Who does that?

 

Laughing at death

            The other day I was reading a post from a hospital site on social media. They were talking about the severity of the pandemic and the loss of life. They were asking people to wear a mask and practice physical distancing. Community deaths were mentioned and sadness expressed at the loss of life. A nurse on the front line made some comments.

            What caught my eye before I even started reading the post were the laughing emojis in the likes bar. I checked out the posters to see if they were real or bots. They were real people. News feeds plastered with pro Trump memes and misinformation. They were ridiculing not only the nurse and the hospital but the deaths as well. Their comments were usually along the lines of it’s just a hoax or that the deaths were probably the result of something else and doctors were just attributing these deaths to being caused by Covid so they could make money. (I have had in person conversations with Trump supporters making these same kinds of statements.)

            Where it really gets obscene is when they actually mock a person that died from Covid-19.

What kind of person does that?

Laughing emoji!

            President Trump continues holding and supporting superspreader events while throwing up roadblocks to those actually trying to deal with the pandemic. During a national emergency, instead of rising to the occasion, Trump is sulking, whining, spewing and tweeting out false information

J  Over 1,100 people a day are dying now from Covid-19 and Trump supporters are talking about how small a number that is compared to the general population. Here’s where they post a laughing emoji.(le) Then they talk about infection rates and compare Covid-19 to the flu. Yes, they’re still doing that.

J  Covid-19 isn’t a big deal compared to the flu. Laughing emoji!

J  Covid-19 is a hoax! It’s a real knee slapper! Laughing emoji.

J  250,000 people have died from Covid-19. Hysterical! A hoax! Laughing emoji!

J  Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers are dying from Covid-19. Laughing emoji.

J  Entire families are being wiped out from Covid-19. Laughing emoji.

J  Old people are dying in nursing homes. They were old and going to die anyway. Laughing emoji.

J  We could lose a half million people to Covid-19. Laughing emoji.

J  People that survived are suffering long term health problems. Laughing emoji.

J  Masks and physical distancing help stop the spread. Laughing emoji.

J  Hospitals are filling up! Fake news. Laughing emoji.

J  ICUs are filling up! Laughing emojis.

J  Most people that get it will live. It’s only old people, people of color and those that are sick already that will mostly die from it so what’s the big deal?

            I’ll stop here and let the laughers catch their breath. This is hysterical stuff to them. What kind of people think that this is funny stuff?

Who does that?

Trump isn’t alone.

            It’s easy to lay this off on Trump, the man that knew that the virus was deadly back in February and not only covered it up but blamed Democrats and then did everything possible to make it worse. Then the man surrounded by a bio-bunker caught it and survived. Not a big deal after all. He lived. Who cares about the rest of the people?

Not him.

            He isn’t alone. He’s surrounded by Republicans and supporters that march in goose step with everything that he has done.  His administration, Republican Senators, Republican House members, Evangelicals, Nazis, Proud Boys, White Supremacists, the KKK, Confederates, Putin and all those conspiracy-loving deniers of the truth, of our government and all the values that make our Republic. They made him possible. They made the evil that circulates amongst us possible. They embrace it. They revel in it.

            So if you’re a Trump supporter and lose someone you love to Covid-19 pat yourself on the back and give thanks to all of the above. Job well done.

            If you aren’t a Trump supporter and lose someone close to you remember all of the above and never vote for another Republican anywhere ever again. They have crossed over. They support a mass murdering sociopath that they made President. That won’t stop when he leaves.

            So to answer the question about who laughs at causing the deaths of others?

The answer is obvious.

And they aren’t done!

Wandering.

 

 Wordsmithing.

            Writing this blog has been quite a journey. I enjoy wordsmithing. The majority of my writings only shares to a few friends on social media. There are others outside of social media that have wandered in and follow along. Most are anonymous. If you are one of those that has been with my blog from the beginning--go you! Thanks for reading. Time is precious.

Treasure hunt.

            Throughout this piece I’ll provide links to previous posts. 

            I’m not proficient at Social Media. I do add to the litter. This piece will definitely be another that is full of word grenades. If you find value or enjoy what I’ve written please share it. Share it from the blog NOT Facebook. You can share from my blog back to Facebook. That works. (Read/scroll to the bottom of the blog post and from there click on the Facebook share button. Easy-peasy. You can also copy the URL of the blog post to paste elsewhere.)

