? I knew. I knew the second he delivered that hateful U.N. speech that it would only incite more belligerence from Pyongyang. (His advisors knew it too, for these words were not in the written speech, but were adlibbed by the mad Caligula himself). Was this what he was after? Did he intend to incite? Or is he just stupid?
 
It will not really matter once the bombs start flying.
 
If we decide that he is simply stupid, we must as quickly as possible remove him from office… before the bombs start flying.
 
If we decide that he is not simply stupid, but rabidly evil, then we must as quickly as possible remove him from office… before the bombs start flying.
 
Either way, he is just stupid or insecure enough to need himself immortalized in human history in any way he can. And what better way than to be written into the history books as the second man to engage the immoral use of nuclear weapons. He is well on his way to infamy.
 
You see, to him it is all the same—contending with athletes or contending with North Korea. He must have contention. He thrives on it. This is just how developmentally impeded or abjectly evil he is.
 
While the world will never know peace with America in charge, it has, at least to this point, avoided nuclear holocaust. But with this man, the mad Caligula, we not only face the prospects of war—something we’ve grown enamored of—but annihilation—something we might just wish to avoid.
 
He must be stopped.
 
Stop the madness now.

One of the pages on this site is entitled, “Just Quotes.” I have considered having a corresponding page entitled, “Unjust Quotes.” But, who am I kidding, by quoting Caligula day in and day out I’d only be giving airtime to the crazed lunacy of one mad man—with the occasional exception when some Republican representative or senator talks smack about their unjust health care fantasies of harming as many vulnerable Americans as inhumanly possible.

But, at the U.N. yesterday, Caligula, on several fronts, embarrassed our nation, and terrorized the world. The man is absolutely terrifying. Scares the $#!+ out of me, to be sure! Drunk with his bizarre personal rivalry with North Korea’s insane leader, and in his veiled threat to nuke that fellow rogue nation, Caligula proves himself to be the mimetic double of his mad North Korean brother. In front of the U.N., he brazenly threatened to commit crimes against humanity.

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man [what are we, in 1st grade] is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and a able, but hopefully this will not be necessary.”

So, let me get this straight. North Korea can’t be trusted to possess nuclear weapons, but we, the only nation on earth to ever actually use them, can? The same nation that is prepared to use them to destroy 25 million North Korean men, women, and children?
​
Maybe, Bush was right. Maybe we do need to act pre-emptively. We must act now and get this crazed lunatic out of office before he pushes the entire globe to suicide. The man is demonic, possessed of an evil spirit.

Sure hope Caligula never turns his love upon me. He loves them, he says—those dreamers. Yet, though they are by every conceivable measure young Americans—innocent and law-abiding… unlike him—he intends to send them to a country they have never known and that has never claimed them. He truly has made them young men and women without a country. Martyrs every one of them.

Sensing, last week, what the mad man was about to do, I posted the passage above to the just scripture page of this sight and asked questions for the reader to consider. Make no mistake about it: removing the protections found in DACA is a vexation of “strangers.” These oppressed dreamers will call out to God—however well-known or unknown he may be to them. And God will see their vexations and hear their plea. Such obscenities as this will, absolutely will bring the condemnation of God upon the nation that elected that man.

For, you see, Caligula’s obscenities pale in comparison to the monstrosity that is those who elected him—including, shamefully, white evangelical (non)Christians. For a little more than a century the federal government has been protector, however imperfectly, to vulnerable peoples who local and state majorities always oppressively scapegoat with impunity. After national defense, this is the most important role of the federal government—to stand against base, provincial, and prejudiced local majorities. This is Republicans’ real reason for hating a strong federal government—it keeps them, as it ought, from acting upon their base, selfish, fearful, and prejudiced inclinations—in America most often expressed through racism, though more recently LGBT have become a favorite target of the mob. Under resurgent Republican influences, the electorate has elected a monstrosity who, far from checking the public’s demons, is giving traction to all that is monstrous. What a perversion!

