The real war on Christmas.

Luke 2 King James Version (KJV)

2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Ya know, I have to say all that talk of a war on Christmas that we heard for years and years from right-wing Christians now seems pretty damned ironic.

It's not Democrats who are responsible for the ongoing Trump Shutdown. It's Trump, with no small amount of help from the Freedom Caucus house Republicans. It's not Democrats who are why the national Christmas tree has gone dark, it's Republicans.

There's a war on Christmas, alright, and these people were lying to you about who the enemy was.

If you don't think Republicans would cancel Christmas if they could and it would get them some partisan advantage, think again.

I worked last night, but it was slow, so I was checking Twitter off and on, and I happened to catch several rather obvious lies and self-pitying Tweets on the part of the President.

Now, I don't give a damn if nobody wants to hear this, but the son of a bitch fucking asked for it. He's complaining about being all alone at the White House. So am I the only one who's thinking that even Trump's family must not want to spend time with him?

Eh, I don't blame them. Most of us know at least one miserable, silly old man (or in a lot of cases, some other shitty person) for whom everything that happens is somebody else's fault and ya know what? Nobody wants to hang out with that guy.

Also, I can't help but feel like the Christmas tree thing is a metaphor for all that's going on.

Likewise, I'm starting to think that this whole Wall thing is going to be the hill Trump and his supporters die on. At this point, Trump is basically holding up the entire damn country for some stupid racist fantasy that most people don't want. You know what? In a democracy you can rig the game, stack the deck, engage in all the fraud and fuckery you want and if most people don't want what you want...they're going to find a way to make sure you don't get it.

I think a lot of people are starting to figure out that walls keep people in, too. I'll never understand why some people want to live in an armed camp, surrounded by walls and ultimately, with nothing much to do.

I mean, after all, what is Trump seriously doing but sitting around watching TV. Most likely Fox News, most likely pro-Trump propaganda. In effect, he's turning into his own biggest mark.

I've said before that it really does seem to me like Republicans, up to and including Trump, are acting like this mess is going to be over with in January, not in 2020, we're talking in just over a week here.

I'm starting to see why.

Look. I don't have a lot to say here. I'm going to ask you to read, again, the verses from the second chapter of the Book of Luke that are at the top of this post. I'm going to ask you to genuinely compare and contrast the words of those verses, and their meaning, with the conduct of Donald Trump and of his administration and his enablers in the Republican Party.

It's not a pretty picture, is it? For myself, as a former conservative and Republican I find it immensely sad that conservatism and the Republican Party have come to...this.

I find it even more sad...though that is certainly tinged with a sense of justice...that American Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christianity is likewise in the process of sacrificing itself on the altar of Donald Trump. As a former conservative Christian, I think that's pretty damned embarrassing.

It's all the more so when you've read the Bible, when you grew up learning it, learning the songs and the theology and the traditions of Christianity, when you compare the message of love and peace and service and sacrifice...That God Himself would lay down, in effect, a part of His own Being to give humanity a better shot, a better (and very non-transactional) spiritual paradigm...with the vainglory of one man. One man that American Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism embraced, thinking they'd get something out of it...even though that man was the furthest thing from a Believer.

Back in the 1950's, shortly before he was killed on an ill-advised mission to evangelize Native people in Ecuador, Christian missionary Jim Elliot wrote that "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

Trumpism inverts that, and asks us to give up our freedom, our ideals, our melting-pot culture, our values...America, basically...all those things that the Founders and their spiritual heirs imbued in us as ideas, as by nature things that we could not lose...for a false sense of temporal safety and superiority that we know we cannot keep.

Don't buy it, America. We can't do that.

We need to get this over with. Keep the pressure on, Trump is cracking.

We got half the job done in November, and flipped the House to the Democrats.

Now we'd best get to work on getting the rest of it done before this silly old man destroys us all.

If the miserable son of a bitch would destroy his own damn Christmas for some stupid idea of a "Wall" and then blame everybody else for it and lie about the results...what else might he do?

I firmly believe that Trump and his supporters would try to kick Jesus to the curb if He actually showed up.

Jesus, the reason for this season, was a brown-skinned Jew who started his life as a poor person and a refugee, a carpenter and itinerant Rabbi who at least in some spiritual sense spoke the Truth, and paid for it with His life.

If you think Donald Trump is gonna support that guy, you're wrong.

There's a war on Christmas, alright. There's a war on Christ and Christianity and for that matter every other religion in America that doesn't see things in purely fungible terms. The true faith of American conservatism is money. As I recall, Jesus had a few things to say about that, too.

They were right. There's a war on Christmas, and they didn't just sell Christmas out to the other side. They've been doing it for years, and it only recently became blatantly obvious.

Now what are we going to do about it?