Brace yourselves folks, because this is what we'll be facing whether or not Trump becomes president.
Yesterday, Manhattan prosecutors asked that major elements of the gag order imposed on Trump before his criminal trial should be kept in place, citing dozens and dozens of threats that have been made against officials connected to the case. Why do you think Trump insults people the way he does? To get this exact reaction from his minions.
Since April, police have logged 56 “actionable threats” against the prosecutor in the case, Alvin Bragg, his family for heaven's sakes, and employees at the district attorney’s office. “We will kill you all,” was one such threat, according to the court papers, others included “You are dead” and “Your life is done.”
One threat included a post disclosing the home address of one of Bragg’s employees, as well as bomb threats targeting two people involved in the case.
Prosecutors said the threats were “directly connected to Trump's dangerous rhetoric,” and cited several examples, including a post that depicted cross hairs “on people involved in this case.”
Trump, of course, was convicted on May 30 by a jury of his peers of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush-money payoff made to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said Trump had sex with her while his wife sat home with a young child. The reason: He didn't want it to come out in the presidential campaign just after he was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women by the "pussy."
Amazingly, or maybe not so much, Trump has been on the losing side of every court case he's faced this year, with a respected judge ruling he committed fraud in his personal business, a jury ruling he sexually assaulted yet another women, and the porn star's victory in court.
The facts of the cases have been indisputable, as they are in the legal cases he still faces, which is why Trump's lawyers are working so hard to delay cases yet-to-be decided with the hope he wins the presidency and never has to face more losses potential jail time. Meanwhile, Trump's minions don't care about facts or the law; they care about vengeance.
God help those of us critical of Trump should he win the election. The bible may expressly point out that "vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." But the current crop of Trump minions -- who ironically think of themselves as the religious or Christian right -- sadly tend to pick and choose their biblical advice so as to keep in the good graces of Trump, a man with no moral or religious compass.
So, what else can we expect in a world dominated by Trump and Clarence Thomas? The 10 commandments will go up in schools, but not the eight Beatitudes, the blessings listed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Why not? To me, the Beatitudes are what being a Christian should be all about. Let's walk through them: Blessed, Jesus said, are: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, those that hunger and thirst after justice; the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those that suffer persecution.
Nope, not in Trump's America.
And how about that Bump Stock ruling that turns rifles into machine guns? I guess Harlan Crow, the billionaire of favor for Clarence Thomas, wants to kill game quicker on his vacation jaunts after he spent millions coddling Clarence on his 161-foot yacht, private jet flights and vacation stops, not to mention buying the house of Clarence's mom.
Meanwhile, Clarence voted to allow people who have threatened their wives to be armed with guns. Yeah, why not? Even his fellow conservatives on the court couldn't allow that but, of course, none of the others had to fight off sexual abuse charges themselves to get on the court. Ahhh, if we had only listened to Anita Hill, if we had only listened.
This is Trump world, and it's going to get much worse before it gets better.
Thanks for reminding us in such a potent way of this peril, Reg. Yes, there were so many times when we might have made better choices as a country. At this age, we have to be embarrassed about the cumulative record of our generation.
This is a most powerful piece; it puts this latest wing-nut stupidity in the context of our intellectual and political history. I've sent it around and hope it's read by many. Rex, you give me hope.
