The Heretical Joe Biden

The National Catholic Reporter notes that Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas has praised a video released by Father James Altman, pastor of a Roman Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, one which

slams Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington D.C., for his criticism of President Donald Trump’s photo-op and appearance at the St. John Paul II National Shrine earlier this summer. He also criticizes Jesuit Fr. James Martin and his closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention, and refers to participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects immigrants who entered the United States as minors from deportation, as “criminal illegal aliens” and calls climate change a hoax.

We learn also

Martin, who is known for promoting LGBTQ inclusion within the Catholic Church, did not speak and instead offered a prayer that included petitions for “the LGBT teen who is bullied” and “the unborn child in the womb,” among other vulnerable and marginalized groups.

“I guess it’s okay for James Martin to spout out for the Democrats on their national stage but God forbid a priest speak out against their godless platform,” said Altman. “Here is a memo to clueless baptized Catholics out there: you cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat. Period.”

 “The party platform absolutely is against everything the Catholic Church teaches, so just quit pretending that you’re Catholic and vote Democrat,” he continued. “Repent of your support of that party and its platform or face the fires of hell.”

Go to hell, Altman argues, for believing

Americans deserve an economy that works for everyone—not just for the wealthy and the well connected. But our system has been rigged against the American people. Democrats believe that it is a moral and an economic imperative that we support working families by rebuilding the American middle class for the 21st century, making sure this time that everyone can make it and thrive, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, age, or ZIP code.

 The National Catholic Reporter adds

in recent months, the faith of Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, has promoted controversial commentary from several Catholic bishops questioning the sincerity of his Catholicism.

In August, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, tweeted: “Biden-Harris. First time in awhile [sic] that the Democratic ticket hasn’t had a Catholic on it. Sad.”

You'll notice the nod to President Trump with inclusion of "sad," with which President Trump infamously ended many of his own tweets in the past. Tobin believes also that a presidential ticket must include someone he would consider a Catholic, which would surprise the authors of the US Constitution, who specifically ruled out a "religious test" as qualification for any political office.

The notion that Joe Biden isn't Catholic is ludicrous on its face, of course. And if Tobin thinks support for forced birth is a prerequisite for being a good Catholic, he is free to point out any passages in the Bible, from Jesus Christ or any follower of his, opposing abortion. Please- go ahead. (Video below is from 11/09.) 

Joe Biden is no more or less a Catholic than when he was competing with a myriad of non-Catholics. Nonetheless, criticism of Biden for allegedly being insufficiently Catholic was missing while he was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, facing the other leading candidates, a Protestant senator from Massachusetts, Jewish senator from Vermont, Protestant mayor from Indiana, and a Protestant senator from Minnesota.

The criticism arises instead when the former vice-president is facing an individual who hasn't read Two Corinthians," can't cite a Biblical verse, has never been seen opening a Bible, has felt no need to ask for forgiveness from God, and on separate occasions ridiculed communion and tried to put money into a communion plate. However, he's a "baby Christian," we are assured by the President's circle of evangelical supporters. "Baby" evidently is a synonym for "phony," given that Michael

Cohen writes that before winning the presidency, Trump held a meeting at Trump Tower with prominent evangelical leaders, where they laid their hands on him in prayer. Afterward, Trump allegedly said: “Can you believe that bulls--t? Can you believe people believe that bulls--t?”

“The cosmic joke was that Trump convinced a vast swathe of working-class white folks in the Midwest that he cared about their well-being,” Cohen writes. “The truth was that he couldn’t care less.”

These extreme evangelical (Protestant) leaders are involved in a symbiotic relationship with the President, in which the latter gains politically and the ministers in some other manner, perhaps financially.  The relationship is less transactional for far-right Catholic leaders, thus a little more altruistic. Evidently, they either support the values of Donald Trump- or are really, really stupid. They are faith leaders. One hopes for the latter.

                                                       HAPPY LABOR DAY

 

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A Silence Inexcusable But Explainable

 

In the middle of the furor over Trump and soldiers is John Kelly, who so far has remained silent. Kelly has told associates that a retired 4-star general should not come out against a sitting president in the heat of a campaign. ⁦@anniekarni⁩ https://t.co/UglfrguBXh

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) September 5, 2020

Reportedly, President Trump on Memorial Day 2017 turned to General John Kelly as they standing in Arlington Memorial Cemetery at the grave of First Lieutenant Robert Kelly and remarked "I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Charlie Pierce writes "I don’t know how John Kelly didn’t flatten the vulgar talking yam right there at Arlington." Generals Kelly, Mattis, and McMaster "took an oath to defend the Constitution, not to hold their tongues until they could get a book deal as a reckless vandal takes the Republic down, brick by brick."

