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

Unlike the U.S. House of Representatives’ efforts some months ago, this was not theater. The Senate was deadly serious about stripping tens of millions of Americas of their health care in order to keep a foolish promise to a foolish base while, at the same time, lining the pockets of House members’ wealthy bribers. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending upon one’s perspective—Republicans are better at theater than governance.

It is still too early to know the outcome of all these shenanigans. But whether the stalemate continues or is somehow ended, we can now expect the “moderate” Republicans who voted against the destructive and cynical plans of their party leaders to be “primaried” from the right. Probably some Tea Party lunatic. And because those Tea Party enthusiasts, like Archie Bunker’s admiring and approving audience of yesteryear, are too ignorant to know that they are simply being made fools of, we will end up with some right-wing nut job in place of a “moderate,” making it more likely that the next Republican campaign of mass murder of the poor will succeed.

We on the left have a vested interest in seeing that these “moderate” Republicans, already nearly extinct, are not outflanked on their right and disappear completely. Now, there is no reason to believe that the right-wing extremists can be reasoned with. They are not rational. So, talking is out. Neither is there any reason to believe that Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter), are prepared to say ‘no’ to the bribes of the wealthy class that corrupts the entire governing process. In light of these realities, it may be time for those of us on the left to hold our noses and take drastic, even repugnant measures.

We may have to set aside our Democrat voter registration I.D.s and register as Republicans so that we can vote in the Republican primary in hopes of defeating the lunatic extremists on the right. We can always vote for the more left leaning candidate in the general election. And if by chance the “moderate Republican” wins in the general election, well, perhaps that is the price we pay to keep the lunatics on the far right out of office. These people are simply that dangerous and that wicked.
Just a thought. Maybe I’ll start a campaign. We could call it something like, “Sheep in wolves clothing.”

Registering as Republicans has an added advantage. We are well aware of the right’s attempts to reduce the number of voters and to suppress voter turnout. It seems unlikely they will come after registered Republican voters. How can they be sure whose really a wolf, and whose a sheep pretending to be a wolf? So, “Democratic” voters, register as Republicans.
​
Come to think of it, perhaps African Americans should all just register as Republicans. Then, by God, I bet those on the right won’t be so quick to deny them the vote!

Today’s post will be a somewhat wide-ranging affair. Hopefully, I can provide the cohesion that I find in the diversity.

I placed an op-ed piece by Jeffrey Sacks on the Just Reporting page of this site. I would like to comment on and expand on a couple of points that he makes.

It is no secret that I am not a fan of the current conservative supreme court. Among the many evils they have propagated is, as Sacks points out, the legalization of bribery in politics. As far as I am concerned, it is as clear as clear can be that the court’s decision in the Citizens United case, along with several others like it, is utterly corrupt and legalizes criminal behavior.

I headed this post with a statement of the great Book of Mormon missionary, Amulek. “The unrighteousness of [our] lawyers and [our] judges” are indeed laying “the foundation of the destruction of this people.” However well-known and oft quoted, this passage is often, I think, misunderstood. It is not a criticism of individual lawyers and judges. It is a criticism of the entire legal system. More broadly, it is really a criticism of our culture. Let me try to explain what I mean.

In their rulings, such as that found in Citizens United, the judges of the supreme court only rule on behavior in which others are already engaged. Individuals and corporations were already engaged in a form of bribery. They either saw no immorality in their behavior or did not care. Either way, it is they, the people, who, in appealing to the supreme court, wished to have their immoral behavior found legal and acceptable.

In their ruling, the supreme court simply affirmed their legal right to bribe. To use Amulek’s language, they only laid the [legal] foundation for behavior in which the people were already engaged.

The supreme court was, then, as they always are, “reactionary”—that is to say, they were reacting to the culture in which they live. As part of the same culture as those who brought the case, they were simply ruling out of the traditions they had inherited from the culture—notwithstanding all the highfalutin nonsense about objectivity, constitutional originalism, etc.

So, as we say, Amulek’s criticism of “lawyers and judges” is really a criticism of the judicial system. But the judicial system is thoroughly part of and influenced by the culture—that is to say the citizenry, the people. Criticism of the judicial system is a criticism of the culture, the people. (After all, while Caligula nominated Gorsuch, the people elected Caligula to nominate Gorsuch).