I'd suggest a little bit of a revision to this formulation, Rex. You talk about "the decline of spiritual affiliation in America." And you state that "fewer of any religion's moral lessons are imbued in children." Well, maybe, but the implicit assumption in that wording is that believers in something OTHER than the established, organized religions are somehow less moral and less inclined to "imbue" any moral lessons in their children. How about you say instead that there has been a decline of affiliation with ORGANIZED or TRADITIONAL spiritual institutions? People aren't necessarily leaving all things spiritual behind just because they no longer go to church on Sunday. Consider that word "atheist." Yes, technically, it descibes any person who doesn't include any kind of deity in her or his personal belief system. But, by and large, I'd argue, that word has a pejorative connotation in our society, implying that said person is somehow unhinged from any moral compass, seriously lacking, out of control, etcetera. It's like saying that a human being confined to a wheelchair is a "cripple," rather than being a perfectly fine human being who just happens to be unable to walk. We're all different, but we're also all perfectly human. "Atheist" implies that there's something important "missing" from the person's beliefs. I know lots and lots of people who no longer are affiliated with any organized religion, and who don't believe in any kind of deity or in an afterlife. I happen to be one such person, having chosen to adopt, after much serious consideration, a very different set of beliefs than the very devout Roman Catholicism I grew up with. But every single one of those people I know is VERY concerned about morals and ethics, and is keen to see that children are raised with a healthy and informed conscience. They've simply adopted a different moral compass than the traditional, dogma-oriented and other-worldly religious ones. They haven't abandoned ethics and morals. The whole secular humanist movement, probably most commonly respresented by Humanists International, is not about people being "godless" miscreants, but about people who have adopted a perfectly whole and responsible alternative belief system, one not rigidly defined by dogma, but instead based on an ever-flexible, ever-amendable use of reason. And it's centrally concerned with ethics and morals and humanitarian principles. It's just a different set of ethical and moral principles than those of traditional organized religions. So there's not necessarily any "decline" here just because people have left organized religions behind. Granted, there has obviously been an alarming collapse of civility in our public discourse, etcetera--thank you, Donald--but I'd be a little more cautious than you about attributing that to people leaving organized churches and adopting a more reason-oriented and less dogmatic set of beliefs to live by. To date, as far as I know, no legislative body in the United States has passed a law requiring any of the various humanist manifestoes or statements of humanist principles to be posted in every public classroom. But if they did, it wouldn't imply any "decline" of moral lessons, just the use of an alternative set of moral lessons. And it would be just as much an unconstitutional blending of church and state as the posting of the Ten :Commandments. So I hope we never see anyone trying to pull off that particular political stunt, either.
Brace yourselves folks, because this is what we'll be facing whether or not Trump becomes president.
Yesterday, Manhattan prosecutors asked that major elements of the gag order imposed on Trump before his criminal trial should be kept in place, citing dozens and dozens of threats that have been made against officials connected to the case. Why do you think Trump insults people the way he does? To get this exact reaction from his minions.
Since April, police have logged 56 “actionable threats” against the prosecutor in the case, Alvin Bragg, his family for heaven's sakes, and employees at the district attorney’s office. “We will kill you all,” was one such threat, according to the court papers, others included “You are dead” and “Your life is done.”
One threat included a post disclosing the home address of one of Bragg’s employees, as well as bomb threats targeting two people involved in the case.
Prosecutors said the threats were “directly connected to Trump's dangerous rhetoric,” and cited several examples, including a post that depicted cross hairs “on people involved in this case.”
Trump, of course, was convicted on May 30 by a jury of his peers of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush-money payoff made to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said Trump had sex with her while his wife sat home with a young child. The reason: He didn't want it to come out in the presidential campaign just after he was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women by the "pussy."
Amazingly, or maybe not so much, Trump has been on the losing side of every court case he's faced this year, with a respected judge ruling he committed fraud in his personal business, a jury ruling he sexually assaulted yet another women, and the porn star's victory in court.
The facts of the cases have been indisputable, as they are in the legal cases he still faces, which is why Trump's lawyers are working so hard to delay cases yet-to-be decided with the hope he wins the presidency and never has to face more losses potential jail time. Meanwhile, Trump's minions don't care about facts or the law; they care about vengeance.
God help those of us critical of Trump should he win the election. The bible may expressly point out that "vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." But the current crop of Trump minions -- who ironically think of themselves as the religious or Christian right -- sadly tend to pick and choose their biblical advice so as to keep in the good graces of Trump, a man with no moral or religious compass.
