Through A Glass Darkly...

1 Corinthians 13:12King James Version (KJV)

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 My friend Aaron as a theory "This wasn't an election, it was a 'Going out of business' sale for the Baby Boomers." So, basically, fear of death is what's driving this whole Trump thing. 

I've been considering this since he said it last week.

An awful lot of the human drive regarding religion is the struggle with death, acceptance (Buddhism and Hinduism, along with many other Eastern traditions) avoidance (Rapture-believing Christians) control/martyrdom (Early Christians and today's Fundamentalist Muslims) and transcendence (Christianity, Judaism, most Muslims) being the most common responses. There are other answers to this dilemma, but that's what came to mind right now.

Much has been said about conservative and Evangelical Christian support for Trump, but the simple fact is that most of the people I know who fall into those demographics is that they might claim the label, but they fall short of fulfilling the meanings of those words. Most of the Christians I know who support Trump seem to be the kind who regard Christianity as little more than their tribal identity, or worse as a framework on which to hang all the stuff they want to do anyway. Add to that, that modern American Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christianity is basically the gospel of "Fuck you, I've got mine" and there you go.

Not all people who follow those forms of Christianity are that way, but a lot of the ones I've met are, and that's the truth.

For seven years, I was a staff member on a forum for ex-Pentecostals and ex-Fundamentalists, and an awful lot of people at one time or another spoke of fear of death, or of a dying relative's fear of death. Well, my answer to that is, if you think God is some kind of cosmic bully who's just waiting for a chance to send people to hell...and so, you fear death...then that's YOUR problem.

I was not taught that way.

Of course, an awful lot of the same people will tell you in the next breath that they think we're living in/near the End Times and Jesus is going to come back and the Rapture will occur and they'll all get teleported up to Heaven (without the inconvenience of, ya know, death) and get to watch the rest of us suffer for the next seven years.

Does any of this sound fucked up to you yet? 'Cause it sure did to me the first time I heard it. 

The doctrine of the Rapture was invented by a British nut job theologian named John Nelson Darby, and popularized in the United States by an Alcoholic former Confederate soldier (and, for the record, deserter) named Cyrus Ingersoll Schofield. If this sounds like some kind of 19th Century equivalent to Duck Dynasty, well it pretty much is, just without the ducks, and with some financial and political scandals and crazy religious bullshit thrown in.

America has always had a thing for cranks, and that fucking guy was no exception.

In any case, in the latter half of the 20th Century his doctrine of the Rapture became the great hope of those who were seeking to avoid death. In 1996, after some bad things happened in my life, I became a member of the End Times Prophecy movement. I have to say though, that I never really bought into all the Rapture stuff. Probably, this is because I was raised as a mainstream Christian and that doctrine is not a part of mainstream Christianity. In any case, my affiliation with that movement died off in early 2000 when the Apocalypse failed to materialize. I wasn't going to move the goalposts or look for the next big thing, I was just done with it all.

But, a lot of people weren't. Interest did more or less die off for a while, but then 9/11 happened and inflamed these people's imaginations again and they've not looked back since. I remember all sorts of religious craziness in the days immediately following the attacks. Oh yeah, and I heard ALL about it from my ex-wife, who was convinced that this was some kind of major event on the prophetic timeline.

Funny thing, but now I hear the Daesh are saying the same thing about Donald Trump's attempted Muslim ban...which they think of as a blessed event. While the rest of the world reacts with anger and confusion and rage and legal wranglings and court orders, they sit back and chuckle at the human suffering because it'll prove their "point" and net them a few more recruits for their imagined holy war against the West. (How they view it that way when they are mostly killing other Muslims, I'm not sure I understand. But, like with the Trump Supporters...I cannot fit my head far enough up my own ass to see their point of view.)

If we don't get a handle on it, if we don't overcome our fears, they will kill us.

Fear of the other, fear of Black people, of Brown people, of gay people, people of other religions, you name it. People say all type of dumb shit about the people they're afraid of...and of course very little of it is true. But then, if somebody has never been further than a hundred miles from home and watches FOX News all the time, how would they know? right?

We as a nation used to have an antidote for that kind of backwardness and a cure for that kind of fear, a guy would get drafted and probably sent to some other part of the world for a couple of years. Hell, long after THAT went away, when I was growing up in my small Northern Michigan hometown, most people my age couldn't wait to leave there and go out into the world and DO something.

I'm not sure what the hell changed, except that fear became more socially acceptable and 24-hour news cycles had to talk about something, so they went with shitty negative stuff. Fuck, I can remember when PBS and a couple of other local channels went off the air at Midnight and when the only thing on after Johnny Carson and David Letterman was bad reruns on the regular TV channels.