In his letter written from a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Jr reminded us,
​
“There are two types of laws: just and unjust…. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’
 
“Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
 
In announcing the decision, Caligula’s little puppet, leader of the ‘Injustice Department,’ spoke of “law.” He declared that “we are a nation of laws.” Yes, indeed. Ol’ Joe Arpaio can attest to the kind of law intended by the troop of rascals currently in power.

Because of a few initial responses to the LDS Church’s tepid 13 August statement concerning the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend of August 11-12, 2017, the Church seems to have discovered what I discovered and have been shouting since last November’s U.S. election: if the preacher wishes to be heard in today’s noisy environment and by today’s willfully self-delusional audiences, the days of careful, measured, and safe messaging are over.

We live in a world where, increasingly, individuals engage in willful self-deception and sophistry. In the U.S., to be sure, we have a population and leaders, including a president, who habitually and shamelessly “loveth and maketh…lie[s].”[1] In American Christianity, we have many who, against all godly and righteous principles, have joined this duplicitous fray. This state of affairs calls for thunderous preaching, not still, small, whispered messaging. “Small voices” are comfortable and safe—both for the speaker and for the hearer. But now is not the time, if there ever was one, for those who speak the words of God to play it safe. The preacher’s words must be so clear that the wicked cannot possibly find comfort in them. With this latest example of the Church’s safe speech, and the comfort that a few self-deluded white supremacists found in it as a back-drop, I would like to discuss an item or two in relation to white supremacy, or Euro-centrism, and its future.
​
First, just to be sure we are all up to date, here is the LDS Church’s initial statement released on lds.org.

“It is with great sadness and deep concern that we view the violence, conflict and tragedy of recent days in Charlottesville, Virginia. People of any faith, or of no faith at all, should be troubled by the increase of intolerance in both words and actions that we see everywhere.

“More than a decade ago, the late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008) addressed the topic of racism when speaking to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He powerfully and clearly taught this principle: ‘No man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ.’ For members of the Church, we reaffirm that teaching today and the Savior's admonition to love our neighbor.

“Our prayers are with those who are suffering because of this intolerance and hatred. We pray for peace and for understanding. Above all, we pray that we may treat one another with greater kindness, compassion and goodness.
 
Hmm. Weak. Weak enough that just as Caligula’s[2] true, heart-felt statements have been used by (mostly male) white supremacists to find personal comfort and movement support, so too was the Church’s too cautious statement. Just have a look at the tweet storm of “purposefulwife,” one of our very own LDS (and female!) racists—I’ll not give space to her disturbing, though trendy bit of willful self-delusion and sophistry. Because of such deluded responses, the Church felt the need to come a little more out of the shadows and speak a little more forcefully. Here is their second stab at it.
 
“It has been called to our attention that there are some among the various pro-white and white supremacy communities who assert that the Church is neutral toward or in support of their views. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the New Testament, Jesus said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39). The Book of Mormon teaches “all are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 26:33).

“White supremacist attitudes are morally wrong and sinful, and we condemn them. Church members who promote or pursue a “white culture” or white supremacy agenda are not in harmony with the teachings of the Church.
 
Better. Could use a little work, a little more ‘umph,’ but it will probably have to do for now.
 
Now, I wish to say a word of two about white supremacy. I will try to be very, very clear, and certainly direct. We, who witness ugly manifestations of white supremacy in the U.S. among our own citizens—as, for example, recently in Charlottesville, VA—sometimes view it in too narrow terms. We associate it, principally, with anti-African American racism, anti-Semitic racism, and, ascendant as of late, anti-Muslim racism. It is all that, in all its ugliness. But it is much more; much deeper and much darker.

