Those ‘Christian Nationalists’

Well it is Sunday and what better time than to post about these so-called ‘christians’ and their embrace of nationalism.

These people are attempting to inflict their personal beliefs ion the rest of America….kinda like the lie that Muslims were attempting to impose Sharia law of the rest of us…..now they are doing it and doing it successfully.

The past few weeks have been full of unsettling indicators of the fragile state of our democracy. The January 6th committee has assembled a frightening account of how close the 2020 election came to being violently overturned. The Supreme Court has lurched rightward, striking down the constitutional right to abortion and issuing a series of momentous decisions on guns, environmental regulation, and the separation of church and state. Researchers have begun to view these disparate political currents as part of a broader cultural, religious, and political phenomenon—one that is rooted in a specific reading of American history and, in particular, Christianity’s role in it. They call this concept white Christian nationalism. Samuel Perry, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma and a co-author of “The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy,” joins guest host Michael Luo to discuss the contours of this belief system, and the roles that guns and voting restrictions play in its implementation in U.S. politics.

(newyorker.com)

The religious Right has made great strives in controlling every aspect of our lives….Roe v Wade…..is just the beginning…..

With its decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending national protections for abortion rights, the Supreme Court gave the religious right its greatest policy victory since the mass movement of white evangelical Protestants joined hands with the Republican Party more than 40 years ago.

The problem? The religious right’s unpopular policy of banning abortion is now reality, at least in certain states. Republicans can no longer hide behind Roe and express support for unpopular policies that will never become law. They will have to defend abortion bans, and other unpopular restrictions pushed by an emboldened religious conservative movement.

Republicans are already seeing how unpopular banning abortion can be. In the first vote on abortion since the court’s June decision, voters in Kansas ― a state that decisively voted to reelect Donald Trumprejected a referendum that would have overturned a state Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights, and did so by a double-digit margin that exceeded Trump’s win there.

“It’s no longer a theoretical possibility,” Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, which tracks public opinion on politics and religion, said about the prospect of abortion bans. “It’s actual reality, and we’re seeing a backlash.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roe-kansas-religious-right_n_62ed2034e4b0ecfe3f704a0a

I always get a chuckle out of these knuckle heads that spout ‘religious freedom’ as a way to control the population to their way of thinking…..look at history will help clarify what is going on….

A couple weeks back, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered the keynote address at the Notre Dame Law School’s second annual Religious Liberty Summit in Rome. Much of the subsequent attention has focused on Alito’s defense of the Court’s recent Dobbs decision on abortion, and especially his mocking of foreign leaders who had criticized that decision. But Alito’s remarks overall presented a far broader defense of religious liberty, which he defined throughout as under sustained attack from “our increasingly secular society.” He argued that there’s “growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that it is ascendant in some sectors.” And he equated religious liberty with the necessary special protection of religion and religious communities from these attacks.

A sitting Supreme Court Justice delivering such pointed social and political commentary publicly seems a bit unusual (although it is far from unheard-of). But Alito’s remarks fit smoothly into a longstanding, indeed a defining, American debate. Religious liberty is one of America’s founding ideals, a quite literally revolutionary guarantee that any and all religions (including no religion) would be included and equal in this new nation. But in practice, far too often religious liberty has meant the freedom to equate the nation with Christianity and discriminate against and exclude those who are outside that perspective and community.

Both sides of that coin can be found in the story of one of the earliest European American communities, the New England Puritans. The Puritans made their way to the Americas in search of religious freedom, fleeing the persecution they and their extreme form of Protestant Christianity had faced in both England and Holland (as it was then known) and hoping to build a new community where they could practice that religion in peace. What Puritan lawyer and leader John Winthrop famously referred to as the “city upon a hill” in his 1630 speech “A Model of Christian Charity” was the idea that the world would be watching what happened with this community now that it would be finally free to practice and amplify those religious beliefs.

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/08/considering-history-religious-liberty-has-too-often-meant-the-freedom-to-exclude/

Even true Christians are not comfortable with the embrace of nationalism either…..and they offer a response to the crap spread by the nationalists that pretend they are doing what they do in the name of Christ.

How to answer when Christian nationalists embrace the label as a badge of honor

I all see is people that want to fleece the people and control every aspect of the lives…..keep them ignorant and in servitude.