This, it seems to me, is clear from Amulek’s comments. He claims that the lawyers were “learned in all the arts and cunning of the people.” Judges and lawyers are part of their culture. They practice the arts, cunning, and evils--the traditions—of the culture. These are arts, cunning, evils, and traditions shared by all in the culture.

Tradition and culture. For the most part, these simply go unnoticed, unexamined, and unquestioned. They explain, in part, why good people support policies and people that, on the face of it, would seem to be contrary to their personal beliefs. They act upon traditions inherited from their fathers and that have gone unexamined.

In my indictments of an America Christianity that supports and sustains our American Caligula, I often hear the complaint that these are good people about whom I speak so rudely. To an extent, this is true—individually. However, they have imbibed in many false traditions of their fathers. These in many instances lead them to act and feel contrary to their individual belief system. From these false traditions, they make many immoral choices, that, again, might be in tension with their (softly) held principles.

There is simply no question. By every standard, our American Caligula is an immoral man. His policies are immoral in every way. He maintains the support of his rabid base, including that of American “Christians” with the assistance of the false traditions inherited from their fathers.

Need examples of false traditions. Here is but one of many that could be sited. We are currently having a debate about health care. Those elected, with strong support from “Christians,” are attempting to dismantle an imperfect attempt to accomplish the most moral of objectives—provide health care to poor and vulnerable portions of our population.

How can this be? How could anyone proclaim against this attempt, imperfect as it is?

Well, we ask, who, according to the tradition of the fathers, are the poor? They are, in the mind of the tradition, African Americans. Never mind that the poor are not only or primarily African American. Let’s just pretend the false tradition has one scintilla of truth to it. What is wrong with providing African Americans who cannot afford it, with subsidized health care?

Answer, according to the tradition: African Americans are not fully human. Thus we had slavery. Thus were African Americans denied voting rights for most of American history. Thus have they been denied basic civil, even human rights for most of American history.

We have found our way out of slavery (much to the chagrin of many a southerner), and have even grudgingly and unevenly granted African Americans a modicum of human rights. We “allow” them to vote—though even this is currently under attack by “Christian”-backed extremists. But the tradition we inherited from “inspired founding fathers” is still there, screwing things up in the back of our heads. Are African Americans really and fully human? Are they fully Americans? Are they fully “us” or are they still “them”? Thus, Americans, joined by so-called Christians, having inherited the tradition, act and vote in ways that are, in fact, contrary to every fair and good principle they ever heard in their constitution and every Christian principle they ever read in their precious Bible.
​
Perhaps the American people are basically good. Perhaps American Christianity is not completely bankrupt of all righteousness. But the traditions they have inherited from their fathers are dampening these good and righteous impulses. They are leading them to do things like vote for and applaud the most immoral president of my life time and, likely, in American history. The only thing in which he and his Republican cabal will make America great again is immorality and rebellion against God.

In his powerful book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist writes,
 
“For seventy years, southern and northern economic and political elites—and many average white citizens—had cooperated to extract profit and power from the forced movement and exploitation of enslaved people’s bodies and minds. Always, the proslavery forces had made the rest of the United States choose between profitable expansion of the slave country or economic slowdown.”
 
Unfortunately, economic and political elites are still at it.

Today, the price we pay for economic expansion, so they say, is what some critics refer to as “wage slavery.” Now, there are those who have theorized that anytime a man or woman agrees to work for a wage, they have entered a form of slavery. I am not so extreme. However, in today’s economic environment, many corporations, with a nod of the head and wink of an eye by politicians of all stripes, have suppressed common wages and kept the minimum wage so wickedly low as to, essentially, have created indentured servants. In addition, employers have, again with politicians’ blessing, stripped away benefits such as health care and pensions. And while all of this is happening, company profits go up, already rich stock holders get richer, and CEO’s salaries and bonuses go through the roof.

Really? You can’t cut just a tad, a trifling mite into your grotesquely gigantic financial portfolio to give that skilled technician who installs your customers’ cable service a measly little raise so he or she is making $15 dollars an hour rather than $10 or $12? You know, the one you demand six 10-12 hour days’ labor a week; the one who gets no paid vacation (while you sail on your yacht during one of your 20 weeks a year vacation); the one you take from his or her family so that their children see them 15 minutes a day? By how many hundreds could we multiply this one example?

Great “Family Values” you have there.

You are pathetic. Cro-Magnon.