White supremacy is not simply an ideology that is against certain populations. It is an ideology that is for only one population: white Europeans—predominately northern, including their progeny such as those found in the United States. It asserts that white Europeans and their progeny (e.g. white Americans), have a divine right to rule over the earth. This Euro-centric ideology is, therefore, by definition, a political ideology with religious justifications. In the end, white supremacy should be thought of as “religion”—false religion, but religion nonetheless. No one, then, no not one… no way, no how… can call themselves “Christian” and “white supremacist.”
 
“What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?”[3]
 
None.

This evil religious belief that we call “white supremacy” is not parochial. It is global. It is not something new, created even in the past two hundred years. Politically speaking, this ungodly ideology has been dominant, controlling world affairs for at least the past half millennium. For the past half millennium, white Europeans and their progeny have assumed that they have the divine right to rule wherever, whenever, and however they choose. The rest of the world has been required to either yield or suffer.

The suffering to which non-white Europeans have been subjected has taken many forms, existing along a continuum of violence and oppression that stretches from private hatred to institutional, often shadowy legislative policy, to overtly oppressive and violent actions that can and often have turned murderous, even genocidal.

The white supremacy practiced by nearly all Euro-centric countries, including the United States, accounts for European colonialism and the way subject peoples were treated—the oppression that colonial powers justified as standard ruling practice. White supremacy accounts for Britain’s oppressive and murderous treatment of the populations of the Indian subcontinent, Belgium’s oppressive and murderous treatment of South Africans, France’s oppressive and murderous treatment of North Africans, Germany’s oppressive and genocidal treatment of Jews, America’s oppressive and murderous treatment of African slaves and today’s African-Americans, America’s current unworthy obsession with world domination through empire. And on and on it goes.

From the country’s very foundation, U.S. institutions of local, state, and federal government have believed, observed, and practiced the doctrines of white supremacy. This white supremacy is often subtle and shadowy, dressed up in all sorts of politically correct policy statements and practices—for example, welfare “reform” and a police state and legal system that is stacked against African Americans, to name but two. But make no mistake about it, the United States, its citizens and government, has been utterly white supremacist from its inception. How else does one explain a constitution that legalized slavery and counted other human beings as two-thirds a person? Where did that “inspiration” come from, I wonder? Not from God. That much I know.

For many American white supremacists, such as those who gathered in Charlottesville, the shadowy white supremacy of the modern U.S. government does not go far enough. It is not enough, for example, to purposefully disadvantage and underprivilege African-Americans through devious and unjust legislative governance. African Americans, they believe, are not to be thought of as having been created equal. Non-European populations, the twisted logic goes, are to be explicitly identified, oppressed by violent means, and, eventually, removed—we do not mean to suggest that shadowy, legislatively maintained white supremacy is nonviolent. If, after all this unhallowed effort, some yet remain, they are to be exterminated.

Such American white supremacists have been emboldened by our American Caligula. He has drawn our accustomed white supremacy out of the shadows and shoved it in our faces. “America first” is pure—or impure, however you wish—white supremacist religion. One hundred percent. Unabashedly so. Direct from its Satanic source.

This latest American resurgence of overt white supremacism, encouraged and nourished by Caligula, is a response to a fearful realization. Caligula and those of his ilk—the David Dukes and “purposefulwives” of the lunatic fringe—represent a kind of “early warning system.” From the corner of their eye, they perceive movement. The movement frightens, threatens, and angers them. They do not see the movement for what it is—the bare, outstretched arm of God. And so, they fight against God.

“What the heck,” you ask, “are you talking about?”

I’ll tell you.

As we have already said, white European nations and, as of late, perhaps the greatest of all their progeny, the United States, have dominated the planet for half a millennium. Their achievements have been impressive—and fearful. They have been responsible for a materialistic bonanza that has been a blessing—and a curse. All too often, the materialistic bonanza has come through oppression of non-Europeans—American slavery and native American genocide[4] being only two “homegrown” examples of the many, many global examples that could be cited.