I have no time for these slugs on humanity.

I was never a religious person…. but in 1980 when Reagan brought in religion to the government I back away for good….religion has no place in the decisions of our elected officials.

Religion is a private thing and should stay that way….between the person and whatever god he/she decides to embrace.  Keep your beliefs to yourself….if I want to hear them I will ask.(but don’t hold your breath)

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Should We Redraw Our Map?

The country is “Slipping Into Darkness”……song made famous War….(the group not the conflict)……

For a couple of decades now the US has been separating itself into tribes…..and it has only gotten worse and the last election illustrates just how far this division has gone.

Of course you know I have written on the subject before, right?

https://lobotero.com/2018/05/11/tribes/

Our beloved nation is slipping further and further into ‘tribalism’…..which, in my opinion, will destroy this country and all we have made of it in the last 200+ years.

For about five decades the politics of fear have us dividing ourselves into tribes….basically it is ‘us against them’……these tribes that will destroy all we have accomplished.

People have always used fear for intimidation of the subordinates or enemies, and shepherding the tribe by the leaders. Recently, it appears that Pres. Trump has used fear by suggesting in a tweet that four minority congresswomen go back to the places they came from.

There is a longstanding history of employing the fear of “the others,” turning humans into illogical ruthless weapons, in service to an ideology. Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behavior.

Fear is arguably as old as life. It is deeply ingrained in the living organisms that have survived extinction through billions of years of evolution. Its roots are deep in our core psychological and biological being, and it is one of our most intimate feelings. Danger and war are as old as human history, and so are politics and religion.

https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-fear-how-it-manipulates-us-to-tribalism-113815

How you may ask?

All this division and tribalism is threatening the pillar of our nation…the Constitution.

“Americans have come to view the Constitution not as a statement of shared principles but as a cudgel with which to attack their enemies”  Gordon Wood…….Not a more accurate observation has been found.

The U.S. Constitution was and is imperfect. It took a civil war to establish that the principles enumerated in its Bill of Rights extended to all Americans, and the struggle to live up to those principles continues today. But focusing on the Constitution’s flaws can overshadow what it did achieve. Its revolutionary ambition was to forge, out of a diverse population, a new national identity, uniting Americans under a banner of ideas. To a remarkable extent, it succeeded.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/the-threat-of-tribalism/568342/

Maybe we should forget about Greenland and do some work on the good old US of A…..(link has an interactive map for your ease of comprehension)….

… a new way to map the diverse lands that make up the United States. Unlike a traditional classroom map, this uses counties rather than states as the building blocks for its regions. The United Regions of America map solves the problem that many states actually lie in more than one distinct region (for example: Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, California, or New York, to name a few). And since there are 3,142 counties (including areas equivalent to counties), the regional boundaries can be drawn much more precisely than with just 50 states.

https://jeremyposadas.org/regions/

If you did not like that map…then maybe this one will be more to your liking…..https://considerable.com/us-map-38-states/

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Your Country Needs You!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Defeated Ideology Isn’t Dead

On the day after the DDay celebrations I would like to point out a few things most notably the ideology of hate of the Nazis was soundly defeated by the forces of “good”……it was defeated but not eliminated…..

The threats that caused WW2, Facism and rabid nationalism, are only dormant……and as it awakes it MUST be confronted and put down in its place……When these threats to freedom do re-emerge; where this ideology becomes resurgent; let us be clear. It won’t be defeated by aping or appeasing it. We will defeat it only by confronting it.

75 years ago to this day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France was delayed one final time. Appropriately, it was in the face of the British weather that General Eisenhower pushed back the beginning of Operation Overlord – this time by just 24 hours – and on June 6, 1944, D-Day began.

Pilots and aircrew from 12 different nations led a 1200-plane airborne assault, preceding the largest seaborne invasion in history with nearly 7,000 vessels carrying 160,000 troops across the English Channel.

The historian Anthony Beevor records that General Eisenhower, without telling even his closest advisors, had prepared a brief statement to be made in the event of failure. It read: “the landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it was mine alone.”

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2019/06/75-years-after-d-day-ideology-we-defeated-isnt-dead-just-dormant

We see the ugliness of rabid nationalism once again…..and as we did in the past we must step up and put it in its place….in the dust bin of history.