Your behavior is ungodly. It is anti-Christ.

“It be sin unto you.”[1]

You are, not doubt, simply acting the part of “disciple.” Following the “Satanic Verses” written by one such as the false prophet, Milton Friedman, who “holds that a corporation that acts responsibly toward the community in which it does its business is shirking its only duty: to maximize its short-term stock valuation.”[2]

Of course, your guilt is, perhaps, nothing compared to others; you know, those who claim to know better; who claim grace and inspiration and discernment through the Holy Spirit; those who call themselves Christian.

O, how many so-called Christians, with the Bible sitting at their fingertips shouting at them to do otherwise, actively condone and support such immoral behavior or, by their silence, assent to the ungodly oppression of the poor!

It is mind-boggling. The entire unseemly gaggle—corporatists, politicians, and “Christians”—are united in their commitment to shamefully set at naught the commandments of a just God, and reject his attempt to assist “deviant us” in the formation of a just society.

“This is a rebellious people, lying children,
      children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Which say to the seers,
      ‘See not;’
and to the prophets,
      ‘prophesy not unto us right things,
speak unto us smooth things,
      prophesy deceits:
Get you out of the way,
      turn aside out of the path,
            cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.’”[3]
 
Where is the Christian prophetic voice? Obsessed and diverted by gay marriage and all other genitalia related matters, they have forgotten or ignored or denied that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”[4] This one passage captures the message that is at the heart of so much of the Old Testament prophets.
​
But, alas, the watchmen have not, or will not blow the trump. Rather,
 
“…The shepherds of Israel… do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.”[5]
 
Too many Christian shepherds have been taken in by the sorcery of wealth; heeded the siren call of the wealthy “wizards that peep, and that mutter.”
 
“But, should not a people seek unto their God?
 
To the law and to the testimony:
      if they speak not according to this word,
            it is because there is no light in them.”[6]
 
Be warned, those wizards of wealth and those false prophets who oppress are not to be trusted.
 
“Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips… destruction and misery are in their ways.”[7]


[1] Deuteronomy 24.15

[2] See, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government, Mike Lofgren, chapter 7.

[3] Isaiah 30.9-11

[4] 1 Timothy 6.10

[5] Ezekiel 34.2-6

[6] See Isaiah 8.19-20

[7] Romans 3.13 & 16

​“I was honestly concerned that he might lie.”
 
Wise man. We all should wish there were tapes.
 
If Comey said it once, he said it 4, 5, 6, 7 times. The man is a liar. He is not to be trusted. Truer words have seldom been spoken in the halls of government.
 
Of course, he’s just stating the obvious, really. It has been clear from the beginning. America’s Caligula is a liar. He is a con artist. He has lied his entire life and never been held accountable.  He never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever speaks a truth, except by accident.
 
Now he has managed to perpetrate the greatest con in American political history and become President of these Dis-United States. Will he finally be held accountable?
 
Not by those who call themselves Christians, he won’t! Those who falsely claim to have discernment through the Holy Spirit can’t see what is perhaps the clearest thing that has happened in decades in an always murky American political system.
 
He is a con artist.
 
They’ve been had. Conned by a fiendishly professional and skilled con artist. A master of illusion. A sorcerer.
 
Willingly and willfully, they’ve been conned. “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, ‘We see;’ therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9.41).

The astonishing madness continues to gush, spilling over into ever widening channels. The newest spew of madness is, as usual, based on ignorance, arrogance, deceptions, murderous idolatry, and religious perversion.

In yet another act of impure theater, America’s Caligula[1] has withdrawn an ignorant and greedy nation from the Paris Climate Accord. One of three nations rejecting the accord, it has shown itself to be, in very fact, the greatest danger to and the most wicked nation on planet earth.

I call it theater based on ignorance because, though his ardent and admiring audience presumably does not know it, the “accord” had no teeth. It was less edict, and more mild suggestion. All “suggestions” were “voluntary.” There was no way and no organization to “enforce” its “suggestions.” Under an unprincipled and sick Caligula, who could remain in the accord while ignoring all suggestions without consequence, not one single job would ever be lost… never mind that it could create millions of jobs, as the much wiser Chinese well know. I suppose that they will now become the world leader in searching out investment opportunities aimed at renewable energy sources. While they prepare for the future, we will remain bogged down in outdated and polluting energy sources.

I call it theater based on ignorance because neither the perverted actor nor his adoring minions has the intellectual honesty to acknowledge the indisputable truth that we—whether, or not, you believe that humans are contributing to global warming—are doing unconscionable violence to our God-given global inheritance. And, really, what is the problem with taking care of the planet, whether we are having an impact upon it or not?

I call it theater based on deception because Caligula’s administration knows there was no need to withdraw; knows there would be no need to act in accordance with the accord; knows there would be no consequence for non-compliance; knows that with inaction not one American job would be lost; knows that not one job will be created as a result of our withdrawal; knows that many jobs will be lost through neglect of renewable energy advancements; and knows that we are doing immeasurable harm to the planet. All this deception is simply meant to feed the beastly and mad crowd with the lies it craves.

Caligula’s circus, a modern-day version of flesh-eating lions, has excited his mobs, who cheer the tyrant on to ever more and greater outrages. He does not stand on some street of New York and kill someone, as he once boasted he could do without consequence. Rather, he sits in his office and threatens millions; for which he receives the accolades of his depraved hordes. I, for my part give his killing circus a big thumbs down.

I call it theater based on murderous idolatry because, though no jobs will be lost and no economic disadvantage will come to the good ol’ U.S of A if it remains in the accord, the little man has told his disciples otherwise. His reason for leaving, he claims, is to get gain. His minions cheer his greed. His minions suck on the teats of his greed. His greed is their greed. Mammon is their god. They have, all of them, as Cain of old, murdered to get gain. Sold their souls for filthy lucre.

I call it theater based on arrogance because Caligula does what Caligula wants—and to hell with the rest of the planet. How long before they all go their own way without us? We have proven that we can be trusted with nothing but our own selfish self-interests. Hopefully, in his arrogance, and in the arrogance of his minions, he will finally put an end to the ungodly American hegemony that has for too long polluted (pun intended) the world.

I call it theater based on religious perversion because the most adoring portion of his craven audience—white unchristian evangelicals and fundamentalists—claiming an unction of the Holy Spirit by which they discern truth from error, good from evil, loudly applaud Caligula’s intended defilement of our divine inheritance. Oh, what language is sufficient to describe the perversion of those who claim so falsely that they, with their eyes anointed with the unction of the Holy Spirit, “need not that any man teach” them when, in fact, their eyes and ears and hearts and minds are slathered with a thick coating of hell’s putrid muck?
​
In the end, it is this religious perversion of the unchristian right that is most damning. What do we do when the “righteous” fail? Caligula is simply sick in the head. To some degree he “knows not what he does.” But those who vainly take the name of God onto their lips and claim to see… they are the real threat to our nation and to all that is good and pure in the world. “How are the mighty fallen!”


[1] Up to now, refusing to call him by name—thus denying him a certain degree of power—I have only referred to the latest POTUS as “that man” (emphasis on the “little”). But, I have decided to give him a name. It is a name he has well earned. The name by which he will be known on the pages of this site is “Caligula,” “little boots.” Consistent with my paste manner of referring to him, the name still emphasizes his smallness of character, but has the added benefit of emphasizing his madness. 

That man has spent the week in the Near East, where he has attempted to spread his contagion of wickedness.

He has committed himself and our country to a new course: “We will not preach. We will not speak to you of ‘American Values.’”

That’s good, cus’ our values suck.

Human rights? Look at what we have done in our own borders. See what violence we have forever and always perpetrated against African Americans. See how we treat women. Watch how we kill mentally ill people. Listen to our hateful speech about LBGT.

More recently, look at what that man is doing to immigrants. Look what he wants to do to Muslims. Have a look at the latest GOP health care bill. Peruse that man’s latest murderous budget.

Perhaps we should all be relieved that he isn’t going to lecture anyone about values.
The new buzzword, the latest “value” is “transactional.”

During his Near Eastern visits, the man donned his plaid sport coat and made his sells pitch. “Help us create new jobs and put our people back to work.”

“‘How,’ you ask? Our skilled workers build the deadliest weapons known to man. Purchase our wonderful weapons. What a bargain we’ll give you. Help us flood the planet with weapons of mass destruction.”

These latest “transactions” tells us all we need to know about our values. OUR values. OURS.

We have heard a good deal of criticism of the man. But have we heard one cross word about this transactional offer?

Nope. Politicians are happy. Laborers are happy. Hell, even Christians are happy. More money with which to line our pockets. So what if it has blood all over it?

What kind of nation does this? What kind of nation creates jobs by selling weapons of mass destruction? What kind of people kill others to feed their own little babies?

Not a decent nation. Not a Christian nation. No, a wicked, wicked nation. A wicked, wicked nation marching toward the besom of destruction.

Mine is not simply a voice of complaint; one that points out the flaws and does nothing about it.

No, I am a preacher. And I resist this evil with the only tool I know—the “foolishness of preaching.”

I plead with and admonish those who profess to be disciples of Christ. You must not be taken in by this blasphemy. You must stand up and lift your voices loudly. You must demand an end to this madness. Demand it by e-mail. Demand it by phone calls. Demand it in marches. Demand it in the voting booth. Demand it in the name of Almighty God.

Cry aloud: “Stop! We will not abandon the sick and needy. We will not support governmental abuse of strangers or the harm of millions of innocent children. We will not stand with those who seek to grow our economy by weaponizing the planet. We will have none of this, lest our hands be stained with the blood of martyrs; for we know the Lord will hear their complaint.
​
“Stop the madness now.”

​An opinion piece recently appeared in the Deseret News (of all places!), written by Taylor G. Petrey, and entitled “The Failures of Mormon conservatism.” Many of the thoughts and observations found in the piece closely match my own.[1]

Can I just say, as an aside, how macabrely humorous I found the Deseret News 12 May update found immediately above this piece’s title?
 
“2017 GUN LAWS (Updated)
Avoid Concealed Carry Mistakes and Stay Out of Jail With Your Free Map usconcealedcarry.net”
 
Talk about Madness! I can’t begin to describe all the absurdities I find in this innocent little update.
 
Anyway, back to the opinion piece. There is an editor’s note found below the opinion’s title linking three responses to the original piece. I will not respond to all that was said in either the original piece or the responses. However, I want to make a few observations.

Those who are opposed to having their tax dollars used for welfare and “wealth-redistribution” purposes often claim that the collection of funds for such purposes is “coercive” and does violence to “moral agency.” Often it accompanies some nonsense about Satan’s plan. (I will not go into my own objections to having one red cent of my tax dollars spent to wage bloody war the globe over).

No Mormon, it seems to me, can seriously maintain such a stance without condemning the Church to which they proclaim fealty. If you don’t pay your taxes, you’re going to jail. If you don’t pay your tithing, you’re going to hell.[2]

I am not telling you anything you don’t already know. If a Mormon wishes to remain a “citizen” with full “benefits,” especially those associated with the temple, they must, absolutely must, pay their tithing.” Do not tell me that this is not “coercive.” It is difficult to imagine anything more “pressure packed.”

Is a member of the Church, I wonder, who does not participate in the highest ordinances of the temple… do they… can they really feel that they are a “full citizen” of the kingdom? Can they feel anything other than that they are second class citizens?

Further, if the Mormon does not pay these “temple taxes,” they cannot go to the temple and do the work that will link them to a spouse, a child, a mother, a father, a great-great-great-great-grandfather, etc., etc., etc. Since they cannot be saved without such linkage, they are damned. Now, let’s see, which is more “coercive”?

Pay up or be fined, maybe jailed?
Or
Pay up, or be half a person in this life, and live a lone life apart from loved ones in the next?

“Oh, but wait. Whether I pay my tithing, or not, is up to me. I pay tithing voluntarily. No one forces me.”

We will not ask how “voluntary” it really is with such applied pressures as we mentioned above. But we will ask this, “What is to stop you from paying your taxes voluntarily? What is to stop you from paying taxes with the same sense of freedom that you pay your tithing?”

I, for one, though I despise the warmongering for which my taxes are so often utilized, pay taxes for the same reason I pay my tithing. It is an obligation I owe to my community.

As for me and my house, taxes are, as hard as it will be for some to believe, a “freewill” offering. I pay them because I want to (while continuing to lobby against American militarism). The “coercion” so many find in the paying of taxes is all in their head. If they would repent, they would be a good deal happier.

“Oh, but I agree with the Church’s use of my “temple tax.”

Again, we will not address the waste that attends Church funds. I saw it many, many times as a Church employee. It wasn’t intended. It wasn’t the consequence of dishonesty. It is simply what happens in a huge bureaucracy—the bigger the bureaucracy, the bigger the waste.

