WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT POLITICS?

Flynn sitting next to Putin

I've never been focused on politics. Typically, I would vote after some degree of study of the issues (or not), and that would be it. I rarely paid much attention after that.

Why the change? There are things happening in our government that are dangerous to our entire system of democracy and, if left to continue, will result in grave and perhaps permanent destruction of our entire way of life and the forced abandonment of everything we hold dear. What is happening now is not "business as usual."

Every American who cares about their country should get up to speed about what is happening and then lobby their representatives in Congress to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and get all the facts on the record before it is too late.

We are under attack by Russia: a foreign power that has always been very frank in its hatred of the American democratic system. Russia is not our friend. It consistently works to destroy our democracy by discrediting it, using misinformation, disinformation, and the leakage of state secrets that is calculated to destroy the faith of the American people in our government and the reputation of America in other countries around the world. There is evidence that Donald Trump, his family, his associates and his close campaign people have aided and abetted the Russians in exchange for Russia hacking Hilary Clinton. 17 independent intelligence agencies have confirmed the continual contact of Trump campaign associates with the Russians during the Trump campaign, in this country and other countries around the world, where meetings were held between the parties.

Although Trump has made the unfounded claim that his "wires were tapped," by President Obama, he is confused again. The Russians communications are always being monitored, just like Russia monitors ours. That's how the spy game works. Trump associates, and perhaps Trump himself, got caught on tape incidentally when they made contact with the Russians (or vice versa.) This is one of the methods by which the intelligence community has confirmed the communication between the Trump campaign and the Russians, as well as Russia's hijacking of Hilary's campaign.

Donald Trump and his family have multiple ties to Russia and to post-Soviet Union countries and oligarchs that are among the most corrupt in the world. He is known to have business dealings in that part of the world, and, while many of the details are obscured, what we do know is alarming.

Donald Trump's cabinet is likewise full of people with ties to Russia, including his commerce secretary that sits on the board of a Russian bank that launders the money of Russian oligarchs whose income from their government jobs is about $12,000 a year but who are millionaires and billionaires, thanks to the ill gotten gains of criminal enterprises. (It is illegal for American businesses to work with foreign criminals such as this, by the way.)

Every day there is more evidence that the Trump campaign obtained a softening of the language of the Republican Party platform against Russia in exchange for Russia's interference with Hilary Clinton [who Putin hates] and that this was at least one of the reasons why (1) Donald Trump won the election despite losing the popular vote; (2) Russia did not retaliate when the U.S. kicked out 35 of its officials out of our country during the Trump campaign; and (3) Donald Trump continually made pro-Putin, pro-Russia and pro-Wikileaks comments in his speeches and interviews during the campaign. Republican Committee officials have confirmed that the official language of the Republican platform against Russia was softened because of the insistence of the Trump campaign.

At least two of Donald Trump's close people lied under oath about their contacts with the Russian ambassador: Flynn, who is famously gone, and Jeff Sessions, Trump's new Attorney General, whose meeting with the Russian ambassador occurred just days after the news broke in the press that the Trump campaign had continual communication with the Russians. It was an explosive revelation that had everyone on The Hill buzzing, yet Sessions went ahead and met with the ambassador. He now says it was in relation to his duties on a committee, yet none of the other committee members had EVER met with the Russians, nor was it appropriate for that committee to meet with the Russians.

It is impossible to see the extent of Donald Trump's business dealings with Russia, Russian oligarchs, and other corrupt governments because he refuses to provide his tax returns, despite promising to give them, should he ever gain the nomination for president. These tax returns MUST be seen and can be seen if subpoena'd during an investigation.

There are at least three current investigations into Donald Trump and his affiliates, but these investigations on "The Hill" are not independent bi-partisan affairs. The Republicans are investigating themselves, in essence, while Democrats and some Republicans are continually and firmly lobbying for an independent prosecutor, such as when Bill Clinton was impeached. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about a sexual affair with a junior staffer, which is why, although impeached, he was not thrown out of office. Donald Trump's cooperation with the Russians is far more serious, a fact which should be obvious to anyone.

Trump is ALREADY in violation of the emoluments clause but refuses to divest himself of the businesses from which he is benefiting as a result of his ascendancy to the office of president, and no one is forcing him to do so. What he TELLS his supporters is that he doesn't HAVE to adhere to this clause, but he is lying to his base, who are glad to believe him. He DOES have to adhere to that law, but Republicans have complete power on The Hill and are not forcing the issue.

One of Trump's foreign advisers is a man named Konstantin Kilmnik, and he used to work with disgraced ex-Trump staffer, Paul Manafort. Kilmnik admits that he was part of Russian military intelligence, the GRU. He had originally come to the U.S. to put pressure on his Trump associates for the softening of that language in the Republican Party platform.

Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with the Russian Ambassador during the campaign. The meeting was held in Trump Tower, and no one believes that Trump himself did not know about it. Trump was living in Trump Tower at the time.

I have seen many videos of Donald Trump bragging about his business interests in Russia. Later videos have him swearing that he has NEVER had dealings with Russia. His son was known to say, however, that most of the money "pouring" into the Trump coffers was from Russia.

The New York Times has been printing some excellent articles about the many details of the Russian connection and other matters having to do with the strange presidency of Donald Trump. Their investigative journalism has hit a nerve, and Trump has redoubled his efforts to put a damper on the press, in general, calling the most respectable news outlets, such as CNN, "fake news."

Aside from attempting to ruin the reputation of the press so he can hide the illegal activities of the Trump machine, this is the first device that every dictator has ever used in an effort to overturn a governmental system and keep it under control. Communist Countries such as North Korea and China do not have a free press, and even the internet is closely guarded, with many websites unavailable to the populace. A free press, "the fourth estate" in America, is the hallmark of a free country, but we are moving in the opposite direction.

Hitler called the press "lugenpresse," ("lying press") and, while eliminating legitimate journalistic outlets, substituted his OWN version of reality with a propaganda machine in print, posters and movie clips.  By the time he invaded Poland and Austria, the population was welcoming him and throwing flowers on the solders and the tanks rumbling through the streets.

I was shocked to see the press physically pushed out of a "photo op" of the new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who refuses to give the expected press briefings, will not answer any questions from the press, and who has said he will not allow the press on his plane when he travels to foreign countries. The press has always accompanied the Secretary of State. The purpose of this is to keep Americans apprised of what is happening in our government. The press are the eyes and ears of each American, and it is foolish to be swayed by Trump's castigation of the press. The more that Americans are pushed away from the President and his cabinet, the less we know about what is really going on up there.

Rex Tillerson is another Trump appointee with ties to Russia. He has no government experience and his whole working life was with Exon. Exon has 68 million acres of land in Russia that they cannot drill because of the sanctions. Are you seeing the theme? Russia Russia Russia Russia.

The day that Tillerson became Secretary of State, the 4 most experienced, most knowledgeable personnel in the State Department left. At least 3 of them had been in that department for more than 40 years. They weren't political appointments. They were career officials who had seen many different presidents. To date, they have not been replaced. The people who could help Tillerson (and Trump) learn to navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of government are gone. Thank you for your service. Trump plans to cut that department by 37%, he is so ignorant of the crucial nature of its duties.

The secondary issue of grave concern is the mental status of the president, who gets his news from Breitbart and "Fox and Friends," as well as other conspiracy theorists on the radio. He doesn't use a computer, as it has been reported that he doesn't know how to operate one. He is an old man who has stayed "old school" and is out of the loop when it comes to the information age.

Instead of relying upon his intelligence sources at the White House, he has routinely begged off from the meetings, assigning that "duty" to other people, and has been making snide comments about the American intelligence community in public, ever since the dossier about his supposed vulgar activities in Russia was made public. Any time something unflattering appears in a public forum, in print or television, he attacks it publicly and tries to discredit it. His multiple disparaging remarks about American intelligence agencies, insulted the very people from whom he needs the most help at this critical juncture in his presidency, but he probably suspects that they know things about him that he doesn't want made public, so he discredits them with the American people.

"The dossier": During an early intelligence briefing, Trump was presented with a dossier that had an attachment that was not corroborated. It was attached because it had been given to intelligence sources, and the intelligence people reported its existence as part of their duty to inform, not as a confirmed document. They didn't create it. They just received it. While some aspects of the attachment seemed calculated to make Trump look foolish by detailing embarrassing details of a supposed encounter between Trump and Russian prostitutes in a hotel in Russia, a surprising number of other claims are now beginning to emerge as based in fact.

Trump has the gold standard in intelligence available to him, but he refuses to avail himself of it. Instead, he gets overheated about the wacky conspiracy news and sends out unsubstantiated tweets, such as the recent accusation that President Obama had his "wires tapped." There is no evidence of such a thing, which is not possible anyway. Presidents don't order wire taps. It isn't in their baileywick, but Trump is so woefully ignorant about how the government works that he actually believes this poppycock.

All he had to do was call in Comey of the FBI and ask him if an order for a wire tap was signed by a judge, but he hasn't communicated with him.

Trump is surrounded by the government he doesn't trust, the government that Steve Bannon, his right hand man, had previously said he wanted to destroy. Whenever he can get away to his country club, Trump escapes for the weekend to Mar-a-lago, jaunts which have cost the taxpayers more in one month than Obama spent per YEAR in travel costs. Since Trump's family is so welded to him that he had to give them all jobs, the secret service has to protect all of them, costing the taxpayers millions. (This is another common feature of totalitarian governments, by the way. They all move their families into the palaces and give them "jobs.")