            One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So I talk about aliens too because the truth out there. Gort is it you? I even waxed poetic.

 Ranging.

            The first post of the 159 listed at my blog was about religion. (Later I made a generic version of the first one for a wider application. This was during the time of Robertson’s heyday back in 2014. Since then I’ve written and posted a couple of hundred thousand words. They would make a 385 page book. (How do I know this? I put them all together in a single Word document and that’s how many pages it is!)

            I’ve written on a wide range of topics. The majority are political probably followed in number by the pandemic then religion. Under Trump politics, the pandemic and religion have become inseparable.

Hard on

            I am hard on Evangelicals and their Party. They have become one and the same. The Spawn of Satan has thrown in with their Chosen One antichrist. See, that’s probably a little harsh. So’s killing 300,000 people.

Happy days for Evangelicals. 

            Okay, the virus isn’t his fault, just how he didn’t handle it. Trump is only responsible for tens of thousands of needless deaths and his intentional killing. Evangelicals have helped him kill as best they can. They do occasionally take a break from spreading the pandemic to oppose abortion. Now that they’ve got Barrett in the bag they can get back to making women murders and punishing them.

Some of them are very fine people.

            I wonder if the Liar will try grabbing him some of that Barrett? He can do that you know. That may have been how he got all of his wives and women. It’s possible that a few in the Evangelical Party will realize that now that they have Jerusalem and Barrett they don’t really need the Liar any more.

            Do understand that I love me some Jesus. There are some excellent pastors out there. A LOT of them. Others, not so much. Jesus was a liberal, activist and socialist before the terms were invented. That Jesus was also biased is just icing for the cake that he would bake for gay couples. What’s not to like? So I covered Jesus and socialism. Easy to do.

            I do ponder some more serious issues regarding Jesus including his personal habits. So it isn’t all frivolity.

Marauding caravans.

            Immigration is covered as well. This was in the time before Trump. Those were halcyon times indeed. The time before the chaos and lying that has been the Trump Administration.

            To talk about immigration is to talk about Nazis since the Ducé is having brown people rounded up and put in camps. To talk about Nazis is to talk about the racists that comprise a huge portion of Trump’s and Republicans’ political base.

If he loses

            If Trump loses I’ll keep writing. It just won’t be as easy in the world of politics. Each day brings a bounty of new material from the Liar. I know that there’s a point spread but the undecideds are breaking for the killer of men, women and children. The same guy that turned his back on the Kurds. The undecided broke for him in 2016 as well. He’ll still be around tweeting, whining and complaining as always. The papers just write on autopilot.

            Seriously though, if you don’t like the way Washington works then work to change it. We’ll vote for Biden here in Missouri. He’ll lose Missouri but our votes will be counted with the rest of the nation’s votes. He may lose in the Electoral College but Biden will win the popular vote unless Trump’s supporters, the Russians, vote too often. (He would NOT say that he wouldn’t accept their help again.)

That’s a wrap.

            I think I’ll finish with a little humor though. 

 Stay safe.

Hang in there.

We’ll get through this!

Peace be with you.

If that last line upset you—Peace be with you, bless your heart.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(6.2-minute read)

The name Dietrich Bonhoeffer probably won’t mean much to most people. He opposed Hitler and to make a long story short, he was murdered in a concentration camp by the Nazis. The vast majority of clergy in Germany supported Adolph Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn’t. If you get the chance you should look him up. Truly inspirational, incredible man. The Evangelical Party members and Conservative Trump loving pastors in this country are not cut from the same cloth as Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He would be their enemy.

Different strokes.

A few years ago we were talking with a previous pastor at our church about the message that he had provided. It was a good message but I can’t really remember what it was now. It was good not profound. Anyway he mentioned that he couldn’t give that message at another church that he also pastored because it would be considered too political. Too political as in liberal. I expressed surprise because his message didn’t seem to be political or controversial at all to me.

It was a few months after that that we received an email from a different guest pastor apologizing for a sermon that he had given that some people in the congregation had taken offense to and informed him as such. It seems that they felt it was a slam against the President. Again, that means that they considered his message to be too liberal. Also again, the sermon that he had given was innocuous in political terms, strong on Jesus terms.