Truth be told, I kind of miss those days, I work third shift and I get really tired of some of the shit we get treated to on the break room TV's by CNN, FOX News and the damned infomercials, but hey, that's just me, and I can't hear Tucker Carlson speak without wanting to punch him right in the mouth so he's got something other than that smug sneer on his face for a while. I get a bad vibe from that guy...even Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck did not set me off like he does.

Get the fear merchants and the haters off the air, and I bet a lot of this shit calms down...

But even if they never do, let me explain what the real problem here is.

It's not Black Lives Matter or the Liberals or the Mexicans or the Muslims or Obama or whatever the Bogeyman of the week is, if you're a conservative.

Hell, for ya'll liberals the problem really isn't Trump, or the Republicans, or Hillary or Both Parties Are The Same, Man. 

It all comes down to fear, ultimately, fear of change, and fear of death.

Well, the idea of gradual change got rejected by a well-placed minority of those who bothered to vote, so now we're in for massive, uncontrolled change and whether we will even survive it as a whole country, none can say.

That said, overcome your fear. There's a reason I chose the verse that I did as a header.

Look, people, we're all going to die. Whether death comes by economic chaos, social collapse and war or simply by old age after a nice long, comfortable life, we're all going to die.

Death is the great equalizer.

You could, theoretically, destroy every threat or thing you see as a threat...

But when you are alone, and there's nobody else around, and it's just you and that bathroom mirror...

For most of us, at least people my age, that's when a little honest self-reflection is usually a requirement. When nobody else is around is when shit gets to you.

The simple fact is, eliminate all outside threats, and then you'll fear the mirror.

I don't see a lot of things around myself as threats, but then I wasn't taught to be afraid of everything either.

I still gotta look at my aging face and whitening beard every damned night before I go to work.

I'm going to die, eventually, and I'm just fine with that. No outside force, no God, no medical procedure, and no politician, will ever be able to prevent it. Nor would I want them to.

Death is that door we all have to walk through in order to reach Eternity, and we're all just travelers here.  To love this life too much is to risk spiritual death. When you're dead, nobody in the afterlife is going to care how much money you have. What determines where you go after you're dead is what you DO in this life.

I want to see how it ends, and if I have to die to reach that point so be it, when that time comes we're supposed to be ready, that's all.

What we do in life, echoes in eternity. ~Maximus Decimus Meridius, Gladiator.

Inglorious Basterd.

So, on Friday, during the protests of the Trump inauguration, this happened:

Whoever you are, as the grandson of World War II Veterans, I'd like to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Nazi punching damned well ought to be our new national sport.

Yours is a damned masterpiece, you Inglorious Basterd, (And damn it, people, if any of you haven't seen that movie you need to. That's your homework for the week.)

Below is my article about Richard Spencer from last November. The original was viewed over two thousand times. Please, Know that I would not change a single word:
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And the Lord saith unto Richard; "The fuck is even wrong with you, man?"

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ~Revelation 3:15-17

So this afternoon (Yesterday now, as this was written on breaks at work and edited when I got home) Mo, my roommate, was watching News One Now on TV One as he often does. The host of the show,..which is a news show geared toward the Black community...Rowland Martin, had Alt-Right Nazi Richard Spencer on the show to interview him. For the record, Richard Spencer looks like the mutant love-child of Trey Gowdy and Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase's character from the Vacation movies) with a shitty Civvie high-and-tight haircut.

Also, he looks like a dude I wouldn't buy a used car from, but I digress.

I have to admit this was the first time I'd ever actually heard the man speak aside from the speeches he gave in Washington D.C. last weekend. I have to confess I was pretty shocked that anybody ever thought this nebbish of a man, who seemed to stumble through answering any questions regarding his beliefs when put on the spot, man-to-man, actually amounted to anything.

After a few minutes of watching this dude stumble through trying to deny that he was a White Supremacist and shit, and repeatedly claiming that Slavery was a "Disaster," (If so, then what exactly was all this racist shit ever about?) I was ready to walk away, me and Mo were laughing at this asshole.

Then Rowland Martin asked him a question, straight up "Are you a Christian?"

I stopped like I'd hit an invisible wall, hard. Rowland Martin is a Christian and vocally so, I've been watching his show since I've lived here, and I moved here in May of 2015.

Spencer's answer? "I'm a cultural Christian." (?!?!?!?!?!)

My thought process: Fucking SERIOUSLY? (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

See, here's the thing: I was raised in the Church. To call someone a cultural Christian is basically to say that they are a person who goes to church because it's what people in their culture do, and they don't REALLY believe in Jesus.

