At every family reunion, we have some pithy words for our tee shirts. At one of the family reunions, in the 1990s, I think, the saying was–Because they were, we are. I wonder did they think about their lack of power, how they were targeted by laws that criminalized normal human activities, how life could be different if they were free to be themselves. Maybe, if what is always was, one could not imagine a different scenario. I have existed during an interregnum of blatant violent white supremacy in this country where possibility existed. I see that possibility diminishing day by day as the blatant violent white supremacy returns.
A White House ballroom? Really? What about waste, fraud, and abuse? When citizens cannot afford the basics, when the federal minimum wage is seven dollars per hour, when the tax paper is paying for golf games and raising a river for one person’s recreation, when government officials make millions from insider trading, when citizens resort to begging to pay for health care, when child predators publicly endorse programs geared toward children? The answer–a ballroom and a paved over rose garden? Marie Antoinette, anyone? What about the foul miasmic putrid swamp that is in place today? So a swamp was replaced by a worse swamp. That’s progress in the eyes of the swamp controllers. For the people…the people get the short end of the stick and the blowback from the stench of the swamp.
And the persons eager for a theocracy–seems like on a daily basis one of the so-called Christians is being charged with child abuse, child sex abuse, wife abuse, theft. Another worse swamp waiting in the wings for their day in the sun.
Greed, nihilism, and transactionalism are reshaping the politics of the rich world too. As old rules and norms fall away, they are not replaced by a new structure. They are replaced by nothing. The Atlantic, The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth, Anne Applebaum, August 6, 2025. The afore-referenced article is about Sudan. Sudan could be the template for all governments that are being overtaken by the greed of the oligarchs, the corporations, and the rich. The war in Sudan is not about making something better for the people. The people are mere pawns, the males used as disposable soldiers and the civilians as persons to be terrorized by those soldiers and indiscriminately murdered.
The competing greeds fighting in Sudan do not appear to have a plan for governance. Apparently, pillaging the resources for personal enrichment is the primary goal. And that goal is evident all over the world. It is evident in the United States.
The Vatican will not serve power, but truth. It will no longer be a palace. It will be a battlefield, not to fight against people, but against pride, greed, indifference. Pope Leo XIV Now, if the Catholics sitting on the Supreme Court would take that message to heart. They won’t because they are old school Catholics whose faith is rooted in greed, hunger for power, lack of compassion for the people, lies. An aside–why do Black people want to claim Pope Leo XIV as Black? He may have some Black ancestry, but he is not Black. His birth certificate says he is white. He was raised as white in a white supremacist country. He is white. Apparently, he has learned about morals and morality and compassion, and has chosen to live, as best he can, a moral and compassionate life. Kudos to him for that. But, why would a Black person feel any kinship to him? His ancestors made a pragmatic decision not to be Black. Because of the shallowness of the people who inhabit this country, they were able to do so because of their physical appearance and wherewithal to move to a place where they were not known. Maybe, he can change the evil trajectory of the Catholic Church, but we have to remember that the Catholic Church has been on the path of amorality for centuries.
It appears that some Republicans are fleeing the sinking ship. The present Republican Party is on the wrong side of history, but its supporters are too unintelligent to future think the outcome of their current actions. They revile history, so they try to rewrite it to support their false narrative. They honor traitors because they know that they themselves are traitors. Honoring traitors validates their traitorous acts, even though the traitors they honor lost. There was a scene in one of the Star Gate shows where a traitor was the first killed by the Goa’uld (the bad guys!) who benefitted from his traitorous act. Who could trust a traitor? Certainly, not the Goa’uld and not the people he betrayed. The traitor was a liability to be quickly disposed of. That was the mistake of the winners after the Civil War–not disposing of the traitors. The lesson has been learned. The current traitors will not be welcomed back to undermine the “win” again.
Garden update–I was surprised that the beans did as well as they did. The beans are still blooming. Cucumbers…this year…the cucumbers bloomed and did not fruit. So aesthetically pleasing on the trellis, but only two cucumbers. Same for the summer squash–plants healthy and robust with plenty of blooms, but not a squash. I planted watermelon and cantaloupe and I saw a tiny melon today. The marigold that returns each year is flourishing. I don’t know if it repels bugs, but it just keeps on blooming.
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If you wish to be rich, do not take a dead person’s clothes.
Money can’t talk, yet it can make lies look true.
A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” Alkebulan Proverbs
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