So, what else can we expect in a world dominated by Trump and Clarence Thomas? The 10 commandments will go up in schools, but not the eight Beatitudes, the blessings listed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Why not? To me, the Beatitudes are what being a Christian should be all about. Let's walk through them: Blessed, Jesus said, are: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, those that hunger and thirst after justice; the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those that suffer persecution.
Nope, not in Trump's America.
And how about that Bump Stock ruling that turns rifles into machine guns? I guess Harlan Crow, the billionaire of favor for Clarence Thomas, wants to kill game quicker on his vacation jaunts after he spent millions coddling Clarence on his 161-foot yacht, private jet flights and vacation stops, not to mention buying the house of Clarence's mom.
Meanwhile, Clarence voted to allow people who have threatened their wives to be armed with guns. Yeah, why not? Even his fellow conservatives on the court couldn't allow that but, of course, none of the others had to fight off sexual abuse charges themselves to get on the court. Ahhh, if we had only listened to Anita Hill, if we had only listened.
This is Trump world, and it's going to get much worse before it gets better.
Sigh ...
Thanks for reminding us in such a potent way of this peril, Reg. Yes, there were so many times when we might have made better choices as a country. At this age, we have to be embarrassed about the cumulative record of our generation.
This is a most powerful piece; it puts this latest wing-nut stupidity in the context of our intellectual and political history. I've sent it around and hope it's read by many. Rex, you give me hope.
I'd suggest a little bit of a revision to this formulation, Rex. You talk about "the decline of spiritual affiliation in America." And you state that "fewer of any religion's moral lessons are imbued in children." Well, maybe, but the implicit assumption in that wording is that believers in something OTHER than the established, organized religions are somehow less moral and less inclined to "imbue" any moral lessons in their children. How about you say instead that there has been a decline of affiliation with ORGANIZED or TRADITIONAL spiritual institutions? People aren't necessarily leaving all things spiritual behind just because they no longer go to church on Sunday. Consider that word "atheist." Yes, technically, it descibes any person who doesn't include any kind of deity in her or his personal belief system. But, by and large, I'd argue, that word has a pejorative connotation in our society, implying that said person is somehow unhinged from any moral compass, seriously lacking, out of control, etcetera. It's like saying that a human being confined to a wheelchair is a "cripple," rather than being a perfectly fine human being who just happens to be unable to walk. We're all different, but we're also all perfectly human. "Atheist" implies that there's something important "missing" from the person's beliefs. I know lots and lots of people who no longer are affiliated with any organized religion, and who don't believe in any kind of deity or in an afterlife. I happen to be one such person, having chosen to adopt, after much serious consideration, a very different set of beliefs than the very devout Roman Catholicism I grew up with. But every single one of those people I know is VERY concerned about morals and ethics, and is keen to see that children are raised with a healthy and informed conscience. They've simply adopted a different moral compass than the traditional, dogma-oriented and other-worldly religious ones. They haven't abandoned ethics and morals. The whole secular humanist movement, probably most commonly respresented by Humanists International, is not about people being "godless" miscreants, but about people who have adopted a perfectly whole and responsible alternative belief system, one not rigidly defined by dogma, but instead based on an ever-flexible, ever-amendable use of reason. And it's centrally concerned with ethics and morals and humanitarian principles. It's just a different set of ethical and moral principles than those of traditional organized religions. So there's not necessarily any "decline" here just because people have left organized religions behind. Granted, there has obviously been an alarming collapse of civility in our public discourse, etcetera--thank you, Donald--but I'd be a little more cautious than you about attributing that to people leaving organized churches and adopting a more reason-oriented and less dogmatic set of beliefs to live by. To date, as far as I know, no legislative body in the United States has passed a law requiring any of the various humanist manifestoes or statements of humanist principles to be posted in every public classroom. But if they did, it wouldn't imply any "decline" of moral lessons, just the use of an alternative set of moral lessons. And it would be just as much an unconstitutional blending of church and state as the posting of the Ten :Commandments. So I hope we never see anyone trying to pull off that particular political stunt, either.
Much ado about nothing.