Links for 10/31/19

Links for 10/31/19
This entire controversy comes from a memo out of CDF on giving Communion to legislators who vote for abortion laws. Abortion in the U.S. is a matter of constitutional law, not legislation. The memo does not apply. Of course, Biden has an obligation to explain the logic of Roe to the hierarchy. He has ducked it for decades. The pluralistic explanation of Cuomo is in line with freedom of conscience promulgated in Dignitatis Humanae. The Ratzinger memo ignored this doctrine. It is not enough to separate the USCCB office of Pro-Life Activities from the a Republican Party. Explaining Roe publicly will shore up the Blue Wall permanentlty.  This will move the movement from using criminal law to fiscal redistribution to oppose abortion, which is in line with the real Magisterium.

The Netherlands are below sea level and manage well. This technology will work for Shanghai and Babcock, but not Vietnam and Florida. They have 30 years to act. We will likely wait for 25 years before acting. A nuclear war by 2050 is more likely.

Without funding minority enterprise, current Pot Entrepeneurs will stay in the unregulated market.

When GOP Senators are sure that donors will not fund opposition from the right Trump will be forced out. McConnell wants just enough dirt revealed to make his case, but not so much that it hurts the party.

The feelings of White Evangelicals matter little without funding to buy ads aimed at them. Without a platform, leftist political outrage is also largely ignored. Until one must find a future employer to fund university education, tenured research will be an insular culture, also irrelevant to the outside world.

Fall meeting agenda sees US bishops making plans to plan priorities

Fall meeting agenda sees US bishops making plans to plan priorities
There is no such thing as pro and anti abortion voting.  Abortion is not a legislative issue. Abortion was made legal for constitutional reasons. No one has explained that to the bishops because arguing with them would look bad to Catholic voters. Not doing so gave us the abomination of Trump.

The Nones, both young and Latino, no longer go to Mass because there is no social consequence to not remaining Catholic. Faith in the Resurrection, not the environment, is the reason to be Catholic.

Links for 10/29/19

Links for 10/29/19
That reactionaries lie to preserve the power of the establishment is a dog bites man story.

The Unitary Executive Theory Barr upholds is part of this, as is the support of Catholic relativism in providing doctrine over arguments based in reality. Still, Barr may be the bright, shiny object distracting Trump into believing he is winning.

When everyone went to Church because of social pressure, the Church thought it was winning. This was an illusion. Also, ignoring pompous hierarchs is not something we just invented. In the end, the reformers win because they value truth over position. Without reform, the reactionaries have nothing to defend against.

Without projects like Syndicate, reactionaries from bishops from Brazil to Burke would have nothing to rail against.

May God bless the baby shark.

Upcoming bishops' meeting reflects current state of US church

Upcoming bishops' meeting reflects current state of US church
The Council of Cardinals (aka the Eight) have become the most important gig in the Church. The Francis bishops are keeping their powder dry for when Cardinal Sean retires. The Conference is now the JV team. My money is on former USCCB President Wilton Gregory, who will likely get the next red cap.

Amazon synod's critics distort Catholic tradition for their convenience

Amazon synod's critics distort Catholic tradition for their convenience
The lunatic fringe in the Church is marvelous at self-promotion. This makes up for their declining numbers and their fear that the creation myth, and much of what they learned in Catholic elementary school may actually not as true as they thought. Like SS. Pius X and John Paul II, they cling to a desire for authoritative teaching and cultural hegemony. Freedom of thought is their enemy. They misunderstand that the narrow road to salvation has more to do with rejecting self-reliance and finding Christ in the poor than in membership in and obedience to the Church. They fear the clear meaning of Dignitatis Humanae, which counters all they hold dear, and how Pope Francis personifies this for them. They are best ignored and pitied.

Links for 10/24/19

Links for 10/24/19
It must be noted that Ecumenical Patriarch Melios and the Great Synod pronounced Anglican Orders valid. Ironic?

The GOP will pull the plug on Trump. Biden has a 2024 problem. The movement will have a June v. Gee problem, win or lose and outreach was not the problem. She had a Catholic VP (who was too White). Her problem was her partial birth abortion answer in debate 3. AOC is a loyal DSA member and Sanders also has a 2024 problem.

Democratic donors want Neoliberals like Bill Clinton. They should get Steyer to run GOP and support him. He will still lose, but Wall Street will all be in one place, which is good for the rest of us. Decent Republicans have left the party, but may come back for anyone but Trump (while MAGA may not). Also Ironic.