In the case of Kelly, it now appears that it is something more important than a book deal- or being a retired 4-star general,-which is irrelevant, at least with the word "retired."  On Friday, I argued that cowardice probably has prompted former Department of Homeland Security chief (1/17-7/17) and Chief of Staff (7/17-12/18) Kelly from publicly acknowledging the disturbing information revealed by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. However, in April of 2019 CBS News had reported

protesters outside the nation's largest facility for unaccompanied migrant children noticed a familiar face enter the massive, fenced site in Homestead, Florida: former White House chief of staff John Kelly. Soon after, a local television station recorded footage of him riding on the back of a golf cart as he toured the grounds.

It wasn't clear why he was there, but Friday, Caliburn International confirmed to CBS News that Kelly had joined its board of directors. Caliburn is the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates Homestead and three other shelters for unaccompanied migrant children in Texas.

Prior to joining the Trump administration in January 2017, Kelly had been on the board of advisors of DC Capital Partners, an investment firm that now owns Caliburn.

During Kelly's tenure, the administration pursued ambitious changes to immigration enforcement, and the average length of stay for an unaccompanied migrant child in U.S. custody skyrocketed.

Kelly was famous in the Administration for being not only anti-illegal immigration but anti-immigration- period. It's hardly likely that his current involvement in Caliburn is a mere coincidence.  Moreover

While Comprehensive and DC Capital appear to have reaped financial benefits through government contracts during and after Kelly's tenure as White House chief of staff, Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor, said Kelly may not have broken any rules.

"It sounds like he's running between the raindrops. It doesn't sound great, but most likely he's not directly violating any policies," Briffault told CBS News. Briffault said government officials are barred from benefiting from their involvement in matters that involve specific parties, meaning that while serving at the White House, Kelly could not directly influence any decision to award a contract to a DC Capital company.

Briffault argues that Kelly was barred from directly influencing any decision to award a contract to a DC Capital company. 

   

We don't know whether Kelly had a direct influence because investigative reporting is relatively unusual nowadays and is rarely if ever featured on any televised news program, cable or otherwise. (There was very little follow-up by the media to CREW's lawsuit addressed in the 7/19 video above.)

Nonetheless, in the most corrupt Administration in American history, it would be surprising if Kelly did not use his influence to benefit the company he had worked for, and would work for after he worked for President Trump. 

The President then would have something hanging over Kelly's head. Of course, Trump also would be implicated but Teflon Don, he who could arguably shoot someone and not lose any support, realizes he would not be hurt in the least.

And that means General John Kelly is ripe for being blackmailed. He could verify key aspects of Goldberg's story but were he to do so, President Trump might claim, truthfully or otherwise, that Kelly convinced him to pursue the policy and to steer contract(s) to DC Capital.  He may have made it clear to his former employee or it may have been done with a nod and a wink.

But there is a very good chance that this is playing out at this very moment. This fellow believes General Kelly "must, for the sake of our country and his honor, tell what he's seen and do what he can to sink the pirate ship Trump."  However, this story may blow over and Donald Trump may be re-elected.  If John Kelly comes clean, tells all, and Joe Biden is defeated, the ex-general's honor will be no match for the legal horror he'd probably face from an emboldened President Trump.

 

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Patriotic Duty

 

John Kelly is still a bigot who signed off on locking up children away from their parents. Don't forget that.

— Pé (@4everNeverTrump) September 4, 2020

In his article in The Atlantic, we learned further details from editor Jeffrey Goldberg about the president whom we knew believed everything in life is transactional and that American soldiers, past and present, are "losers" and "suckers." In only one of the instances noted by Goldberg

On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, a short drive from the White House. He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars. Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. Trump was meant, on this visit, to join John Kelly in paying respects at his son’s grave, and to comfort the families of other fallen service members. But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.

 

 Nonetheless, the tweeter noted above contends John Kelly is a bigot, signed off on separating children from their parents, and that we must not forget that.

He is, he did, and we shouldn't.

John Kelly loyally served a man who did not deserve to be loyally served. In his controversial tenure as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and White House Chief of Staff. he was not a paragon of tolerance nor a beacon for a pluralistic society.  He was not a paragon of tolerance nor a beacon for a pluralistic society.

Nevertheless, John Kelly has been presented with what many Americans never get: a second chance. He served his country in civilian capacities in the federal government and courageously in the armed forces.

John Kelly now can compensate for  being "a bigot who signed off on locking up children away from their parents" or for  simply offering a little legitimacy to an evil President. He can make amends, atone for past errors, or in the manner of the Catholicism in which he was reared, do penance.