Let’s be clear. The wealth of the west is not a consequence of the blessings of heaven, but of satanic oppression and violence—a gobbling up of resources at the expense of much of the rest of the planet. The west has voraciously bought up armies and navies, and reigned with blood and horror on this earth. Even on those rare occasions when a more principled use of such resources is suggested, such as America’s role in the Second World War, nations, in this case, the U.S., have learned all the wrong lessons. Almost universally, European nations and their progeny have used this military might to extend their own narrow interests, oppress other peoples, and impoverish their own population.

Both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants acknowledge and address the historical European domination with insight—and premonitions. The Book of Mormon speaks of a time “in the last days or in the days of the Gentiles.”[5] This, we take to indicate the period of “white European/Anglo-American” domination. The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of the “times of the Gentiles.” “When the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel.”[6]
There is part of the insight.

Now, for the premonition.
 
“But they receive it not; for they perceive not the light, and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”[7]
 
The times of the Gentiles “come in” and the times of the Gentiles “go out” (are fulfilled).[8] The planetary domination by Europe, the mother,[9] and her child, America, will end. It is, in fact, even now, coming to a tumultuous close.

And I say, “Good-riddance. Praise God! Bring an end to the rebellious kingdoms of this world. Thy kingdom come.”

Why is this long-standing European domination coming to a close? Because these “Gentiles,” these Europeans—mother and child—live by the oppressive and violent precepts of men rather than in the liberating light of God.

Now, God is a lot of things. He is “one.”[10] He is “love.”[11] He is merciful, and he is just.[12] But among his most dominant traits, God is an emancipator. The central and controlling narrative of the entire Old Testament, that of Yahweh’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery, bears witness to the reality that God hates oppression. He will, finally, liberate latter-day captives just as he did ancient Israelite slaves.

The following, found in the New Testament, is one of Jesus’ earliest statements concerning himself and the purpose of his life and ministry.
 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”[13]
 
Now, this must not be “spiritualized,” as if Jesus intended only or primarily to provide “spiritual insight to the spiritually blind.” No, as his ministry makes clear, he was truly interested in rejoicing the afflicted blind by allowing them to see the physical and mundane world around them, even if it was only seeing “men as trees, walking.”[14] He meant to do more than deliver “spiritual captives.” He was interested in liberating those oppressed and imprisoned by their fellows. To not understand this central part of God is to not know him at all. To play the role of oppressor—including adopting and acting upon white supremacist nonsense—is to turn the heart away from God.

In utilizing Isaiah 61.1-2 to inform his Nazareth audience of his life objectives, Jesus was, on this occasion, kind enough to pull his punches. He ended his reading mid-verse, leaving the next line unread:
 
“And the day of vengeance of our God.”
 
This idea of “the vengeance of God” can be disturbing. Some will judge God harshly for even the threat of it. I appreciate the need for caution; the need to be wary that we not call something God’s vengeance when it is actually our own unjust and frustrated anger.

But, really, now! What’s God supposed to do in the face of such willful rebellion and oppression?

He has come to the prison door. He has taken the prisoner by the hand to lead him out. But the jailer simply will not let the prisoner go. The oppressor grabs the prisoner by the other arm to pull him back into prison and under his control. Can we not forgive God for wrestling over, fighting for the captive? Is he to distract the determined jailer with some sweet pastry? Talk gently to the impassioned and committed oppressor? We saw how far it got him to ask Pharaoh to “let my people go:” Pharaoh “hardened his heart,”[15] belligerently asking,
 
“Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.”[16]
 
The oppressor will not let go without a fight. It is about more than “identity.” It is a matter of power, money, livelihood.

Such are the actions and attitudes of today’s “Gentile” nations, including the one that dominates in and from the “New World.” Such are the actions and attitudes of un-American and ungodly white supremacists (Please do not misunderstand. I speak not only of the white supremacists who have lately been in the news. I speak of the United States government whose policies—social, economic, criminal, military, etc.—are intended to maintain the supremacy of white European people, as Caligula has clearly enunciated.) [17] The nation has, is, and will continue to pay dearly for this sin—for it is not simply “racism,” bad as that is; it is “oppression.” And even worse, it is oppression in the name of god—often an evangelical perversion of Jesus. What punishment is too great for such blasphemy?!
 