This is, all too often, a way of de-legitimizing the Christianity of others (particularly when said of Catholics by Protestants.) In other words, it's NOT a label anybody who knows what they're talking about or who knows church culture or knows anything about American Christianity would actually claim. It's basically a very backbiting, backhanded insult to call somebody a "Cultural Christian."

I repeat: No one who knows what that label means will claim it.

Rowland's next question was even more direct: "Are you Saved?"

Spencer's answer? "I have been." (????)

I imagine Jesus, the Jewish carpenter and itinerant Rabbi from Galilee, somewhere on the Other Side watching this like: "What the FUCK is even WRONG with this guy?"

According to what I was taught, you're either saved or you're not. No middle of the road, no half-measures, you either accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who died for your sins or you don't. Thus, you're either cold or you're hot...because if you're Lukewarm, He is going to spit you out. Yet, automatically, Spencer equivocates.

...And that makes him weak.

All this followed by more mumbling, stumbling, and various excuses. This guy literally sounds like he's making excuses for his bullshit beliefs. Hey, we're the polite Nazis...at least to your face.

Lifelong student of WWII history that I am, I can't imagine members of the Waffen-SS, captured by the Soviets and put on some radio program by the party to be interviewed and confess their sins against the State at gunpoint, sitting there making excuses.

If you're going to be a flaming ridiculous shithead, at least have the guts to fucking own it.

But he can't, can he, because then he's just another Nazi and most of us know what the proper thing to do with Nazis is, don't we? For pretty much all of my life until this last week or so, the only good Nazis were dead ones.

But, here you have this dissembling coward, this Fascistic Mr, Rogers, dancing around any direct question of what he is...because he is afraid, because he is a Deceiver, because he is a manipulator. That's all he's got...manipulation.

Damned few people, especially anybody with any decency or intelligence, want to be a fucking Nazi.

But that's what he is...and he's afraid to own it or say so to your face. Oh sure, he'll pose doing the Sig Heil two-step, drink in hand, with his buddies (who seem to include bisexual Asian porn star Tila Tequila, apparently) and he'll shout "Heil the people, Heil Victory!" in front of a crowd of like-minded young punk-ass motherfuckers, most of whom are a felony conviction or two away from providing non-consensual sexual services to actual Aryan Brotherhood gang members in Federal prisons, by the look of them.

Richard Spencer is afraid to own what he is, in front of people like you and me, and he has to pretend there is such a thing as a reasonable Nazi, because on some level he knows he's morally wrong, unsaved, and afraid to die. He knows that death or reform of one's nature is the only acceptable end for Nazis. He's afraid of death because like anybody else in Western Civilization...he knows at least the basics of what the Holy Books say:

This is what the Word says on these matters:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ~Galatians 3:28

The teachings of our Muslim brothers and sisters say thus...

O people, We have created you male and female and made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most noble of you to Allah is the most righteous of you. Verily, Allah is knowing and aware.

Surat Al-Hujurat 49:13

We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with definite preference.

Surat Al-Isra 17:70

...And on some level this dude knows God is watching. See, Richard Spencer thinks he's right and God...or at least his version of it...is with him. Why else would he try to call white people the "Children of the Sun" and say we are a race of conquerors? It's not just you and me he's trying to fool...this motherfucker is trying to lie to God.

That's some balls, there, I'll give him that much. Motherfucker.

But strong delusions do that to people. I was taught we were children of the Son...of God, that is. And of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit.

Not that flaming ball of plasma in the center of our Solar System...but the Creator. Not the Created.

Now, here's the thing: For those who believe in and practice Righteousness and truth...whether they be Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh or whatever...there's your opening. There's your shot at dealing with this thing. The Truth of the divine conversation, as you understand it, is the weapon your hands and your heart may wield most effectively...and if used properly it can destroy any delusion or illusion. People like Mohandas K. Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela knew this...and used it well. 

Now pick it up and fight. Wield the light of Truth, and the sword of the spirit, to paraphrase what the Bible says, put on whatever armor your God gives you...or none at all but your own resolute conviction...and stop putting up with this bullshit.

You might not get anywhere with these Nazi assholes, but you can help prevent them from spreading their bullshit beliefs. YOU can show that you...we...humanity in general is better than that...and this guy's beliefs are nothing but a hologram of his own creation.

People like Richard Spencer thrive in the darkness, like cockroaches. Always remember, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Let your light shine, be active, blog, get involved, protest, volunteer...and when...not if but when...the time comes...FIGHT! Do it, and do it until you die. We have to keep at it and we have to keep at it until justice rains down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream!

