No, not here in America

I have so much to write about.  My head is spinning.   Originally, I was going to write about climate change.  The whole world is on fire and Mother Nature is very angry.

 

Other stuff keeps happening!   The FBI raided Mar-a-lago and retrieved 10-12 boxes of what may have been classified nuclear information.  tRump had his first wife buried on his golf course.  She was cremated and yet had a coffin so heavy it had to be carried by extra pall bearers.  Now I wonder what else was in that coffin.  It reminds me of Ocean’s 12, an old movie about a group of ex-soldiers plotting to raid several Las Vegas casinos.  They pulled it off but one of them died and the friends thought it was a good idea to put the money in the coffin.  The big twist was that the guy was cremated, coffin and all.   The whole tRump team and followers are reminding me of organized crime.  TFG is “the godfather”—the Don.  He was a hierarchy of people that serve different roles for him so that he doesn’t get his hands dirty.  They threaten anyone who is against them and willingly resort to violence to scare/silence the other parties.   So look now at what’s going on here.  You’ve got the “Teflon” Don still a large force in the GQP.  There aren’t enough of the true Republicans who will willingly cross him, especially since so many legislators, state AGs, and even regular employees have been threatened and harassed.  The whole January 6th committee have gotten death threats, particularly the two “traitors” Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.  The GQP thugs and assorted morons have come out in strong support of the “Big Lie” and now, defunding the FBI.  That’s a retaliation tactic for the raid on tRump’s home.  Oh, and the judge who signed permission for the raid has been receiving death threats from tRump’s loyal white supremacist violent followers.   All of this is not only like organized crime families, it’s also the tactics of rising dictators.  TFG is practically in lockstep with Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin, Putin, and all the other current dictators of the world.  In a dictatorship, the rights of the people are wiped out.  People who resist or rebel are jailed or executed.  What the white supremacist extremist violent groups want is an all-white “Christian” country.  So what’s to happen to people of color or different religious beliefs or different sexual orientation?  I know:  we’ll have places like Auschwitz all over again if those people don’t escape first.   Do I sound hysterical?  My imagination running away with me?  Do you think, “No, this won’t happen in America!”  My answer is to do some reading and exploring of topics and don’t rely on just social media or friends.  Start with that Lewis Powell memo and then google topics like Christian nationalism.  Review European history from the 1930s to the declaration of WWII; learn about Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin.   I used to be in that “No, this won’t happen in America” group until I got busy reading.  Now I realize how deeply in peril our democracy is.  It’s up to us to stand up and try to stop the overthrow.  The legislators aren’t going to do it.  They are too busy hating each other.  It has to be us, voting and speaking up.   Here is one of several pieces about former Justice Lewis Powell’s memo that set the Rethuglicans plotting: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-worst-memo-in-american-history?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share   The actual memo: https://law2.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellMemorandumTypescript.pdf   Christian nationalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_nationalism a good place to start   White supremacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy Read other sources too!   White supremacist militaristic goups:  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mainstream-presence-of-proud-boys-other-extreme-groups-creates-mass-radicalization-fears   https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/all-american-extremism-guide-1361035/   Read, learn, vote.

GQP has become the face of white "Christian" nationalism

 White “Christian” nationalism has come out of hiding and we are learning it’s a lot more widespread than we ever thought possible.

We were under the impression that America was inclusive and welcoming to non-White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) too.  Sure, there was a lot of resentment and bigotry with every wave of immigrants that arrived here.  There was always a fear “they’re going to take my job away” and “they’re going to change our way of life.” It wasn’t just the immigrants.  When slaves were freed in 1863, whites had the very same “they’re going to take my job away” mentality.

Still, the illusion went, we worked through all that over the years.  Fifty odd years ago, civil rights laws were passed beginning with equality for people of color; then women’s rights; then rights for people with disabilities.  We were one happy family – most of the time.  We probably were aware that the KKK and neo-Nazi groups still existed but they weren’t such a big deal anymore, were they?

Then came 2016 and the former guy (TFG) won.  All through his campaigning, he proved himself to be a bullying liar who spoke hateful words that appealed to those groups of people.  He lost the popular vote but won more electoral votes than his opponent did.  Right from the day he was inaugurated, he spread hatred and dissention.  His inaugural speech focused on American “carnage”.  It was the most depressing, upsetting speech I’ve ever heard from a President.

Militant white supremacists were attracted to his message.  Right wing evangelical “Christians” liked what TFG was saying.  White supremacists and racists had been undercover for years, hiding their views from a disapproving public.  They communicated in closed groups on the internet, plotting, plotting, plotting.  They felt confident coming more out in the open when TFG said, after the clashes between Nazis/white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia five years ago, that both sides were very fine people.  Or something equally supportive of the white supremacists and Nazis.

There is a prevailing “Great Replacement Theory” that has a stronghold in the GQP (formerly respectable GOP) and white supremacy groups like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Per-Centers, and hundreds of other extreme right wing racist groups.  They believe that people of color are replacing white people in population (maybe they are, but is that such a bad thing?) and are changing our “traditional” ways of life.  Again, is that a bad thing?  It is, if one is afraid of losing power.  The lowest income white man feels superior to the wealthiest black man.  It’s no different from were before the Civil War.