Now that Trump has become the president, he seems unable to drop the adversarial stance he took while he was campaigning. His lack of trust is so pervasive that the White House is a ghost town. At least 500 positions have not been filled. There aren't even any names being presented as candidates. He won't hire anyone whose loyalty is at all in question and, with the continual leaks from the White House, his trust factor has got to be in the tank right about now.

Another feature of Donald Trump's troubling behavior is his continual lying - lying that is easily disproved. It continued full throttle, as soon as he hit the oval office. First it was the dispute about how many people attended the inauguration, then it was his claim that 3 to 5 million people "voted illegally" for Hilary Clinton (which explains, in his mind, why he did not get the popular vote.) He claimed he had the biggest victory, the most votes "ever," when, in fact, many of his predescesors far outstripped his meager electoral college results. He has told so many lies, I would need to write another 3 pages to accommodate them.

The bottom line is that Donald Trump is crazy and dangerous. The fate of our democracy hangs in the balance.

There are at least THREE major investigations being conducted on The Hill, but they are all being conducted by Republicans who are so thrilled to be completely in charge of the government that they cannot be relied upon to submit a non-biased result. Calls for an independent nonpartisan independent prosecutor to look into the Russian connections, the lies of Jeff Sessions, and the insane tweets of the President are becoming more insistent, even in the case of some Republicans who just can't fake it any more. Their president is a basket case, and illegal activities have gone on and may still be going on. The White House is empty, and the President is treating it like an ordinary company office, retreating to a country club nearly every weekend while North Korea lobs missiles into the sea near Japan.

Meanwhile, Spicer keeps dancing around the questions of the press during the daily briefing. "Do YOU believe that Trump is telling the truth?"

One particularly keen young female reporter asked Spicer, if the president has evidence that Obama ordered Trump to be wire tapped, isn't it a waste of resources to ask for an investigation of the wire taps? Why doesn't he just hand over the evidence he has?" The answer runs in multiple circles.

More details can be found in the newspapers, magazines and television outlets. It would take several pages to explain it, and why reinvent the wheel? Rachel Maddow does a very good job of explaining the timelines and associated facts of the whole Russia thing that is going on now and, although I don't agree with much of her POLITICS, I certainly admire her journalistic abilities, which are substantial. Watch her program for a week, and you will get up to speed. Fill in the gaps with other news programs and the New York Times. My information has been gleaned for this post through a long list of news agencies, newspapers, magazines, online articles. Everything from EWTN to the New York Times.

If any of this sounds unfamiliar to you; if any of this sounds crazy; you'd better get yourself educated about what is happening in America these days. It is NOT "business as usual." It is not your typical political craziness. It's dangerous stuff, and you need to know what is coming so you can write your representative in Washington. When you get up to speed, you are going to want to do it. I guarantee it.

Silver Rose Parnell

FOR THOSE WHO ARE IGNORANT OF HISTORY

"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907)

by

Gustav Klimt

I typically steer clear of movies set in Nazi era Germany. I have seen so many of them over the years, that I just can't bear to be reminded once more of that horrible time when the world descended into the madness of primitive impulses and allowed the personification of evil to rise to power and then commit heinous crimes against the Jews and, to a lesser degree, human beings who were designated as "other."

The movie WOMAN IN GOLD was an exception. I chose to watch it last night because it was about the return of artworks stolen by the Nazis. It is based on the true story of Maria Altmann and her attorney Randy Schoenberg who spent years attempting to gain the return of stolen pieces of art, including this wonderful painting. I love art. Gustav Klimt is one of my very favorite artists and THIS particular painting, above, which was renamed WOMAN IN GOLD by post-war Austrians, (perhaps intending to hide its provenance) is one of my favorite paintings.

This painting was a portrait of Maria Altmann's aunt and was one of a household full of precious objects that the Nazis stole from the home of Maria's parents, while the family was forced to sit and watch. The family had arrived in Austria with nothing, but they worked hard and strove to improve their fortunes, and they succeeded. Watching all their hard earned possessions being cataloged and then hauled away by those filthy Nazis must have been gut wrenching. The loss of this particular painting must have been the source of much sorrow by that family, not because it is a masterpiece, but because it was a painting of a beloved family member.

If you are interested in this topic, you may find an article about the return of these paintings at this LINK TO ARTICLE ABOUT RETURN OF ART STOLEN BY NAZIS

Something that Helen Mirren says in her portrayal of Maria Altmann really struck me. After fighting with the Austrians for years for the return of the stolen art works, she finally admits to herself and to her attorney that the Austrians had always been like this. After all, when the Nazis triumphantly paraded through town, the non-Jewish Austrians "threw flowers" on them, welcomed them, and later participated with glee in the multiple humiliations and, ultimately, the removal and deaths of their Jewish neighbors.