Jesus was wrong.

I remember a discussion board comment that I read concerning immigration where the Christian said in response to a criticism about the administration’s policies that was stated with scriptural references that “Jesus was wrong.”

 “Jesus was wrong.” That’s a stunning statement. And that really is a cornerstone statement for the Evangelical Party’s support for President Trump. Their excuses for their “Chosen One’s” actions is that God uses seemingly bad people to accomplish his goals. They ignore the part that people chosen for spreading the good news changed their evil ways after they found Jesus.

The Evangelical Party is now using their < amassed fortunes > to solidify their power within the government. They are ignoring the one simple fact that dictators like Trump don’t share their power. They eliminate troublesome areas like the Constitution, a free press, critics, intellectuals, protestors, etc.

The real Jesus.

If a pastor in this country isn’t preaching a liberal Jesus they aren’t preaching about the real Jesus. The real Jesus did not support or bend a knee to Rome or Caesar. The real Jesus did bend a knee to the poor and the outcasts of society. The real Jesus ministered to immigrants and those in peril. Jesus was a peaceful protestor. Jesus would be a face in the crowd of protests taking place today around the world.

And you’re right, the real Jesus wouldn’t be name-calling like I am. But he did run some people out of the temple. So there’s that.

Jesus was with the protestors that the First Dictator of the United States cleared out from in front of a church so that he could have a photo op holding a bible in front of a sacred place. Trump’s actions were blasphemous.

The sacred place was the ground where the protestors were standing. Clergy was standing with them. The Caesar that Trump is ran people off from in front of their own church.

The real Jesus wasn’t a constitutional conservative.

Pot meet kettle.

The United States has been and is being called out for our systemic racism on the world stage for all to see. The nations that we have criticized for their treatment of protestors are seeing the videos of how our police state is reacting to our own. Our hypocrisy is being called out in front of the nations of the world. Our thug President is being called out. It’s the same stage where people laughed at him because he really isn’t the stable Genius that he claims he is. They laughed at him because he is a buffoon. He’s also a dangerous buffoon.

What else does the world see?

The world also sees how this nation regards the poor and people of color. To the Ducé, immigrants are rapists, murders and gang members, filthy people that are coming to take advantage of us. The world sees our nation breaking up families and putting brown people in camps and cages.

The people of the world also see our filthy rich Evangelical Party clergy backing the first Dictator of the United States of America that rules by Executive Order. Our first strongman in power that called in troops to keep himself safe in his fortress, deep in his bunker.

The world saw armed militias called out by the President to liberate states! Heavily armed white people showed up in our halls of government unchallenged in order to answer the call from their Ducé.

A Ducé that praises dictators that have slaughtered their own people.

What the world doesn’t see is the clergy mixed in with the protestors. The clergy that does preach from the pulpit the liberal Jesus and what the Christian response should be. The general public doesn’t see that either. Unfortunately the clergy that preaches the real Jesus doesn’t have the billions that the Evangelical Party has to spend on messaging as they seek to create the nation in their own intolerant image.

It’s a cult.

We’re just going to have to accept that white conservatives in general are not going to be of any help in bridging the racial divide or solving the systemic racism that exists. The same applies to conservative evangelicals. They have their “Chosen One” to back and nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is going to dissuade them from that. They have cast their lot. To back away is to be attacked by the Ducé. He demands absolute loyalty and servitude. Anything less is unacceptable. He has to be told on a regular basis that he is the greatest that has ever been.

Acceptance or denial.

In order to fix a problem the first thing that needs to happen is to admit that a problem exists. We can say there is racism and probably have widespread agreement with that statement. How much? How little? That’s where the problem resides for a lot of white people.

Can white people accept the following? There’s racism. There’s white privilege. It’s systemic. White power is what a large portion of this election is about.

I’m going to posit the majority of conservative supporters of President Trump are simply not culturally or intellectually capable of accepting that premise.

In order to accept that, it must also be accepted that white people are the majority of the problem. In other words I accept that whether I like it or not I am part of the problem. Liking it or not liking it is immaterial to the solution. And then I must do what I can to remedy the situation.

“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer