As Francis shows, this Easter triduum there's no room for complacency

As Francis shows, this Easter triduum there's no room for complacency 

The story of the Passion is about relationship. We have no way of reaching out to God. The sufferings of Christ as expiation for some cosmic debt caused by our human nature. Rather, it is God reaching to us, relating to us and our sufferings. He is a God of absolute humility, comfortable in both his own skin and in ours. God desires not our worship, but instead our fellowship. His morality is for us to be human beings, not angels. The resurrection is a promised gift to us, not a merit badge that we earn. The only condition is that we do likewise for each other, which is harder than obsessing about our faults. We can only do so with His help.

Links: Reparations, modern capitalism and the Chinese autocracy

Links: Reparations, modern capitalism and the Chinese autocracy 

Gasp, EWTN may be a GOP front-group (like the USCCB Office of Pro-Life Activities).

Workers fighting back means capitalism can be beat if they act together. Expect capitalists to fight back harder (and bloodier) to prevent this from happening again.

Chinese state capitalist are experts at going bloody on workers. This always leads to revolution, although mostly when the middle class has grievances. Little can be done for the Uyghurs until the Chinese middle class grows a spine. 

Catholics have a lot to atone for on housing discrimination, especially those who use sending children to elite schools to avoid racial diversity in the public sector. Criticism of "wokeness" is also a sign of unacknowledged bigotry.

The best politicians are those who have learned something from acting. Any politician without stage presence needs to go to business school. Whether an actor turned politician does a good job depends on the quality of his or her staff and whether they feel free to argue with them. Better a politician then a business person any day. Business people are amoral at best. Actors have to have a moral core to call upon to hone their craft. They are also intellectually gifted (memorizing lines is hard) and flexible (script changes must be dealt with). This is why the worst occupation for a politician is theologian.

Drones need to be programmed with no-fly coordinates to stay out of air lanes. Other than that, they are a harmless fad and they help get children outside, even the fully grown ones.

Bring back the assault weapons ban

Bring back the assault weapons ban Biden announced he is seeking to bring back the assault weapons ban. It joins the congressional to do list. Expect Judiciary Committee hearings so that the appropriate grandstanding can occur while deals are explored. Expect fundraising.

The New York case was discussed, with no decision announced on hearing the case. There will be memos inside the Court on what to do next. Will four justices decide to hear it? Stay tuned. 

The more serious step - the one Biden will not take - is to add provisions to Federal Acquisition Regulations requiring arms and munitions manufacturers to not sell to the public if they seek federal contracts to provide these products to the government. Doing so would require DoD, GSA, NASA and the FAR Council to issue proposed and final rules in the Federal Register for Notice and Comment. THAT would be news.

The bishops and the Equality Act: a train wreck

The bishops and the Equality Act: a train wreck 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect individual rights to public accommodations based on sex, however the Civil Rights Act of 1968 does extend protection based on sex to fair housing. Given the inclusion of LGBT individuals in the Title VII definition of sex last summer, it is not much of a stretch to enforce it in Fair Housing as well. The Equality Act is not necessary for that purpose, although it would be for public accommodations. If the Equal Rights Amendment ratification period is extended, the Equality Act would not be necessary and a religious exemption would be hard to justify. 

There is already text on religious exemptions in Title VII. The only way to get further exemptions is to play nice. Of course, if the Church was willing to play nice, there would be less reason to pass this legislation. The real train wreck will be when Hosanna-Tabor meets Bostock and Perry. The principle to be tested is how far does the ministry exemption go. 

Lambda Legal Defense Fund needs to raise the issue  whether the right of religious freedom is code for a right to religious power. This question has not been asked. It should be. The other question to be asked is whether the Church terminates employees who marry civilly who are heterosexual, even though these marriages are also considered irregular. If there is a different standard, bigotry must be presumed and Hosanna-Tabor cannot be applied.

In the end, the question will be moot. The next generation of bishops will simply not fire employees because they exercise their rights to marriage equality. Blessing such marriages will likely be back on the table by then. For now, the faithful must shame the hierarchy when it objects to some civil marriages and not others. It may not do so in our names.

Links: Passover, Latino voters and Marjorie Taylor Greene on EWTN

Links: Passover, Latino voters and Marjorie Taylor Greene on EWTN 

The Mayflower is an apt comparison to the creation of Israel for inconvenient reasons. 400 years later, the native peoples still face discrimination. May the Palestinians not have to wait so long. Those of us who are Ashkenazim need to remember that our ancestors did not come from Israel. They chose the bread of liberation and many had conversion to Christianity chosen for them by Luther. Yet through affliction, God brings about all good things. The bread of liberation must be shared, especially in Israel.

To get Latinos into the Democratic fold, they need to be recruited into the Party between elections. That means recruiting local Latino candidates. It also means being open to them on the entire platform, including why we are generally against banning abortion in the first trimester as a police power, rather than a feminist issue.

St. Thomas More favored assassination over warfare. The followers of Il Duce would have found another puppet, as happens in North Korea and will happen in the Trump wing of the GOP.

Arroyo is a clown. At least he is honest about his idiocy. Anyone who follows him deserves to. He is best ignored. As for the Congresswoman, she needs to be investigated for any involvement in the Insurrection. If she was involved, expulsion from Congress should be the least of her problems. Those who withheld money from Puerto Rico must also be held criminally responsible.

The purpose of testing and education should be to find out what one is capable of doing while liking it as well. The problem of differfering outcomes is endemic to capitalism. All students over the age where their cohort enters Junior year in high school should be paid for their time until they are both fully literate in English to either a technical certification or an Associates degree. Tuition should be free too. Paid education should include English as a Second Language and Occupational Training and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs and there should be no lawful residency requirement. Any other approach is incomplete. Not doing so also lets genius go to waste.

Biden goes Trump Lite on immigration

Biden goes Trump Lite on immigration 

As I commented in the links, Biden's policy making options do not extend to acting unilaterally. He cannot order immigration judges to ignore the law. Seeking a better life is not a valid reason for asylum. Family unification might be, depending on the age of the migrant. Biden, like Obama, is using cages for temporary shelter, but everyone has a bed and a warm blanket until there is room for them in the next step of the process. There are no standing room only facilities. Trump went out of the way to make things terrible so people would just leave. It was inhumane and cynical.

Biden was elected to get rid of Trump, who was a disgusting boar. Pence would have been Trump Lite. On immigration, Biden will advance a legislative agenda on immigration, and it will not be punitive, which is better than what Schumer produced, not to pass, but to further politicize the issue.

The main reason people are leaving Central America now is that we did too little to aid them when two category four hurricanes ground much of their countries to dust. Instead of going to them, they came to us. Blame that one on Trump, whose total legacy is only now coming to light.

Links: Biden's worrisome immigration policy, executive pay at Starbucks, new Russian history

Links: Biden's worrisome immigration policy, executive pay at Starbucks, new Russian history 

I used to believe in the non-delegation doctrine. Then I read an annotated copy of the Constitution and took an administrative law course. Congress needs to write review of regulations into the authorization process and direct changes to regulations - but as regulations - not as black letter law. This would be the ultimate indicator of legislative intent, even if it only makes it into the conference report. As to Stern, the non-delegation doctrine only came up in New Deal legislation - where it was considered law until FDR threatened to pack the Court.

Biden's job is to faithfully execute the laws. He is. When I see pictures of the cases, I see plenty of beds and no standing-room-only situations. Asylum laws have specific meanings. It is up to Congress to let people come in for other reasons. The problem is that after Central America was ground into a pulp by two of the worst hurricanes ever, we did no go down and help. We did not go there, so they are coming here.

The Sanders/Warren Bill is grandstanding. They have the right idea, but the solution is to separate asset taxes and salary taxes into two filings (with asset taxes changed to a Value Added Tax at point of sale) and a 52% top rate on salary income. On the other side, minimum wages must go up and the Child Tax Credit needs to be made permanent, be distributed with wages and doubled (at least).

Bravo to Starbucks shareholders. Too bad most don't do so. Usually investment bankers frown on such things. Those that do analysis, manage investments and sell stocks are too close for our comfort. In other words, things are worse than you think,

The key to understanding Russia is any book about when the Tartars occupied the Rus (and how the Rus returned the favor).

Catholics behaving badly: MSW has a little list

Catholics behaving badly: MSW has a little list 

The Signatories of the Statement to Awaken Conscience seem to have forgotten the principle of the double effect, where you can pursue a good resulting from an act if you did not seek the evil act to purse the good effect. If the abortion was performed solely to provide the line of cells, then that would have been an evil intent. If it was to occur anyway, there is not moral consequence to using the tissue. As to the individuals who signed it, their affiliations are of no bearing on their error.

Abbott is simply an idiot, but not entirely wrong. Biden closed the border, probably after this story was filed. Hopefully, this will be sorted out.

Laura is the heir of Anne Coulter. The prior arrest of George Floyd is immaterial to the matter at hand, but it shows the problem in the system. In both cases, Floyd needed an ambulance, not an arrest. Until one arrived, he should have not been removed from his own car, provided it was off. At most, he should have been transferred to the back seat of his own vehicle.

Want to win Latino voters? Drop the assumptions and organize

Want to win Latino voters? Drop the assumptions and organize 

Back in the day, we made phone calls. Community leaders would call other community leaders. Of course, this only works when the candidate is potentially attractive to the community. They must also be encouraged to become an integral part of the local party leadership structure. They cannot be just an election season resource. This means sharing power and sharing ideas in the 18 months between electoral seasons. If joining has real power (a point lost on Bernie supporters), Hispanics will sign up. This proves Tip O'Neil's Rule One: All Politics are Local.

As far as who the villain is on anti-Hispanic bigotry, while Steven King of Iowa comes to mind, the Grand Wizard is James Sensenbrenner, the House Judiciary Chair who single-handedly derailed President Bush's immigration reform efforts. He is also a champion of the Republicanization of the Pro-Life movement. What a guy.

The issue of abortion, or rather that it is not an issue except as far as expanding the Child Tax Credit goes, must be aired out if Democrats want Latinos to stick around. This should happen with finesse, but it needs to happen, not just to put together a coalition but to heal the nation's self-inflicted wounds.

Links: Conservative working class myth, visitation at the Vatican, Waldorf-Astoria history

Links: Conservative working class myth, visitation at the Vatican, Waldorf-Astoria history 

It is a pity when the Church puts authority over truth. When it does so, it has neither. Gay priests will bless marriages as they see fit, but they will do so quietly, just as priests blessed irregular second marriages before Amoris was even considered. Any priest who is not willing to do so does not understand what the Master was about. Until non-gay clergy realize that gender theory includes their own unrecognized asexuality, it has no business in anyone's bedroom.

CDW shows why we need linguistic patriarchs. That may be the change which brings Catholicism back to reality, including on gay marriage and women priests. This includes respecting the rights of the Coptic Pope to all of the African Catholic and Anglican Churches. Their conservatism helps make the Church impervious to reality. 

The Wealth Tax has all the flaws of capital gains and land value taxes. Only Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders like it in the Senate. Distributing the Child Tax Credit is the current issue to be mastered. It invites subtraction and asset value added tax provisions to solve the problems of distributing the CTC to families and closing the tax gap. The wealth tax will only widen it. The CTC can also be distributed to worker paychecks and funded as an offset to quarterly payments to the IRS.

Trump appealed to all of the usual Republican white voters. Small businessmen did not mob the Capital on January 6th. While there were professionals among Limbaugh's listenership, they were mostly of the generation which animated the Tea Party, thought Obama was born in Kenya and Nixon was innocent.

Partisanship (and white supremacy) continue to dominate the admission of states to the Union. Hawai'i needed Alaska, New Mexico needed Arizona and Washington, Douglas Commonwealth is left out in the cold. As for Maine, their contribution was their Second Regiment, who saved the Union at Gettysburg.

Note to MSW. Fighting voter suppression is justice, not wokeness (like Maine on abolition). Shame on you and those who think you are some liberal run amok. The Equality Act is an opportunity to grandstand The reality is that the Title VII decision effectively extends full protection in all areas of the Civil Rights Act by changing the definition of sex in section 1 of the law. It is the conservative side that will demand the Equality Act so that they can carve out a more robust religious exemption. That version is also DOA.

Latino identities, always in the plural, and voting trends

Latino identities, always in the plural, and voting trends 

Not only is there no Latin-American vote, there isn't even a Mexican-American vote, just like there is no Irish vote. Appealing to demographics of any kind over the airwaves is fake. If you have community leaders in your campaign, you don't need ads. Community can be national (like the Black vote) or by neighborhood (White voters with children in American University Park). Who you need to bring into the campaign depends on who you know and who is on your side. Politics is always personal and relational. Is it economic? Look at attitudes of people with children and people without them. This year, Biden got this one right.

Links: Archbishop Naumann, religion as antidepressant and Yo-Yo Ma

Links: Archbishop Naumann, religion as antidepressant and Yo-Yo Ma 

Trump knows that being public poisons the jury pool, and not in his favor.

The AFT has always considered the better union on private schools. This time it was easy to chose sides. The (overpaid) administrators were against the provision. Any prohibition would have been unconstitutional under Espinoza v. Montana. The only stumbling block for more aid to Catholic schools is the bishops themselves for being anti-union.

Naumann is so partisan, he does not know that he is partisan. He is ill-served by those who insist that abortion rights could ever be curtailed in the criminal law. The only option is economic - and for the clergy, it is not an option - it is necessity to support - which means going with the Biden plan. Statements on doing so must be loud and aggressive. The Office of Pro-Life Activities needs public correction as a Republican Front Group.

Faith can be helpful, but the kind that is spiritually based, not tied to the organization. That is no excuse to avoid medication, but good until one finds the right medication - and a safe harbor when meds are wrong. Religion and spirituality need to meet people where they are, or else religion is simply story telling.

No law protects freedom of speech. Such freedoms are above legislative permission. In private speech, part of freedom is the freedom to shun. Sometimes what is abhorrent must simply be denounced without argument. His counter-point would be valid is he addressed the valid claims Hamas makes about the genocide in Gaza. If he wants to argue for killing Palestinian children, I will meet him anytime, anywhere - but I generally don't read what he writes. Life is too short.

The Maine law should be cancelled. It violates Espinoza v Montana. That is all that must be said. There is no case for denying funds based on religion - as well as no justification for resisting unionizing teachers because they are against criminalizing abortion.

The Latino vote: It doesn't exist, but it will decide the future

The Latino vote: It doesn't exist, but it will decide the future 

I did not see a single Lincoln Project ad in Spanish. I saw no voter fraud among Democrats. I am not sure the same thing can be said about Republican votes. Regardless, Trump played on voter insecurities and there were no notable responses. 

As to the future, look for more Nones among Hispanic voters once their elders no longer make sure they get to Mass. Hispanic voters were no different then other voters in believing Trump's lies about personal wealth. We will see how things shake out in 2024 when the Trump myth has been shattered, including fallout over the Insurrection.

Biden's American Rescue Plan is Catholic social doctrine in action

Biden's American Rescue Plan is Catholic social doctrine in action 

The big bet Democrats are making is that increasing unemployment to $300 a week over the current amount, plus a child tax credit, will not result in plenty of money and too few workers. This would be bad. Hyper-stagflation bad. 

The benefit should be tied to work - and increasing the minimum wage would get people back to work faster. Work should include being paid to become economically functional. This means ESL to GED to vocational/technical training or an Associates degree. Tuition must be free and students paid.

Biden should sell Child Tax Credits as an essential pro-life option and shame the bishops into doing the same. It should have been an essential pro-life vote. Casti Connubii is very clear on this point - more so than other encyclicals. Casti is quaint in its attitude toward marriage, but Pius XI gets the economics right.

The Republican talking point was about the debt. The reality is that 80% of the debt held in bonds and mutual funds is owned by 10% of the population. What was the Pareto 80/20 rule has become the 80/10 rule - Applying that rule, the top 1450 households hold a third of all bond and mutual fund wealth, and all other liquid assets as well. Such people have their members of Congress and the Senate on speed dial - and vice versa,  

At some point, interest rates may go up, with the Federal Reserve either making more money, more bonds creating more leverage for more liquidity in the financial markets or removing it as people sell stocks and buy bonds. No one is sure where the system breaks.

Higher income individuals with fewer children may be paid less. Indeed, this would be a good outcome, unless you are a person in that strata and you make donations to Republican Senators.

Better pay also disturbs the supply of low wage workers. The stated goal of Republican economic policy is to not make things so good that people have no incentive to better themselves. Actual research shows the opposite, which is what Republicans really fear - that decent compensation will decrease the supply of low wage workers, especially brown people.

Links: Voter suppression, big money in the church and political preachers

Links: Voter suppression, big money in the church and political preachers 

Every state doing suppression earns itself a mention in the pre-clearance section. John Lewis would not be surprised at any of this. DOJ and others will never let any of these provisions pass.

Catholic Capitalists want to buy the bishops. Sadly, they have been successful to date, but not for much longer. Any lay influence must come from the pews, not the Archbishop's ball.

Joe Biden won the nomination from pulpits at Black Churches throughout the South. It is how he did so without major donors. Hopefully he will visit the USCCB and remove the money changers from the Office of Pro-Life Activities.

Joe does not do his own tweets. One thing he should do is repeal right-to-work/hire undocumented workers as slaves.

Democrats need to get smart about where race and class meet - including the fact that White poor people like to call themselves middle class, while they think all Blacks are poor. Older Hispanic voters are moving into that middle class, no matter what category. The only way to radicalize both groups is to create a system with better toys. The Biden Covid Relief Law is the first step.

We must always remember that the Buddha is venerated, not worshiped. As I said yesterday, he was under the same stars as we are, as are his disciples. They were monastic before Catholics were. Even without acknowledging a God, seeking compassion does Her work.

Dogs are our guardian angels. We venerate them as well.

The spiritual insights Francis displayed in Iraq

The spiritual insights Francis displayed in Iraq 

Francis, ever the world's parish priest (especially when many cannot find room in Church, either literally or figuratively) brings us to God in each other, It is our shared wonder that unites us as family - even among those who do not claim a God. His simplicity indicts those who have turned religion from the discovery of God to the worship of themselves - not those without faith, but those who claim it. The Holy Father and the atheists are not so far apart in finding the primacy of love and condemning the evil of those who profane the name of God for their own importance. I cannot see Francis ever breaking bread with the obnoxious Dawkins, but Dennett is another story. God cares not how we follow him. It is how we reflect Love that is important. We all share the same stars.

Links: Crisis at the border; history of Evangelicalism in America; COVID-19 stimulus bill

Links: Crisis at the border; history of Evangelicalism in America; COVID-19 stimulus bill 

It would be better for the Honduran family to be here legally, without having to claim asylum. Wanting to open borders is very libertarian, although the LP does not believe in open borders.

Evangelicals came to America because the English Church was becoming too Catholic. Garry Wills explains it well in Head and Heart The history of the Evangelicals in the north is the story of my family. The Southern Baptists, however, are not claimed by me or mine. Most have become Catholic, although there are still a few who are still Disciples of Christ.

Rachel loves the Church. She believes, as I do, that it must evolve. A Church that welcomes her would be a good Church indeed.

The Biden bill is a hybrid between Keynes and Milton Freidman. It is not nearly enough - but it is enough for the USCCB to either support it or give up being anything but an organ of the GOP.

Manchin was too cute by half over the past few days, but whomever would replace him would be worse.

As stated above, Biden needs to make the effort to permanently make the child tax credit refundable (and doubling it again) a pro-life issue and dare the Church to disagree.

The Civil Rights Division will go to court to prevent many of the voting scams to limit minority voting. These are not confined to Dixie.

What's behind bishops' statement against the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

What's behind bishops' statement against the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? 

These bishops either should know better (about Roe going nowhere), are idiots or simply liars. Once you advance a lie, it must be followed with more lies. The truth is easier. You don't have to make things up. These bishops are not only pro-life, they are pro-wealth. Cardinals O'Malley, Cupich and Tobin, call your offices, each other and Rome. It is time for some early retirements.

The buffoonery of Abbott and Cuomo

The buffoonery of Abbott and Cuomo 

Abbott is a buffoon, but he may not be wrong. He is betting that there will not be a fourth wave (a third for Texas). Time will tell. The question is not so much herd immunity as a decrease in the number of possible vectors for the virus. If enough people have gotten sick, the virus has nowhere to go and dies out. 

The more recent strain may be more infectious, but not as fatal. That is the usual pattern. In this wave, younger people are getting sick, but they are not dying. Finally, herd immunity happens when people who have had the virus take off their masks and shed immunity. When enough people are exposed to degraded virus, people stop getting sick at all. Unmasking speeds this process.

People in politics in a certain time period exchange warm greetings. Younger people are not socialized into that culture. Cuoumo was wrong to assume they would react like he was used to. He was more an oaf than a buffoon or a predator. He will weather the storm in the same way that Ralph Northum of Virginia did when pictures of him in blackface surfaced. 

As for COVID, spread was caused by a bad CDC model which ignore the early stage of the disease and the assumption that, since it went away for a week after what seemed like a bad cold or seasonal allergies, it would go away instead. Those who delayed (and still delay) die. Health workers dressed for Ebola have not helped people to seek treatment faster. No one likes to think they have a fatal disease when stage one was a bad cold.

Links: Right-to-work voted down, and Niagara Falls has frozen over

Links: Right-to-work voted down, and Niagara Falls has frozen over 

Congress needs to repeal all so called right-to-work laws. In reality, they are part of the attraction of undocumented labor, sometimes in slave-like conditions.

Gasp! Republican politicians are pandering to the worst of their party's voters. The fall of Trump will end this. Without him, the worst of the party will fade into the weeds.

Speak of the devil, some of his minions trying to cash in is pathetic. Rich people do not give to lost causes. I wonder who will be funding these organizations. Could it be....Trump? I would not count on The Donald to share. It is not in his DNA.

Politics is work. Cults of personality do not join the work once their idol is cast down. Rumors of the of the GOP are greatly exaggerated. Normal Republicans did better than Trump where it counted the most.

American exceptionalism is very real. While republican forms of government have, on occasion, resulted in egalitarian blood sport, for the most part they have tossed aside authoritarianism. Until Vatican II, the Church was its main enemy. Exceptionalism has become universalism, which is why ethnic and religious nationalism have reared their ugly heads, from Le Pen to Paprocki.

The rumor that job losses in coal country are related to the drive to clean energy are not without a grain of truth. People who work the mines are not mobile. Their children are, however. Throwing money at them for the new economy - and not necessarily in energy - is the way out for all concerned.

The great thing about the winter in this part of the world is that it makes an appearance and then goes away. Without the warming caused by burning coal and gasoline, however, winter may not be so kind as to leave. Be careful of what you wish for.

Why Pope Francis chose Cardinal Tobin for Vatican appointment

Why Pope Francis chose Cardinal Tobin for Vatican appointment 

This move should be enough for the careerists in the American Church to behave. Hopefully, those who are now retired in grade will do one or the other. There has been enough discord from those who refuse to see where change originates in the Church.

Trump still the golden calf of the GOP

Trump still the golden calf of the GOP 

Trump and Kushner angeled a deal between the UAE and Israel and, while a better White House staff may have not surrendered to the messaging over science on COVID, one might have and more people would be alive today. The pro-life zealots believe him a true believer. He was merely a useful idiot. Only right-wing zealots go to CPAC. They are not the real GOP. The Lincoln Project is. Trump made the election a big deal because he is scared stiff of losing the presidential immunity he never had, although he certainly conned the media into agreeing with him. That they reported this big lie gives it no street cred in figuring out the obvious one. He is no longer wasting ink in. Neither is CPAC. It never was.

Links: Amazon workers' union push, Equality Act, Jamal Khashoggi's murder

Links: Amazon workers' union push, Equality Act, Jamal Khashoggi's murder 

Boycotting Amazon individually is ignorable. A mass public boycott may cause a company to relent. The problem is not Amazon, however. It is right to work laws. Amazon is just a symptom. Working on it is relying on Jeff Bezos as savior. Something bigger is needed.The problem is not Bezos, it is capitalism.

Conservatives are about order, not truth. This is true in both right-wing media and the Church. That has always been the case. Truth has a liberal bias.

The Equality Act was a stunt, as is the lie that people abort (and employers are bothered) because the pregnancy is either costly or inconvenient. People are not that short-sighted. People abort because they know they cannot provide for the child (among other things) and that their employers will not help out with a higher wage to remediate that. This is why only government can solve this.

The Mormon and Catholic Churches are not fighting for their right to preach, but their right to punish sin They seek religious power, not religious freedom. They also feel ashamed by their own bigotry, but they cannot put it into words, even though their conduct is shameful. Being gay is not a sin, especially if it is in relationship to one person. Promiscuity is not evil because it offends God or moral standards, but because it rends the human heart.

The goals of U.S. policy are Israel and oil, not necessarily in that order. There will be bluster, but no bombing of oil fields. We let Saudi Wahhabi zealots attack us with airplanes on 9/11. We won't life a finger on Khashoggi.  

The solution to Cuba is to end the boycott and let 1000 Starbucks open. Talk is nothing if a conservative regime is comfortable in its own skin. What bothers authoritarians is their deep fear that they really are illegitimate and everyone knows it. Again, look at the Bishops.

Moral stakes are high for comprehensive immigration reform

Moral stakes are high for comprehensive immigration reform 

Politics is about what is possible, not what is moral. Full Stop. Ending the requirement for current legal residency while giving people the status that they would otherwise have without it is an easier pill to swallow than pure amnesty. Fees are better than penalties and should cover the actual cost of processing. Using state and local boards of elections (who need to support a larger professional staff at election time) to process applications (with federal appeals) removes the backlog problem.

The main benefit of inequality is a compliant workforce for the worst work. The answer to that is a federal prohibition of right to work laws. Getting behind that helps create a coalition for passing the bill, putting the White working class behind it. This is the best way to decrease the demand for migrant labor. The other need is federal enforcement of wage and safety laws with punitive fines paying for these efforts. States simply cannot be trusted with this job.

The 2013 bill as a political stunt to make the Republicans look bad. It was never designed to pass. It was a bad bill that, absent its political stunt factor, could never be passed by Democrats. That is where morals come in. 

The Equality Act is payback to the Human Rights Campaign. It has no chance of passage and most people will not notice it. Most of it is already law under the Title VII cases. The question of how Hosanna-Tabor and the Title VII cases converge will come up soon. This will lead to legislation. The Court is probably where this will play out first. A cogent argument about the Church seeking religious power instead of religious freedom will bring forward a proper balance without depending on Congress.

Trump was morally repugnant. His people flooded party local positions. Now that Trump is gone, they will become lazy and drop out of the process. Sanders voters should take the lesson, leave Democratic Socialists of America and seek Democratic Party precinct, county, district and state positions. Trump's ownership of the GOP is a short term thing. 

COVID had nothing to do with the outcome of the election. People in COVID hot spots showed up to vote for Trump as people were dropping dead in his states. It had no impact on his favorability or his lingering popularity. Proof he is a conman might.

The Bishops Conference is irrelevant. It's Republican shills are retiring and dying off. Whether patients or confrontation on this is the better course can be debated. I favor confrontation because the views on abortion on both sides are flawed. Abortion in the first trimester is constitutionally impossible, no matter how may hearts and minds are changed and the seamless garment of life is a lame attempt to legitimate Democratic voting by those who do not need a reason to do so.

The Catholic Church's existential issues will not be solved by shows of unity twice a year at USCCB meetings. Until it abandons its toxic sexual teachings, its shelf life is not eternal. Jesus promised that the Church would be given the grace to change, not that it is always right. It is time to trust God and ordain women. Like immigration reform, this won't happen overnight, but it will happen.