Amos 5:24(King James Version)

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

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I'm pretty sure even Jesus would bitch slap this motherfucker.

Addendum: I just saw this:

“I’m afraid this is going to become the meme to end all memes,” he said. “That I’m going to hate watching this.” ~Richard Spencer

Glad to be of service, sir, and I'll cheerfully wish you many more ass whuppins in the future. Maybe if you'd gotten a few ass whuppins as a kid you wouldn't be a goddamned Nazi.

If we ever meet, expect you'll get another one. I've been saying "Bring back the ass whuppin' for a decade now; And people like you are why.

Fuck you,
Signed, the Mustelid Liberation Front, Commanding Officer.

America: Nation of the Self.

As I begin to write this, the final minutes of Barack Obama's presidency are ticking away. By the time I'm done we'll be looking at a new era, for what it's worth.

As I sit here, surrounded by prancing and wrestling ferrets, I find myself worried about our future. There have already been a few violent incidents according to what I've seen on my Facebook and Twitter feeds. As I have said, been saying since before the election had even been decided...and for more than a decade, I worry that the partisan divide in this country has become too deep and this whole mess might just come flying apart like one of Wile E. Coyote's Rube Goldberg inventions when he fails to catch the Road Runner. 

Perhaps more to the point, idiot Republicans won't care as long as they end up in control of a good-sized chunk of land, with enough weapons to protect themselves.

Last night I bitched out one of my co-workers and gave him a profanity-laced quick lesson in basic economics and morality when he (who has been anti-Trump until, evidently, yesterday) was all the sudden like "Come on, give Trump a chance!" 

Evidently he got his 401 (K) statement in the mail and his stocks are up. I had to explain to him that the stock market hasn't been a real indicator of economic...well, anything...since the 1980's when all the deregulation started. I had to explain to him that my dislike of Trump has been a thing since 1989 and  has one hell of a lot more to do with adultery, bankruptcy, divorce and racism than it does today's politics. In terms of politics it's not even Trump, it's the Republican Party's stated desire to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, gut Social Security and privatize Medicare, and with issues of LGBT rights, preservation of our National Parks, and racism. They are wrong, morally wrong, and they know it or they wouldn't be running away from their constituents. I explained to him that my Mom, who is retiring in April...needs all of that stuff. I also had to point out to him that he's a grown ass man in his late 50's and if I have to explain to him why he should care about other people, this conversation is probably going to end the same way it did when my Mom taught me that...when I was about one-tenth of his age. (Hint: The end of that conversation involved a Yard Stick.) Worse, supposedly this guy is a Navy veteran, and he doesn't seem to understand the concept that respect is earned and one's Word has to be good? Some corporation waves a little money under his nose, and suddenly, no principles? There's some words for people like that...

Selfishness, pure and simple, as another co-worker pointed out after the first one scuttled away.

How did we get here?

Well, it goes all the way back to the beginning of this country. 

Now, most apolitical, liberal, and indeed many conservative Americans think of the beginnings of the United States of America as the Boston Massacre, Lexington and Concord, the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.

That's the De Jure beginning of us, yes. For a lot of us, often the best of us, that's our starting point.

However, for a large subset of American conservatives and apolitical types, and a much smaller slice of the liberal population (usually the part that's more Utopian in thinking) that's not the case. We have a different De Facto beginning:

The real story of us, for those people, for greedy bastards, religious nuts, and Utopian social reformers alike...begins with the Pilgrims, and is remembered yearly in the holiday of Thanksgiving.

(On the liberal...for the time, anyway...end of it, these are also the wonderful people that brought us Prohibition. You do the math.)

To make a long story short, Puritan Calvinists from England came over here and established a colony at Plymouth, and then proceeded to nearly be wiped out by disease and a hard winter. So, in March of 1622 the colonists signed a peace treaty with Massassoit, principal chief of the Wampanoag people. This is the exact event we celebrate in November. The Pilgrims are presented as being models of Calvinistic Christian piety, hard work, perseverance and thrift. They leave the bloody bits out when you're a kid. Most of the time they don't teach about diseases, people freezing to death, rumors of cannibalism and the fact that the only thing that prevented a war at that time was that *Both* Native and Pilgrim societies had been devastated by disease (mostly transmitted via travelers from what is now Nova Scotia thanks to contact with the French) and hard conditions (with the added pressures of recent wars and Mik'Maq raiders from what is today the Canadian maritime provinces on the Wampanoag side before Europeans arrived in the area.) What they don't tell you is that almost 40 years later, shortly after Massassoit died (of old age) relations between the two peoples got really bad, really fast until under Metacomet (King Philip) the Wampanoag rose up against the colonists and fought a bloody war, in which they were defeated having suffered about twice the losses that the colonists did. (Be aware that by this time there were many more Europeans than Native folks) and in the aftermath, by means of cultural assimilation, enslavement, and more war, the Natives were almost exterminated.