This is not an ideology that can be totally defeated…..but sanity usually returns and this rabid hatred is once again in check….for another generation until we forget the devastation the hatred wrought….then the cycle will begin again….ad nauseum.

Closing Thought–28May19

We hear more these days about the rise of hate groups and hate incidents of attack…..but just how bad is it?

US counties where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally saw a 226% increase in reported hate crimes over similar counties that did not hold a rally, political scientists at the University of North Texas said in an analysis published in The Washington Post.

According to a study done by University of North Texas professors Regina Branton and Valerie Martinez-Ebers, and PhD candidate Ayal Feinberg, the scientists found that Trump’s statements during the 2016 campaign “may encourage hate crimes” in the respective counties.

The study measured the correlation between counties that hosted a 2016 campaign rally and the crime rates in the months that followed. The scientists used the Anti-Defamation League’s map that measures acts of violence and compared the counties that hosted a rally with others that had similar characteristics, including minority population, location, and active hate groups.

Branton, Martinez-Ebers, and Feinberg noted that their study “cannot be certain” that the marked increase was solely attributed to Trump’s rhetoric. But they also shut down the suggestion that the reported hate crimes were fake.

“In fact, this charge is frequently used as a political tool to dismiss concerns about hate crimes,” the analysis said. “Research shows it is far more likely that hate crime statistics are considerably lower because of underreporting.”

(businessinsider.com)

No matter which way you want to cut the info…the fact is that hate crimes are on the rise…blame who you like….but that does not change the facts.(you know those silly things that most people want to ignore in pursuit of political correctness).

Fake News, Racism And Bombs

We have less than a week before a historic mid-term election and we have experienced bombs, mass shootings, etc and what brings this on?

There are a couple of articles that touches on these subjects a bit……like it or not…this is Trump’s America…..

Donald Trump, the American president, has fomented violence against liberal opponents and critics who disagree with his policies, and so-called “fake news” media organisations he regards as the “enemy of the people.”

With pipe bombs mailed to some of the political targets he has singled out for retribution – several high-profile Democratic Party politicians, including two former US presidents, a liberal billionaire philanthropist and a major news organisation – Trump is the most prominent inciter of violence and facilitator of right-wing American domestic terrorism.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/fake-news-racism-bombs-fear-loathing-trump-america-181025082812562.html

These right winger extremists are stalking America…..and the rhetoric from the White House is not helping…..

Four of the Saturday worshippers brutally murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue had been old enough during the Holocaust and the second world war to revere America as a safe haven in a world of hate. The other seven victims, the youngest of whom was 54, had grown up in a land where most blatant antisemitism had seemingly retreated to the shadows.

When pipe bombs were mailed to a dozen targets of Donald Trump’s wrath, the only frail consolation had been that no one had been injured. Now with the worst incident of antisemitic violence in American history all comfort has vanished.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/29/rightwing-terror-stalks-america-pittsburgh

I read an excellent question after the weekend of death …….

If there is one thing the massacre at a Jewish synagogue, the pipe bombs mailed to leading Democratic party figures, and the racist violence that claimed the lives of two African-Americans in a Louisville Kroger store last week show, it’s that far-right and racist extremism are serious threats in the United States. Though law enforcement took swift action towards investigating and prosecuting those accused of carrying out these attacks, it is not clear the US federal government is taking this threat as seriously as it should.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US has devoted enormous energy and resources towards countering threats posed by those accused of affiliation with extremists associating themselves with Islam both in the US and abroad. When US officials seek greater surveillance authority, they also frequently do so by emphasizing threats they say are posed by Muslims.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/29/us-treating-far-right-threat-seriously-enough

Personally, the events in the past 2 years is not the United States that I pledged to protect from all enemies foreign and domestic….and anyone that is not disgusted by the events then they are not the “patriot” they pretend to be.

But that is my opinion…..those articles are not mine and reflect the opinions of the authors…if you disagree do not tear into me contact the people in person…if you have the spine.

Further Reading:

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-fascist-threat-our-political-establishment-wont-acknowledge/

The South Shall Rise Again!

My weekend and this is the news I see as I awaken from my slumber…..more racists….more bigotry.