Democrats' two camps need to join and fight for dreams — pragmatically

Democrats' two camps need to join and fight for dreams — pragmatically
Trump will not be President. Pence may not be either. Pelosi may either be President, give Biden a shot or make Warren VP, if McConnel will let her. Biden and Sanders both habe a 2024 problem. Iowa won't vote for that. The GOP is collapsing. The ranks of never Trumpers will not support Graham. They either will stay home or run to the conservative wing of the Democrats. If so, the center will not hold.

Links for 10/22/19

Links for 10/22/19
Hillary is likely correct about Comrade Tulsi. Cut the anti-Clinton bias. And endorse ordaining women!

Without the Evangelical boost, the Pro-Birth movement would have gone long ago.

Congrats on getting the band together for a gig. Will there be any dissenting voices? I know I would be.

Can Pence beat Warren, assuming
 he is not forced out? Dr. Bitecofer, call your office!

$1 Million is 3 man-years, not counting value added taxes on materials. This is a tiny project that was likely on a to-do list at State. How the budget was spent may be questioned, but not much. Or call depends on whether the furnishings were part of an existing vendor list.

Americans have never had a decent respect of the rights of others, especially on state government matters. It is why we have a 14th Amendment.

Pietous pilgrimage is either tourism or suffering for its own sake often by people who already suffer enough. One does not need go far to find Christ. He sleeps outside and may have problems with addiction and mental illness or is a young, scared girl going to an abortion clinic. Matt 25.

Trump's shameful treachery against US allies

Trump's shameful treachery against US allies
The correct term is shameless. Trump did not give Turkey the green light for strategic reasons. He has a hotel in Turkey. This is the pro quo for Trump's Quid. This should be no surprise. Trump promised as much. He has essentially enacted the Libertarian Party platform, but because he looked rich, MAGA was created from the ashes of the Tea Party & the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Judicial Watch, he ran in the GOP.

Trump will be gone soon. Donations to GOP Senators are down. If they want him out, he will be gone and no Senate primary campaign against a sitting GOP member will be funded. Incumbents don't fear challenges from the looney right, just those with funding.

Notre Dame had a right to host Barr — but his talk was ridiculously stupid

Notre Dame had a right to host Barr — but his talk was ridiculously stupid
Is he speaking Opus Dei or is he speaking MAGA or is he trying to not look smarter than his boss? Is it him or is it Republican orthodoxy? We won't know until after Trump is made to resign. That may be sooner than we think.

Links for 10/17/19

Links for 10/17/19
Steyer would win GOP nomination (they like billionaires). Sanders has a 2024 problem with devoted donors. Biden has a 2024 problem with smarter donors, or rather, without them. Real money (for Warren) starts after New Hampshire.

Weigel is fringe and so are the papers who carry him (and their bishops).

All 2018 trends were about opposition to Trump.

P.R. control board deal will be a call for more money. Pelosi46 will pony up.

Clinton had record black female turnout. Obama only men? Not so much. Warren? We shall see in South Carolina.

Cippolone is all about continuing the GOP scam that saving Trump will overturn Roe. It won't. Nothing will.

I wish that they had been more in your face in defending the Campaign for Human Development. Optics over truth reigns. That POV was the cause of the clergy cover-up.

Last night's Democratic debate confirms this is a three-person race

Last night's Democratic debate confirms this is a three-person race
Legal abortion should be argued on constitutional, not feminist grounds. Women are never voting GOP. A family income adequacy solution should proffered and the Bishops called out. Impeachment is a non-campaign issue, it should be a base assumption. The way to break out is to attack Pence and ignore Trump.

Biden and Sanders have a 2024 problem. Iowa voters like 2-term nominees. The real race is for Warren's Vice President and Harris has already won. The only problem Warren has is whether her staff will listen to outside views. If not, then she will have a 2024 problem.

Links for 10/15/19

Links for 10/15/19
Trump and his immigration policy won't be a story for long.

The problem with wealth is their power over workers, their families and those they would not hire. It is not the toys they buy for themselves that is the problem. It is how they treat others with the rest of their money.

Even as Trump is leaving, the values voters who are the useful idiots for capitalism are not, including some Catholics. Sadly, they lay the bait for a harsh sounding response. What Beto says is not beyond the norm. Bob Jones and the values voters toned down overt racism  when their tax status was threatened. This was the point when they suddenly became pro-life. The recent Title VII cases are about to make some of the Church's conduct illegal. We should not enable them.

Warren and Sanders are social democrats. I see no reason for capitalists to be involved at all in our work life, a microeconomic issue. The worship of CEOs and their enablers on corporate boards must end. Whether this is an electoral issue is hard to say. If Pelosi seeks her own term, the race will be for VP and Booker is her only choice. Also if she is able to get Mitch to confirm one. Making Warren VP would be seen as having a finger on the scale.