Today, about 2,000 Wampanoag people are enrolled as members of two Federally-recognized bands or tribes. Not much left of what, to hear the average Elementary school teacher tell it, was a noble and proud traditional culture, eh?

How is this Okay?

One word: Calvinism.

Calvinism, in a nutshell, is "Fuck You, I've got mine" Christianized.

The basic theology of Calvinism follows:

Total Depravity of Man: Humans are basically Evil, and can do nothing about it, because God, that's why. Unless...

Unconditional Election: ...You're actually Not Evil, again, because God. That's why. Technically, through...

Limited Atonement: ...Jesus dying a bloody and horrible death so your wretched, sinful ass could go to Heaven, because of His...

Irresistible Grace: Yep, and even if you're cursed to grow up among these people with enough empathy to worry about what might happen to all those inconvenient other people, there's not a damned thing you can do about it. This is also the basis for that uniquely American idea of "Once Saved, Always Saved." Which again, basically says you can do whatever you want, because Jesus and the..

Perseverance of the Saints: Because God is Sovereign and cannot be frustrated by Human actions and (according to this mentality anyway) only follows His own rules (as set forth in the Bible) or expects Humans to follow them when it's convenient.

Gee, when I put it like that...well, it certainly explains modern American Christianity and who the Evangelicals voted for, doesn't it? Calvinism (now mostly known today as Reformed Theology here in the United States) often brings with it a veneration of Capitalism and the Wealthy, because money and secular power are an easy metric to measure people by (and in these days, these fucking people often don't read their own Bibles.)

Now, I've known a few decent and logical Calvinists, but most of the ones I've met have been religious nuts and/or single issue fanatics, infamously, in South Africa the racist philosophy of Apartheid was inspired by Calvinism. It was in fact originally implemented by Daniel Francois Malan, who before becoming Prime Minister of South Africa, had been a Calvinist (Dutch Reformed) Minister. In my own life, I still remember a guy who posted several long rants on ChristianBBS back in 2003 fervidly advocating the burning of homosexuals over the course of several days and becoming the only Fundamentalist Christian I ever heard of being banned from that place. The bar on that forum was set so famously low (and the Admins could be counted on to be in the tank for the promotion of things like homophobia) that he was basically banned only because hundreds of people including long-time members and site contributors complained.

The worst part is, my bastardized, from-memory synopsis probably required more thought than the average Disco Ball Megachurch Evangelical ever puts into their religion. (That said, before the infamous incident previously mentioned I'd had some fierce debates over theology with the Burn the Gays dude, and we about broke even according to opinion on the forum. It's often the theological ones that are the craziest. For fun some time look up a guy named Rousas John Rushdoony.) No, seriously, you can ask these people and half of them can't even tell you who John Calvin was, what he did, or what Calvinist theology is all about. But, these ideas have been baked into the American psyche and anymore you don't even have to be a Christian to follow them. You just have to be greedy or have money. No, seriously, why the hell do you think Ayn Rand is so popular?

She advocated for the destruction of Christianity and replacing it with Greed-driven Atheistic Objectivism in the 1950's on National TV in an interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes and was not run out of the country on a rail. Why? Because she told Right-Wing Nuts what they wanted to hear, that's why.

I see the same shit with a lot of these alt-right Nazis today, most of whom also appear to be irreligious.

As Chuck Colson put it, Rand envisioned Man at the center of a godless world, with self-satisfaction as the sole moral purpose of his life.

Sounds an awful lot like Trump, doesn't it? That said I'd be surprised if Trump or very many of his Supporters know who Ayn Rand was. But that's OK, they've got theirs, and Ayn Rand can go wander lost in the Underworld for all they care because just like she replaced the Pilgrim Fathers, well we're sorry Ayn but there's a new Right Wing Jesus in town...

So here we are.

Amos 5King James Version (KJV)

5 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

6 Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.

Replace "Israel" with "America" and there you have it. Ronald Reagan's shining city on a hill is no more. It's been razed to make room for a giant gold statue of Trump.

(The picture above is of a golden statue of Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan.)

As goes the least of us, so too will go the rest of us. Remember that, when you get that 401(K) statement in the mail. Without health coverage and Social Security that money isn't going to get you very far when you're old. We can't...and we won't...all be rich, no matter what they tell you.

Resist.