“And there shall be men standing in that generation, that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land….  among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die.”[18]
 
“And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge [advocate for] the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”[19]
 
 “Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all…. for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”[20]
 
It’s a shame, really. It might be otherwise. Just a tad, the smallest bit of humility and repentance might have sufficed. But the wicked jailer simply cannot let go his victims. The habit of oppression is too ingrained. And so, the white supremacists sense that they are losing control. The Euro-centric world is collapsing. They see rightly. It was written right into scripture, clear for all to see. But they do not see that it is God at work, increasingly active—hastening his work, as we like to say—in America and elsewhere in order to emancipate the world from the violent and oppressive Euro-centric powers. It is clear to see that he is, as always, fighting, not only for African-Americans, but for multitudes of vulnerable and oppressed people. 

One appreciates Martin Luther King Jr. as one of God’s spokesmen. We appreciate his dream. He truly performed miracles. We desperately need another such visionary. But, he was only pointing the hearer to the greatest dreamer of them all: God, Almighty, Himself. He has a dream. It goes something like this.
 
“Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony of the things which are to come…
that a feast of fat things might be prepared for the poor;
yea, a feast of fat things,
of wine on the lees well refined…
yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared,
unto which all nations shall be invited.
First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble;
and after that cometh the day of my power;
then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb,
and partake of the supper of the Lord,
prepared for the great day to come.[21]
 
We are now entering the “day of [his] power” a day when he will advocate and, if need be, fight for the vulnerable and oppressed. He will bring about the end of the times of the Gentiles—or, rather, their obstinate and willful rebellion will bring the end upon themselves. Even in the great latter-day work, all that has gone before has been but prelude. The Divine vision for the future will be realized. It will be marvelous in our eyes.

One can only stand for or against the divine dream. One can only stand for or against the divinely planned equity for the vulnerable and oppressed.

One can only stand for or against the God of Heaven, Redeemer and Emancipator.

It is this that the white supremacists—individual and national, see so dimly. But this Euro-centric ideology, addicted as it is to oppression and violence, cannot help but fight against the God of love, mercy, justice and equity. But, praise be to God, their fight is in vain.
 
“The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
   and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
      and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”[22]
 
“The wicked shall be turned into hell,
   and all the nations that forget God.
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten:
   the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail:
   let the heathen be judged in thy sight.”[23]
 


[1] DC 63.17
[2] For those unfamiliar with me or my writings, “Caligula” is the only name by which I will refer to the current occupant of the U.S. Whitehouse. It is simply the best I can say of him.
[3] 2 Corinthians 6.14-15
[4] When the Book of Mormon speaks of the “seed of my brethren…scattered before the Gentiles,” we should not understand it as “permission” or “prescription,” but as “description.” The intentions of white America toward native Americans was no more “righteous” than Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem. He was murderous. Americans were murderous.
[5] See, for example, 2 Nephi 27.1, emphasis added.
[6] DC 45.28, emphasis added.
[7] DC 45.29-30.
[8] See also Luke 21.24
[9] See 1 Nephi 13.17
[10] See Deuteronomy 6.4
[11] See 1 John 4.8
[12] There are too many references concerning these divine attributes to even begin listing.
[13] Luke 4.18-19
[14] See Mark 8.24
[15] Exodus 9.34
[16] Exodus 5.2
[17] Please do not misunderstand. I speak not only of the white supremacist who have lately been in the news. I speak of the United States government whose policies—social, economic, criminal, military, etc.—are intended to maintain white supremacy.
[18] DC 45.31-32
[19] 2 Nephi 30.9
[20] Revelation 18.21, 23-24
[21] DC 58.6, 8-11
[22] Isaiah 2.11
[23] Psalm 9.17-19