We are all toiling in the shadow of St. John Henry Newman

We are all toiling in the shadow of St. John Henry Newman
Newman was a part of the Kingdom of God on Earth as our Lord preached it, not something that must wait for the next life. This was the world of Chesterton and Tolkien.

They all give too much credit to the Oxidental Church, but fit into the Church of Leo rather than Bl. Pius IX and St. Pius X, who could not hold a candle to St. John. I still find Andrew Sullivan's comments interesting. This puts St. John more in line with Francis and those after him.

Three issues that can help Republican voters abandon Trump

Three issues that can help Republican voters abandon Trump
GOP Senate donors will tell their subjects to pull the plug on Trump. Appeal Corts have begun to affirm decisions that there is no such thing as absolute Presidential Immunity. Because Pence was involved in the conspiracy, Pence will be forced out too. In the unlikely event he does survive, the issue will be why he did not remove Trump.

Never-Trumpers will either return to the GOP or abandon it to join the Clinton-Biden wing . This will split off the Warren wing. The center will not hold.

June v. Gee will likely point out that electing GOP presidents has nothing to do with overturning Roe. The Dems must stick to that message rather than trying to shore up the feminist base. They will vote Democratic anyway. Instead, the Dems need to propose a family income with a higher minimum wage and child tax credit and shame the USCCB yo agree openly with this approach. Unless the GOP promises the same thing, they will be obliterated. I can't see MAGA adopting such socialism. Good riddance.

Links for 10/10/19

Links for 10/10/19
The question is still whether GOP Senate donors have had enough and how soon the appeals to quash the subpoenas will fail. You know who is warming up and 2020 depends on whether Pelosi or Pence is incumbent.

Recognizing that not being murdered is a positive right, as is providing a just family income and that repealing Roe is impossible would be progress. The equal protection rights of doctors and women and the privacy rights and the lack of state power trump any ban. The only option is pro-life socialism.

The message to the rich needs to be that debt liability (which includes the FICA trust fund owed to workers)  is a function of income tax liability. The top 1% owe most of it and the top 10% almost all of it. And their kids.

Sedevacantists publications are best ignored and their readers prayed for.

Democratic candidates must fashion an 'off-ramp' for Trump voters

Democratic candidates must fashion an 'off-ramp' for Trump voters
The press, including MSW, are suffering from a deficiency in imagination on the impact of a Trump resignation on 2020

E.J. Dionne is correct. Almost half of the Republican Party has left the building. They may return when Trump is gone, and maybe Pence too. Trump is an idiot. He believes that if Pence us implicated, he won't resign or be impeached.

Unless evidence shows Pence was not involved in Trump's Ukraine deal, he is out. If there is insufficient evidence to remove him, He will be the GOP candidate and do worse than McGovern. He has no good answer for not invoking the 25th Amendment.

If Pence is forced out, Nancy Pelosi adds 46 to her name. She won't run in 2020. If McConnell blocks her VP nominee, the Speaker who replaces her is next in line. Biden and Sanders have a 2024 problem.

If Biden becomes Speaker before Trump resigns, he is the nominee. If not, Warren will be. If Warren is made Speaker, and then President, everyone will be upset with Pelosi picking the winner for 2020 and the GOP members who left will come back and vote against her.

The Dems have an age problem with Pelosi, Biden and Sanders. Warren wins if Iowa likes her and she attacks the opposition on making Roe an issue rather than defending abortion. The Blue Wall is currently 278 and keeping pro-life Democrats from staying home keeps it intact. The key this time is turnout, not poaching Trump voters.

Links for 10/8/19

Links for 10/8/19
Iowa is still very important. Not too many black women. This assumes that there is no incumbent Democrat. The base that decides Trump's future are GOP Senate donors. They are not MAGA. The House Dems have plenty of plans, which will be reconsidered in 2021. Of course, by then they will be real. With Pence in trouble, what matter is who Pelosi makes VP or Speaker in a few weeks.  Senator Harris and Mayor Pete may be angling for the job. I don't see it working unless Warren becomes Speaker, although it will help them both in running for Governor.

Busch is both whining and projecting. Standard Reactionary playbook. Trump does it too. No shock that the Times publishes the truth about Francis while the Sun is fishwrap.

The Iowa case depends on a provision found in Title VII in the Civil Rights Act. It also prevents straight Evangelicals from infiltrating campus gay organizations. Sauce for the goose...

Lecture presents the quintessential conservative Catholic worldview

Lecture presents the quintessential conservative Catholic worldview
The American founding has its roots in its original settlement. The Pilgrims, who were headed for Virginia until their beer ran out, left England because the Church was a bit too Catholic for their tastes.

The first generation, faced rebellion from the Society of Friends. Among them were the Ralph Allen family (my ancestors), who founded Rhode Island. Four of them were martyred in Boston, including Mary Dyer (another ancestor). Hardly ordered liberty.

Jamestown was settled by John Smith and his party, which succeeded because they hooked Europe on tobacco grown by slaves. I am also descended from the Smiths, who joined the Daniel Boone party of tax protesters in fleeing Virginia. This spirit of rebellion and pursuit of profit animated the founding.

The American founding had its intellectual roots in the Enlightenment and it's cousin, freemasonry, both of which were condemned by Popes from Stephen XV to Pius IX and Vatican I for their role in the Italian revolution and the triumph of Garibaldi. Masons are active in the civil life of both nations.

The Great Awakening happened before the revolution. It's emotional religiosity us one of the features of the Modernism, which was condemned by St. Pius X. The closed mindedness of the Church continued until John Courtland Murray triumphed at Vatican II for his work On Human Dignity. He was persecuted for these prior to the Council. The Council animates Francis (and frightened The Curia and St. John Paul II).

The sexual revolution's grand event was the Summer of Love in San Francisco, now known as a home of gay revolution.  It's holy books were penned by the Beat Generation authors in New York (also gay). These trends were in direct opposition to the censorship of the 1950s led by the Catholic Church.

The mass movement in the 1960s was not sex, it was civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam war. The Church participated in Segregation and its now elite school system is mostly monoracial.

The Church suffers from sloppy epistemology in dealing with sexuality. Gays do not decide to be gay. They distinguish that they are gay. They face the reality of the deepest part of themselves.

Many, but certainly not all, asexuals in the clergy do not, thinking themselves to be heterosexuals who have sacrificed their sexuality for Christ. Failure to distinguish Their sexuality results in loneliness and abuse. Asexual bias animates Catholic sexuality. It does not reflect the lived experience of real heterosexuals and the LGBTQIA community (they are the A, but avoid the I).

What scared the Church more was the liberation of women. It still does as it persecuted the Sisters who supported Obamacare. It continues to resist ordaining women, which is a when, not an if.

Now that we're on the path to impeachment, a warning

Now that we're on the path to impeachment, a warning
Republican donors largely do not support Trump's unhinged behavior. I expect that they will be telling GOP Senators during this work period to pull the plug. Trump is an idiot. He is besmirching Pence, who can remove him or pardon him.

Links for 10/3/19

Links for 10/3/19
I could swear Francis was talking about Fox News, but I doubt he gives it the time. He also likes getting a laugh, unlike the Curia.

It sound like the deindustrial conference included Richard Florida or people who have read his work on the creative class.

Senate Republicans are hearing from their owners (donors) this recess. The only question now is resignation (via Twitter) or disability. Either way, he will be arrested and lose his phone. As for the moat, this just proves Trump has a sick sense of humor and the rest of us are so Trump fatigued that we have lost ours. Note the reaction to Mayor Pete.

Amazon synod has set Pope Francis' professional haters on edge

Amazon synod has set Pope Francis' professional haters on edge
There is no danger from EWTN and Burke to the Church. It is the souls of those who they are discomforting that I worry about.

Burke is confusing Francis for Hegel and the gift of the Holy Spirit for Theodicy. The Spirit is using God as meme for Her own purposes. That we see Her doing so is an act of faith. Jesus sends the Spirit because there is much that the Twelve were not capable of understanding. Burke denies this, putting loyalty before Faith and doctrine before Truth. It is his loss and a sin against those who follow him.

Do not waste the November meeting of the USCCB On Burke and EWTN. They are 20 funerals away from obscurity. Highlight the Synod, Laudato Si' and the attack on the biosphere. Opposition to the Synod is not just protection of existing lines of business and exploitation in service of profit. Climate change forces migration. Refugees are cheap labor. The problems really are integrated. The solution must be as well.

Links for 10/1/19

Links for 10/1/19
Regarding Jim Martin: Let's. EWTN would have a coniption.

Re impeachment: we will never know, because GOP donors are likely telling their pet Senators to pull the plug.

Gore as President could not have repealed capitalism, which is what stops action on warming. Anyway, he won if you count his double votes.

Spiritual but not religious is what ex-Catholics/Evangelicals in 12 Step programs say. They learn that God is not the Ogre they were taught to believe in. Too bad more bishops have not figured this out about their own faith. That would take putting faith before loyalty.

CNBC Democrats and Never-Trumpers need to start their own party. I doubt few would attend. Warren-Sanders Democrats will form the other. Of course, neoliberals would never let this happen.

Capitalism will never provide enough rural doctors. They owe to much in loans to stay there. Bernie's plan could fix that.  Expanding the Uniformed Public Health Service also brings doctors where needed.

All good dogs come from Heaven. They are our Guardian Angels. So is Greta, and we still won't listen.