And the bumper sticker that show a Reb soldier holding the stars and bars  saying “Forget Hell”!

For some old farts in the New South the Civil War, War Between The States, never really ended…just a break between secessionists plots…..and during the Cold War “Love It Or Leave It” was a popular slogan they hated anything Russian and anyone that said anything positive about it.

Boy have things changed!

Not everyone is hating the Russia thing: Certain neo-confederates are promising to post a Russian-language page to share ideas with Russians about “Southern nationalism,” reports AL.com. Called League of the South, the Alabama-based group made its announcement only days after President Trump and Vladimir Putin met to discuss issues off the record in Helsinki. A letter from league president Michael Hill argues that Southerners and Russians have a lot in common. “As fellow Whites of northern European extraction, we come from the same general gene pool,” writes Hill. “As inheritors of the European cultural tradition, we share similar values, customs, and ways of life.”

Hill goes on to argue that “as Christians, we worship the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” and says cooperation between the two peoples “could indeed be the foundation for a better world.” Labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the League of the South has chapters in 16 states and advocates for a second Southern secession. As of this writing, their website has mysteriously gone down. Regardless, analysts are seeing a fresh alliance between Trump boosters, Russia, and white nationalists, Newsweek reports. “The current Russian government … cites figures who are unambiguously fascist and Nazi,” says historian Timothy Snyder. “There’s been a kind of renaissance of the 1930s which has crept up on us.”

These slugs will get in bed with anyone that will help spread their racist bullshit.

Economic Nationalism

Donald Trump came to the board room of power through what some are calling “economic nationalism”….the whole “Make America Great Again” smacks of this policy.

Economic nationalism is a term used to describe policies which are guided by the idea of protecting domestic consumption, labor and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labour, goods and capital. It is in opposition to Globalisation in many cases, or at least on questions the unrestricted good of Free trade. It would include such doctrines as Protectionism, Import substitution, Mercantilism and planned economies.

Examples of economic nationalism include Japan’s use of MITI to “pick winners and losers”, Malaysia’s imposition of currency contols in the wake of the 1997 currency crisis, China’s controlled exchange of the Yuan, Argentina’s economic policy of tariffs and devaluation in the wake of the 2001 financial crisis and the United States’ use of tariffs to protect domestic steel production.

Ex-Trump adviser, Bannon, was a champion of this so-called policy…..the problem is that most of it is nothing but snake oil….a con if you will.

Former chief strategist and campaign manager Steve Bannon’s departure from the Trump White House surely does not mean an end to the demagogic racial politics in which Donald Trump has trafficked for decades.

It does, however, seem to mark the final eclipse of the notion that Trump would move beyond demagoguery and construct a vision of “nationalist” economic policy that would differ in a meaningful way from standard-issue pro-business Republicanism. Bannon, on his way out the door, appeared serious about this idea — phoning up progressive magazine editor Robert Kuttner to try to find common ground on trade policy and explain that “to me, the economic war with China is everything.”

Source: Steve Bannon’s “economic nationalism” is total nonsense – Vox

What Is ‘Ethno-Nationalism’?

For at least a decade there have been accusations thrown around by the two so-called parties about each others agendas…..on the Right they seem to prefer the term “socialist” without knowing exactly what a socialist is all about…..and then on the Left they want to use the term “racist” or Fascist”……In my opinion both are wrong….so wrong….

After his election, Trump made his campaign dude, Bannon, his adviser….which was a smart move for the position does not need Congressional confirmation…..but once he was named the terms started flying around like flies on a turd.

This article appears in The American Conservative (yes I read that publication….surprise….surprise)…..

According to recent reports in the mainstream media, Steve Bannon is a supporter of “ethno-nationalism,” and that is scary. It is also, since everything the left doesn’t like is slapped with this label, “racist.” Sometimes, the word “white” is thrown in the mix of charges to make them extra scary, as in this tweet from the Southern Poverty Law Center. (If Bannon is a “white nationalist,” what work is “ethno” doing in that tweet? Or if he is really an “ethno-nationalist,” why is “white” thrown in except as a propaganda technique?)

To make their point, people are citing quotes from Bannon like this one: “‘When two-thirds or three-quarters of the C.E.O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think …’ he said, trailing off midsentence before continuing a moment later, ‘a country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.’”