The White House has claimed that the Goldberg piece is fiction, though a ludicrous claim, one that would benefit from at least one of its anonymous sources dropping his anonymity.   General Kelly could publicly confirm the details as they apply to him. He could further explain that the behavior ascribed to the President was characteristic of the man he served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and as Chief of Staff. And he could endorse Joe Biden's effort to unseat that President.

In early 2017, Kelly stated "If lawmakers do not like the laws they've passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws. Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines." Lucky him. John Kelly now has the opportunity simultaneously to exhibit courage and support the men and women on the front lines. It's a two-fer. If he does- and only if he does- he will exhibit the courage he once demanded of members of Congress and perform a patriotic duty beyond any he ever has.

 

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No Accident

This always was the plan.

Colleges and universities unwittingly became part of the plan, though a few already have pulled back somewhat.

As of August 28, Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia had recorded 514 cases of Covid-19 among students and 535 cases overall. That seemingly pales in comparison to the more than 560 recorded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Alabama. However, over 30,000 students attend each of those institutions while only approximately 7,000 go to Georgia College.

At the University of Mississippi in Oxford, nearly 350 students and employees had tested positive for the coronavirus since dorms opened in mid-August. At James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia 17% of tests came back positive, yielding over 600 confirmed cases.

Each college has addressed the matter, aggressively or otherwise, in what is a blow to at least two figures in the White House. On Tuesday we learned that Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist, fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Administration pandemic adviser 

has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak, according to these officials, which did not impose lockdown orders or close most schools and businesses. Instead, Sweden recommended social distancing measures and masks, while keeping bars and restaurants open with restrictions.

As of early August, 5,763 people had died of Covid-19 in Sweden, almost five times as many as in Denmark, Norway, and Finland together.

As more students return to campus, there will be more coronavirus infections. The disease will spread and people will die. Those who are most vulnerable are individuals with pre-existing conditions and therefore, it is time to remember that we are led by someone who has boasted of being "proud to have that German blood, no question about it- great stuff" and has argued

All men are created equal – that’s not true. When you connect two race horses, you usually end up with a fast horse. Secretariat doesn’t produce slow horses. I have a certain gene. I’m a gene believer. Do you believe in the gene thing? I mean I do. I have great genes and all that stuff, which I’m a believer in.

 

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Preening And Killing

On a positive note, a June 10 press release indicated

The NFL is growing our social justice efforts through a 10-year total $250 million fund to combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans. The NFL and our clubs will continue to work collaboratively with NFL players to support programs to address criminal justice reform, police reforms, and economic and educational advancement. In addition to the financial commitment, we will continue to leverage the NFL Network and all of our media properties to place an increased emphasis on raising awareness and promoting education of social justice issues to our fans and help foster unity.

As we all know, money talks and "foolish, insolent talk" walks, and $250,000,000 is, well, $250 million dollars. It's peanuts for the National Football League but for the rest of us, and even a tiny portion of that would be a big boost for an organization hostile to the nuclear family.

Additionally, on Tuesday we learned

Each week, the NFL will feature the story of a victim of social or racial injustice or police brutality and tell that person’s story “in and around” the games, the league said.

That is potentially useful, though God is in the details and how that is handled will determine its value (or cost) to race relations. It is less consequential that

NFL end zones will be inscribed this season with two slogans: “It Takes All Of Us” on one end line, “End Racism” on the other.

As part of its social justice awareness initiatives, the NFL also will allow similar visuals on helmets and caps.

Previously announced were decals on the back of helmets, or patches on team caps, displaying names or phrases to honor victims of racism and/or police brutality.

Now, a T-shirt designed by NFL Players Association executive committee member Michael Thomas, a safety with the Houston Texans, can be worn in warmups. That T-shirt says: “Injustice against one of us is injustice against all of us,” in the front. The back says reads: “End racism.”

Players can choose either a name of a victim or one of four preferred phrases the NFL has approved: “Stop Hate”; “It Takes All Of Us”; “End Racism”; or “Black Lives Matter.’” The same choices are available for coaches and on-field officials.

Each week, the NFL will feature the story of a victim of social or racial injustice or police brutality and tell that person’s story “in and around” the games, the league said.

This is for show or, as we would call it 40 years ago when it was a thing (and before it was internalized), for self-actualization.  It will make the players, league owners, and fans alike feel good  and feelings are paramount.

The slogans in the end zones are curious, if predictable.  "End racism" is counter-productive. The goal of institutions in this matter should be to contribute to an end to discrimination or to institutional racism. The end-product of racism is discrimination and institutional racism; they should be rooted out. 

"Racism" is a feeling or an opinion held by a lot of people. And if the NFL isn't saying that you (if white),  being racist is the problem, a lot of white people will come away (and they will go away) believing they're being targeted for being racist.