Rather, I will address, in the briefest of ways, a principle “disagreement” so many of these disloyal “patriots” have about the use of their taxes. Many complain about their taxes being used for “welfare” and for the purpose of “redistributing wealth.” Such complaints, in addition to swirling around false issues of coercion, often rest upon the judgement that those receiving the assistance—food, housing, healthcare subsidies, etc.—are “unworthy.” Such “unworthies,” it is argued, are the cause of their own difficulties. They manage their lives poorly. “I shouldn’t have to bail them out the trouble into which they have gotten themselves.”

Never mind that a huge percentage of such “unworthies” are innocent children. We will only remind such rascals, again, of something that they should already know.
 
“Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just” (Mosiah 4.17).
 
Need I even go on? Apparently so.
 
“But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 4.18).
 
Lobby to deny the use of your taxes to help the poor, if you must. But you must not, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever lobby to deny the use of your taxes to help the poor because they have brought it upon themselves, because they are unworthy. This you are not permitted to do. Not ever, ever, ever, ever. Not, at least, if you want any “interest in the kingdom of God.”

My bottom line.

Make paying taxes a freewill offering. Stop trying to hide the narrowness of charity behind the smokescreen of “coercion.”
​
Stop judging the poor with false and arrogant judgement.


[1] You can find a link for it on the Just Reporting page of this site.

[2] There is a common, and false, claim among many that anything short of the celestial kingdom is hell.

In an act of impure messaging rather than legislating, the GOP “led” house passed their “we-don't-care-about-health-care-act” yesterday. Having previously supplied their junkie base, rabidly mad, with a continuing stream of lies and vain hopes, they have injected them with another shot of poisonous lies to fix their addiction to self-serving untruth. The GOP cynics have done all of this at the expense of a nation’s physical and spiritual health, and to the great cost of our most vulnerable and sick citizens.

These drug dealers of hallucination have no idea what the consequences of their “fake bill” will be. They will not wait to find out. They will not wait because it doesn't matter. They don't care. They know it cannot pass the senate. They don't intend for it to. This is impure theater. A publicity stunt performed for a mad and irrational base.

It is simply preparation for the real work of this corrupt cabal: infuse more money into the unholy veins of the rich by bleeding the life blood from the innocent poor through a new tax scheme.

This is murder to get gain.
​
America will pay for their leaders’ malpractice. These dealers of death will pay for their malfeasance.

Police officers, mostly white, European-Americans, repeatedly go unindicted for murder, mostly of black, African-Americans, because “intent cannot be proven.”
​
Yet, such unholy regimes as we see in Arkansas can indict, try, sentence, and murder the mentally ill, often black, who are incapable of understanding or possessing “intent.” Our judicial system is in such ruins, it can only be labeled as being in a terminal state of madness.

This may come as a surprise to those who follow this blog, along with its associated “Mad State of Rebellion,” “Just Society,” “Just Scripture,” and “Just Reporting” pages found on this site, but I am, as of tonight, Thursday, 6 April 2017 in support of the military action taken by the current administration against the fiendish Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

My support will likely continue if the reason for the action remains what it seems to be—a reaction to the murder of innocents and a warning that the murder of innocent people must stop. If over the following days and weeks, we begin to see any silver-back chest thumping or hear blustery testosterone-filled language begin to emanate from the administration, as has been its habit in the past, it will quickly lose me and my support. The military actions will shift from “just” to just more of the same American hypocritical arrogance.”

The action taken tonight, if done to protect the innocent, is long overdue. Though it might look, at first glance, rather rushed, let's hope the military planners had planned for such action long before the past 24 to 48 hours.

​I was highly critical of President Obama for his killing of innocents with his dreadful drones. Such actions were all the more abhorrent in light of his refusal to act against Assad for the sake of the innocent. I am not for war. And in my view America has no business putting “boots on the ground” in the Near East. We simply have no idea what we are doing in that part of the world. We’ve made quite enough of a mess of it already. But Syrian planes should have been stopped from conducting their deadly bombing. No fly zones, and destruction of airfields and jets should have been put into practice years ago. Obama will be harshly judged for his inaction in regard to Syria—much like Clinton will be for his inaction in the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath, and George Bush will be for his ill-advised and dishonest invasion of Iraq.