Source: What Is ‘Ethno-Nationalism’? | The American Conservative

I am not sure that I will agree with their conclusions but I felt that they needed some exposure…..it still sounds like a code word to me…

If I had heard this piece on audio only I would have sworn that was a piece by Pat Buchanan.

Below is an op-ed, not mine, on some afterthoughts of the Trump victory….

I was in the lobby of a theatre this week after the election, having an honest talk about Donald Trump. A lady came over to me and my friends and whispered, “keep your voice down or you’ll get arrested.” I told her she was being ridiculous and she responded that we all had to be careful. He would arrest his critics. I understand some people are upset. I’m upset. But paranoia leads to isolation. The worst thing we can do is silence ourselves, to act as if the danger is worse than it is. There are real problems. Let’s not pretend to have problems that don’t exist.

So what is the situation that shows itself in the election of Donald Trump?

Source: What Comes After Denial? Thoughts on Donald Trump’s Movement – Amor Mundi – Medium

American Nationalism Returns

This election has brought the term “nationalism” back into the civic discourse…..nut then we need to ask….by what definition is this term being used?

We could drop back into history about 75 years ago and work from there to determine the true meaning of the word…..or not…

I read an interesting take on this subject in the National Review….you guys remember the magazine right?  In case the answer is NO then let me help….it is a conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley, Jr…any bells now?

In electing Donald Trump, voters have rebelled against the rule of a transnational elite.

Donald Trump’s election is above all else a rebellion of the voters against identity politics enforced by political correctness, and it opens the way to a new politics of moderate levels of immigration, patriotic assimilation, and, in foreign policy, the defense of U.S. sovereignty. In the past few months, Trump put together a winning electoral coalition that stressed the unity and common interests of all Americans across the full spectrum of policy, from immigration to diplomacy.
Because of Trump’s electoral success, this combination of policies rooted in the national interest and patriotism has suddenly begun to sound like common sense. That was not so only yesterday, when political correctness made it hard even to examine such ideas as “multiculturalism.” In February, David Gelernter stated that the “havoc” that political correctness “has wreaked for 40 years [has been made] worse by the flat refusal of most serious Republicans to confront it.” Indeed, he noted, “only Trump has the common sense to mention the elephant in the room. Naturally he is winning.” Defeating political correctness — or, in positive terms, expanding real freedom of speech — made it possible to raise other issues that worried the voters but that a bland bipartisan consensus pushed to the sidelines.

Source: Donald Trump’s Win: American Nationalism Returns | National Review

 

Trump Makes Me Yearn For My Syndicalist Days

It is less than 4 days before America goes to the polls and picks their next president…..and their choices are still a mystery….at least to me.

I have been asking myself that question for over a year.  I have seen people that under normal circumstances are level headed and rational…..and then they hitched their fate to the Trump bandwagon.

It has been a mystery…not even the totally committed supporters have any idea why they are a supporter……..they offer up some diatribe about speaking his mind or having balls or other such simplistic dodges…….

But why?

And it’s not gender, age, income, race or religion.

If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated?

You’d be wrong.

In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism.

That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.

Source: Donald Trump 2016: The One Weird Trait That Predicts Whether You’re a Trump Supporter – POLITICO Magazine

I am sure this will not be a popular explanation….especially for his most ardent supporters…..but if one takes the time to look at it in a rational manner (yeah that will happen) then it does…..it makes perfect sense…..just listen to the rhetoric coming from the mouths of those ardent supporters.

A few thoughts on nationalistic fervor……

“All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.”
“I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.”
“I don’t believe in nationalism. I think it’s a bunch of slogans. It’s a bunch of poor attempts at creating pride. My problem with nationalism is that it becomes exclusionary. We start to exclude people.”
“Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.”
Just a few thoughts on nationalism……..

Issues like “if I win then my opponent will be jailed” or “if I lose then it is all rigged and therefore not acceptable”……the cries of many 3rd world dictators……

Is the country ready and willing to give up rights/freedoms for security?

Have we been condition to make this all possible?  If so, by whom?

Globalists?  Now that is a subject for a later day….too intense for this one….an insult that could replace “apologist” or “bleeding heart” even “socialist”……

I am old now but the direction of the country makes me yearn for my Syndicalist days……..