In 2020, TFG told his lavishly devoted Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” What a clear message.  Don’t do anything at the moment but I will need you later.  First he had them attack the Michigan State House and attempt to kidnap/murder Gov. Whitmer.  This way, he could see that he could rely on them to do the same thing at the Capitol on January 6^th.

And who are most of these white supremacists and Nazis and militias?  Young white guys, at their macho best.  I don’t know how many are military or are cops but they’re all glued to these conspiracy websites that are recruiting them to their violent groups.  The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers may feel stung by TFG’s betrayal of them after the coup attempt.  That doesn’t matter.  There are hundreds of groups like them who would happily participate in another coup attempt after the mid-terms in November.

They are very dangerous, but so are the white “Christian” nationalists who have also begun spreading their tentacles throughout the GQP.  The politicians carrying “Christian” nationalism like a banner think the Founding Fathers didn’t intend to have church and state separate, apparently misunderstand or deliberately ignoring what they actually said about it.

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
― John Adams

“Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of it's protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson

I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

George Washington

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

James Madison

 

And how about this quote from a famous Republican President?

Church and state are, and must remain, separate.

Ronald Reagan

 

I have a feeling that some of these legislators spouting off about “Christian” nationalism are really ignorant of history.  Specifically, I mean Rep. Boebert of Colorado who recently said that church should direct government.  She got that from other “Christian” nationalists who also happen to be racists, not from the Founding Fathers.  Then there’s the equally blockheaded Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.  She’s proud to be a “Christian” nationalist and thinks the whole country should be too.  Um, hello?  Not all our citizens and residents are Christians.  There are other legislators like them.  What is disheartening is that I suppose these idiots are in Congress because the people who elected them are (a) incredibly ignorant or are (b) white supremacists too.

They’ve gotten themselves mixed up in violence in a couple of ways.  There’ve been a lot of attacks on doctors, nurses, assistants and guides of abortion clinics.  The “Christian” nationalists are rabidly and frothing at the mouth anti-abortion.  Their concern for “right to life” stops as soon as the baby is born, of course.  I think TFG was able to tap into the froth and mania of the far-right evangelicals with some of his rhetoric making them believe he’s with them.  After all, he had the National Guard violently disperse a peaceful crowd of protestors so that he could stand in front of a church and make a statement.  He waved an upside-down Bible around in the air above his head.  That should have told the believers something but apparently, they didn’t notice or just let it go that the POTUS couldn’t even hold a Bible right side up.

So now these groups, the militaristic white supremacist extremists and the entirely wrong-headed “Christian” nationalists are becoming more mainstream.  That really worries me.  I don’t think we should ever normalize them but that’s what happens in the mainstream.  I would like the nationalists to drop “Christian” from their names because they are not followers of New Testament Jesus.  The only Jesus they follow is Warrior Jesus of Revelation.  The big surprise, however, is that Warrior Jesus is going to be majorly pissed at them.

Calling Dr. Frankenstein/Dr. Lang

An article about “zombie pigs” appeared in several of my newsletters last week.  I’m sure you’ve heard the story about pigs’ brains being regenerated after they’d died?  This article explains it really well https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/20382/20190418/zombie-pigs-scientists-restores-brain-activity-in-pigs-four-hours-after-death  I got the heebie-jeebies when I first read the news.  Once you’re dead, you’re dead.  Unless ... and this really creeps me out.

Right now, Ted and I are rewatched the old gothic soap, Dark Shadows.  It aired from 1966-71.  I was one of the kids who ran home every day from school to make sure I got there in time to watch the show.  I’m still a fan.  I write Dark Shadows fan fiction and have been to a couple of the annual Fests.  Anyway, we’re currently on the “Frankenstein” story line.

Barnabas, who’s suffered the curse of vampirism for almost 200 years, is being helped by Dr. Eric Lang and Dr. Julia Hoffman.  Dr. Lang’s theory is that he can transfer Barnabas’ life force to the sewn-together body and free Barnabas from the curse.  Now, why, in this day and age, did Dr. Lang resort to grave robbing instead of just getting a fresh, whole body from a hospital or morgue?  No matter.  Dr. Lang was playing God (or Higher Power).

Dr. Frankenstein, in the Mary Shelley book and in the movies, also was playing God by using experimental means to bring life to a sewn together corpse.  Why didn’t they just use a whole body?  I guess it adds to the horror to imagine the new body is made up of various peoples’ limbs, torso, and “Abby Normal” brains.

One question I’ve asked myself again and again when watching this Dark Shadows storyline or the many Frankenstein movies is:  what about the soul?  I believe we have souls that are part of our life forces.  I think when our bodies die, our souls move on to another plane we can’t see.  Call it heaven or whatever makes sense to you. 

The scientists at Yale were able to regenerate cells in the brains of decapitated pigs (they were already decapitated before the scientists got them).  It’s cool but it’s also spooky.  Will they get to the point where they can bring the organs of people back to life after they died?  Are the people the same as they were before they died, considering that with death their life force and soul are gone.

This could be a great technology for people who have organs that are failing.  Maybe it could replace transplants.  Maybe something like this could help repair brain damage in a living person that had an accident or a stroke.  It’s fascinating but at the same time it’s creepy.