Now, as I say, I am all for standing up for the innocent Syrian victims of the vile Assad. I am, it is true, less interested in firing missiles into Syrian military installations because the Syrian government is in violation of international treaties and laws. It is impossible to know and count all the treaties that the U.S. and its allies, such as Israel, have and continue to flaunt, skirt, and cheat. We have no business lecturing or attacking others over such breaches. The pot is as black as the kettle.
​
God bless us if we are acting out of a desire to save innocent lives. And God bless those poor, poor Syrian people.

“And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies:
      but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
      and they know not me,
            saith the LORD.
Take ye heed every one of his neighbour,
      and trust ye not in any brother:
for every brother will utterly supplant,
      and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
And they will deceive every one his neighbour,
      and will not speak the truth:
they have taught their tongue to speak lies,
      and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;
      through deceit they refuse to know me,
            saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 9.3-6)
 
I know that it is all very dizzying, but let’s see if we can get this straight.

First, the man has a psychotic break, accompanied by delusions, and makes clearly false and easily refutable slanderous accusations.

“Obama wiretapped my palace.”

“The Martians are coming.”
​
Then, with a cynicism unparalleled in our national history, he doubles down on his fantasy, and calls upon congress to waste its time and money investigating his obvious delusion.

Everyone knows it’s a lie.

When it is clear to everyone but fools that there was no wiretapping, well, “it’s in quotes.” Even fools should understand that when something is placed in quotes, it is an indication, apparently, that it is not meant to say what you think it says.

Are you keeping up with this? Well, it gets better.

Rather than admit that he is simply out of his mind, the president accuses our closest international ally of doing the dirty work for Obama!

Where is Kafka when you need him. It is all absurdity. It is madness. One hardly knows where to put the exclamation points!

I am sorry, but the man is an idiot. That’s not anger speaking. It is a simple unassailable fact. The world is round (unless you are a certain NBA player), and the man is a sick, sick man. Totally mental. The latter is as certain as the former.

But, it gets better. He is not yet finished with this delusion.

“Oh, no evidence that the British are coming? Well I heard it on FOX. I’m just reporting what I heard them say. Go take it up with them!”

The madness here is simply too deep to plumb.

“You’re not a blasted reporter, (read expletive here). You’re,” gulp, “President of the United States of America. Act like it!”

First, get on some medication to stop your delusions. Second, stop lying. Third, be a man and learn to say, “I was wrong.” Fourth, learn your lesson and stop being duped by the money grubbing cynics over at FOX. It is not a—I was going to say “legitimate news source,” but that is giving it too much credit. It is not a news source at all. It is a source of traitorous lies.

Now, one might say, “This is a small thing. Stop picking on him over trivial matters. Let’s see what he can do with the things that really matter.”

Well, that’s just it. There are, in fact, much more important issues: health care, immigration, regulation, global warming.

But, if he cannot discern reality from fantasy in this small matter of wiretapping, how in the world is he to be trusted with these more important matters?

He can’t.

If his judgement is so poor in discerning a news story from a traitor’s tale, how is he to be trusted with the big, important stuff?

He is not.

If he doesn’t understand what is appropriate behavior and what is inappropriate behavior in a small matter, how can we place our trust in him?

We can’t.

If he is such a loose cannon as to make incendiary accusations against an ally, what kind of trouble will he get our nation into with those who are our enemies?

Disastrous.

Besides, we have already seen him in action in relation to important things. Look what he’s done with immigration. It is downright evil… in the Christian sense. Lucifer inspired and directed. Then, devoid of conscience, he lies to the courts about his intent.

He is about to rape the poor, the immigrants, the elderly, the climate…

Oh, we could go on.

Though perhaps the American electorate has earned his obvious contempt for its intellectual and reasoning capacities, still, the nerve of it all is breathtaking. How long will the electorate choose, consciously choose to believe whatever they darn well please to believe? To heck with the facts!

It is all simply astounding!! Surely I am asleep. Dreaming a nightmare. It can’t be real, can it? American can’t have fallen so low. Gone so stupid. Become so darkly evil.

The worst of it all, of course, is that his voters have committed themselves to a man that should be committed—as in institutionalized. Knowing his every word is a lie, they will willingly choose to believe his blatant and obvious lies and willfully reject the truth.

We are in some deep, deep trouble here. We have a madman leading a nation of madmen.