And the NFL is saying that.  An NFL end zone is over 53 yards wide. There is enough room for "end discrimination" or "end institutional racism" but the institution of the NFL prefers "end racism."  It's you who are the problem.

Similarly, the NFL could include "vote"- as has the NBA- as one of its preferred phrases for the players. However, the owners are very wealthy individuals, most of whom likely believe a Republican government is good for their business, so that is out.

For that matter, the entire enterprise is one big con. If the National Football League wishes to exhibit responsible behavior and put its newly-found social conscience to work in a useful and potent matter, there is one option- and only one option- available.

The league begins its season on Thursday, September 10  and the first Sunday of play is to be September 13, 2020. If the Hippocratic Oath- "first, do no harm"- is to be applied to football, the course of action is obvious. Don't even start; do no play. It would, additionally, signal to the general public the seriousness of SARS-CoV-2, even persuading some to don maks 

Billions of dollars are at stake- as are lives.  But this novel coronavirus does seem to discriminate by race as minorities are being hit hardest (video from 4/20).. Someone should remind the NFL- and its players- that a whole lot of those lives saved would be black.

 

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Only Just The Beginning, Only Just The Start

Joe Biden gave in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday a speech that was billed as his response to what appears to be growing urban violence It was less that than a laundry list of complaints about President Trump's failure on issue after issue. Nonetheless, it was a successful effort to begin hitting back oatthe President for his exploitation of law and disorder.

In the first ninety seconds, the former vice-president noted

And now we have to stand against violence in every form it takes. Violence we’ve seen again and again and again, of unwarranted police shooting, excessive force, seven bullets in the back of Jacob Blake. Knee on the neck of George Floyd, killing of Breonna Taylor in her own apartment.

Biden did speak of racial justice and mentioned Floyd and Blake elsewhere in the address but the emphasis was on his abhorrence of violence, which is as it should be.  It is clear the Biden-Harris ticket is appalled at racial injustice. The American people need to be reassured that Democrats also are enraged at murder and mayhem, which many voters are unsure of.

In his most effective moment, Biden asked the rhetorical question: "You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?" He doesn't look like a radical socialist nor someone with a soft spot for rioters, nor is he, and the former makes the latter an easier sell. Sometimes appearances are not deceiving.

It's a tougher sell with his running mate, who knew what it took to be the Democratic nominee for vice-president at a black lives matter moment. And wisely, Biden omitted any reference to Senator Harris in his speech.  That served not only to remind voters of his commitment to opposing violence but also of his determination to be in charge if elected President. 

Trump, Biden asserted, has "no problem with right-wing militia, white supremacists,and vigilantes with assault weapons often better armed than the police."  Voters must understand that the Democratic nominee is not the candidate who defends accused murderers or the right-wingers who are fomenting domestic discord, and are enabled by easy access to firearms. It can be Biden's America or it can be the America we see now- Donald Trump's America.

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Trump's Hell, Or Making America Great Again

The class of MSNBC has it almost exactly correct: 

To state the obvious, not a great state of affairs when the incumbent president has convinced himself that chaos, street fighting, mayhem and bloodshed benefits him politically.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) August 31, 2020

However, President Trump never has needed to convince himself of this.  He has not persuaded himself, deluded himself, or sold himself on some alternate sense of reality.

He always has known that chaos, street fighting, mayhem, bloodshed, even a cratering economy would benefit Republicans politically.  In 2014 Trump was on Fox and Friends when one of the hosts, referring to silly little things like health care, complained that it's a "problem for the Republicans. It's hard to be the party that says we're going to take these things away from you." Beginning at 1:53 of the video below, Trump can be heard responding

If anybody comes out against it or if anybody goes against it, new Democratic line itself, it's going to be hard in certain areas. Now, you know what solves it? When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell, and everything is a disaster, then you will have, you know you'll have riots to go back to where we used to be when America was great.

The following year, Trump emerged as a candidate for the GOP nomination for President with the slogan "make America great again." Someone should have noticed that he believed it would come about after a crashing economy and subsequent riots.

But then, Trump's strategy for America has always been so transparent and so cataclysmic that nary a pundit nor Democratic politician has been comfortable expressing it.  When in early March the President admitted that he didn't want passengers and crew from the Grand Princess to disembark because infected with Covid-19 would become part of the official record, he was telling us that treating victims of the novel coronavirus was counter-productive. When in late June he tweeted "with slower testing, we would show fewer cases" of Covid-19, he didn't say there would be fewer cases but instead that there would appear to be fewer, thus little need to address the outbreak.

In his own bizarre, crude and ironic way, Donald Trump always has been transparent.  Cut testing so we are unaware of disease and more people will die.  Destroy an economy so there are riots and America can become great again.  It's simply up to us as voters to banish this transcendent evil from our lives.

 

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