Why is it that the first thing Republicans, many of whom claim to be Christians, do when they assume elected or appointed office is to attack the most vulnerable people among us?
Maybe it’s been a while since those officials actually cracked open a Bible.
I direct their attention to Matthew 25, verses 35-46 (this quote is from the King James version as presented on The Bible Gateway):
35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me…
40Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
A little further on, verse 45 tells you that those who didn’t do these things for the “least of these” failed to provide that care to Christ himself, and shall “go away into eternal punishment.”
Wow. Eternal punishment. You mean, like, Hell? With flames and little red guys with forked tails poking you with white hot tridents forever? Well, that would get the point across, I guess. Yikes.
I have another idea about Hell.
I believe that Hell is the absence of love.
And God is love.
Thus, Hell is the absence of God.
That’s what I think, anyway.
So where’s the love?
While many of us were still reeling from the pardons of hundreds of violent January 6 insurrectionists and a flagrantly unconstitutional attempt to end birthright citizenship, yet another incompetent twink jumped out of the Bronzered Bloviator’s clown car: Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a memo imposing an illegal blanket “freeze” on federal grants to 2,600 programs that support services to children, elders, the disabled, veterans, and low income Americans, as well as research that could create amazing breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of disease. So much for feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and clothing the naked.
Mercifully, after a nationwide uproar and what I imagine were several thousand phone calls in which Congress members, including Republicans, got a juicy earful from their constituents (and Republican senators “hit the ceiling”), the Office of Mismanagement and Bumbling rescinded the freeze. According to Senator Patty Murray of Washington, quoted in the New York Times, the Bronzered Bloviator’s administration sowed chaos with “a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard for the law.” Senator Chuck Shumer referred to the directive as “shortsighted, disastrous, cruel, and dumb.” Shumer wondered if His Royal Orangeness knew that the OMB memo would deprive cops and firefighters of life-saving equipment and threaten hunger for a million Americans in Puerto Rico. Governor JB Pritzker of my home state of Illinois issued a searing expose of White House mendacity.
And while all this was going on, did you notice that the Tangerine Toddler did nothing within the first 24 hours of his return to end the war in Ukraine, or even to lower the price of eggs, like he said he would?
The Emperor has no clothes. But we knew that already, didn’t we?
Clinging to the glimmer of hope inspired by the people who pushed back on the mean-spirited, misinformed, cruel, and incompetent nonsense coming out of the White House this week, I remain
your less-ridiculous-than-all-that-bullshit-but-starting-to-understand-why-so-many-people-are-afraid-of-clowns,
Ridiculouswoman
I think you summed it up perfectly – starting-to-understand-why-so-many-people-are-afraid-of-clowns.
Right now, the Republicans in Congress are afraid of being “primaried” out of office. If we can only get them to be more afraid that they will be voted out of office by a dissatisfied electorate, we have a chance. “When the people fear the government, that’s tyranny; when the government fears the people, that’s freedom.”
Regarding the government fund freeze: yes, it’s short-sighted. All of these nonprofits do the work that government can’t do, or don’t have the ability. If funding were stopped, there would be millions out of work. If that happened, then unemployment rates would rise. Grant money would then go to unemployment.
The new press secretary is only blathering what she’s been told to say, like a parrot. There’s nothing professional about her. And do you notice everyone seems to be angry? Over what?
Trust me, life isn’t that bad. And there’s nothing about this current administration that’s going to make America great, now or ever. It’s just one monstrous train wreck.