Peter Macdonald Blachly

I woke up this morning wondering why so many “evangelical Christians” think Trump is so great. If Trump had been at the sermon on the mount he would have charged huge prices for the loaves and fishes instead of distributing them for free. He wouldn’t take a whip into the temple to drive out the money-changers. Instead, he would collect rent from them. And how do Trump’s disciples (like Mike McCarthy and Jim Jordan) compare to St. Michael or St. James? And if Trump was spending Lent in the desert, would he refuse Satan’s offer of untold wealth? Don’t these people even read the Bible and put two and two together?

How many of us have contemplated the possibility of heaven on earth, and what would that entail? I think we might start with Maslow’s “pyramid of (human) needs”, which begins with food, water, warmth, and rest — then security and safety. Without this foundation, children’s experiences will be traumatic, and unless they find a way as adults to address and heal early childhood trauma, they will pass it along in various ways, including in their own parenting style. What the Republican ideology promotes through tax cuts and deference to extreme individual wealth at the expense of the general welfare is the opposite of healing. In fact, it sets up conditions that destroy families through extreme stess and poverty, traumatizes children, and perpetuates crime. In other words, it creates hell on earth for most people, while isolating the super wealthy from the rest of humanity (and their own humanity, in most cases). No wonder the church has, for 2,000 years, focused on the “afterlife” (though I believe that is an empty promise).

I still believe that creating conditions akin to Heaven on Earth is possible, but not with sociopaths like Putin and Assad, or liars like McCarthy and McConnell at the top of the political ladder (and attack dogs like Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene on the next rung down). I believe social policies should be focused on what is good for children, and if we accept Maslow’s reasoning, we have to make social and financial equity, as well as safety and security, our top priorities so children can grow up in loving homes with their basic needs met. It is not an easy fix. Each generation suffers its own trauma and passes it along, and a society can only be healed if the individuals in it are healed. Gabor Mate makes a great case for this in “The Myth of Normal.” And Erikson does a good job of charting the pathway to the fulfillment of individual human potential. (https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html). It is worth considering, and a worthy undertaking for those who aspire to make the world a better place.

If the Republicans in Congress are sincerely intent on reducing crime – especially what they euphemistically call “inner city crime” – they should focus on reducing poverty. The solution is not more cops and more prisons. The solution lies in addressing the adversity and trauma inflicted on children due to poverty and the legacy of slavery. Criminals generally are not “born.” Rather, they are bred in the cauldron of domestic violence, abuse, neglect, despair, and deprivation.

Children need nurturing. They need food, clothing, shelter, safety, loving and attentive caretakers, education, and socialization. Poverty denies them these things. Poverty puts extreme pressures on parents, especially single parents (far more prevalent in the black community) and curtails the time and attention they can devote to nurturing their children, while the stress of poverty negatively impacts the quality of whatever care they can provide.

We also need to look at the difference between “white collar” crime and “street crime.” These are labels born in racism. After all, how many black people are “white collar” criminals? We might as well do away with “collar” and simply call it “white” crime. White crime is generally born from privilege and entitlement, while street crime is born of poverty. So let’s be real.

Benjamin Franklin famously noted that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We might also remember that a stitch in time saves nine. But “conservative” rich white people tend to ignore these common-sense adages. Instead, they revert to the racist solution of the criminal justice system, imprisoning street criminals (mainly black and brown people) and hiding them away in legalized slavery (which is allowed under the 13^th amendment). The net result, however, is an increasingly dangerous society that only breeds more crime.

Let’s call it what it is: it is racism that prevents American society, through its elected officials, from dealing with the root causes of crime. If we truly want American society to be safe, we have to address the racism that has kept the majority of black and brown people in poverty for generations. And the way to do that is to address poverty. Take care of the children. All of society will benefit.

So…we know from Donnie Jr. and other sources that the Russians have a huge financial stake in the family “business,” with Russian oligarchs (crime lords) paying exorbitant prices for apartments and condos in Slimy Towers, and otherwise underwriting and shoring up the con man’s “empire.” So why would Republican Congressional leaders say that Trump family finances are “out of bounds” in the Russia investigation? Is not the old adage of “Follow the Money” the most important factor in determining whether or not the President is compromised (nice way of saying that he’s a Russian agent)? After all, no one seems to care that he is a heartless, philandering, lying, misogynist bully. (That’s not grounds for impeachment as long as he is willing to sign into law the perverse ideological economic and social agenda of the extreme right.) But having the President of the United States exposed as an agent of the Russian Federation…that might not sit so well even with his most ardent followers (though they would probably not believe it to be true no matter what evidence Mueller digs up). So it makes perfect sense that Republican “leaders” would try to block the one area of the investigation that will most likely show that collusion, complicity, and treason by the Orange Slime are very much at the roots of his Presidency. Can the swamp drain itself? These people shall live in infamy.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics/russia-republicans-trump-finances/index.html

What are the limits on Presidential Pardons? Following Gerald Ford’s infamous preemptive pardon of Nixon the Supreme court cited an 1867 Supreme Court decision during the Andrew Johnson administration which held that presidents have “unlimited” pardoning power. “It extends to every offense known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment,” If this interpretation holds, it means that the Liar-in-Chief could have any crime committed by ANYONE (death squads?) and preemptively pardon them. Such powers of tyranny cannot possibly have been intended by the framers of the Constitution, don’t you think?

As if our Democracy is not already in enough peril, supporters of the Liar-in-Chief are pushing him to immediately pardon ANYONE whom Mueller indicts. Can you imagine such brazenly criminal use of the Presidential Pardon? It’s one thing for a President to give a Pardon based on clemency and compassion and in cases of miscarriage of justice–but to use it as a tool to override the work of the Department of Justice and the Criminal Courts? Since the President’s oath of office is to protect and defend the Constitution, abuse of the Presidential Pardon to obstruct justice would most certainly be an impeachable office, don’t you think?

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/19/trump-russia-pardons-mueller-flynn-417094

Politico posted this today. Can you think of anything more “destabilizing” to the US political system than putting a lying, philandering, misogynist, psychopath into the Presidency? I’d say that Putin has achieved a most remarkable victory!
“Intelligence officials and experts have long said that Russia’s primary goal is to destabilize the U.S. political system. But the U.S. intelligence community has also unanimously concluded that, at the same time, the Kremlin favored Trump over Clinton in the 2016 election and clearly worked on Trump’s behalf.”

$3.99 or $0.39 per track for Promised Land? I need my friends to help me with an experiment. With so much free and pirated music on the web these days I thought that $.39 for a download or $3.99 for the whole album might provide some motivation for people to buy and listen to Promised Land. I’m going to try this for a week and see what happens.  You can download here right now .

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