Here is a video of Austrian residents welcoming the Nazi soldiers to their town at this LINK TO VIDEO OF GERMAN SOLDIERS BEING WELCOMED BY AUSTRIANS..

Currently, we have a wave of antisemitism happening in America in which Jewish places of worship and cemeteries are being vandalized, and multiple bomb threats have been made. Nazi symbols have been spray painted. Frequently, Donald Trump's name is invoked as a badge of license.

It isn't that Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don't believe he is, but Donald Trump, and his rhetoric of hate towards immigrants ("the other") has inflamed the dormant Nazis and similar groups, such as the KKK (which has lent Trump their stamp of approval.)

Trump's brand of hatred and division emboldens all of those people that bear hatred toward anyone different than themselves. The Jews are not the only groups that are currently experiencing a steep uptick in hate crimes. Those who are different from the whites who hold power are being subjected to violence. Just within the last few days, an Indian (not a Muslim) was shot in the arm and told to go back to his country where he came from.

A Sikh, wearing a modern turban

(NOT a Muslim!)

Part of the problem with the people who are inflamed by Donald Trump style rhetoric is that they are ignorant and uneducated about the variety of people that live on this planet. Anyone who wears a turban is wrongly identified as a Muslim (against whom Trump IS encouraging some prejudice.) Actually, Muslims do not typically wear turbans, but ignorant people, fueled by Trump's movements against the Muslims, are targeting anyone who is wearing a Turban! Ridiculous.

Hitler gained power by appealing to the fears of the people. He set up a scape goat to blame (the Jews) and simply fed the flames of hatred that were ignited in the hearts of the people who wanted a change in their country. Without the help of non-Jews, he could not have risen to power.

Hitler used lies as his primary tool, directed the hatred of the people against Jews as the scape goats, suppressed the press and replaced it with his propaganda productions. He used the Austrian people to help him steal a massive amount of wealth from a segment of the population and then killed the owners of that wealth in gruesome, horrific and humiliating fashion. Many Jews tried to leave the country, but were prevented. Hitler couldn't afford to have living witnesses wandering around the world, "telling tales." In order to accomplish his true aims, power and money, he had to kill them, and that is exactly what he did, brutally exterminating millions of people.

Why am I drawing an obvious parallel between Hitler and Trump? That's simple. Trump's speech and behavior mimics that of Hitler to a "tee." "Alternative facts" (lies), scapegoating "the other" (immigrants), suppressing the free press (calling it "the enemy of the American people") and using a wide variety of disinformation and misinformation to confuse the population are all measures Hitler used himself.

Here is an article that reminds us of the history behind the term "enemy of the people" that Trump has been using against the press: READ THE WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE ABOUT "ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE" HERE.

While Trump calls the American press "fake news," Hitler called the press "Lügenpresse," which means "lying press." During Trump campaign rallies, Trump supporters have yelled this German word, resurrecting the memory of Hitler in the minds of many.

Here are some articles that remind us of Hitler's attack against the press that tried to warn the people against him:

The ugly history of ‘Lügenpresse,’ a Nazi slur shouted at a Trump rally - Washington Post

Donald Trump Channels Adolf Hitler to Attack the ‘Lying’ Press - PoliticusUSA

Like Donald Trump's phrases of "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," and "AMERICA FIRST," Hitler made liberal use of similar propaganda.

One of Hitler's propaganda posters reads

TO LOVE DEUTCHLAND (Germany)

Claiming that his executive orders to stop travel between the U.S.A. and certain predominantly Muslim countries "will not be questioned" asserted a dictator's typical stance; that he is the ultimate authority and holder of power and that anyone who questions him will be eliminated. He DID fire some people who questioned him and is so paranoid about surrounding himself only with people who buy into his conspiracy theory, lunatic fringe philosophy that there are more than 500 key positions that have yet to be filled. None of these positions require Senate approval. He simply has to HIRE these and several thousand others, but it is the 500 something that are crucial. Many people WON'T work with him, and we have heard news, now and then, of people who declined Trump's offers of employment.

While the lunative fringe constantly criticized Obama's every move, including the expense of his travel, Donald Trump has cost us more in one month than Obama did in an entire year. For one thing, Trump is living as if the White House is his office, spending almost every weekend at his country club in Florida. All this travel back and forth, for himself and his family, including overseas travel for various family members, has cost us 11.3 MILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE MONTH, and the same people who complained about Obama's spending (12.1 MILLION FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR) are SILENT on Mein Trumph's spending that far exceeds Obama's. Hypocrites! The following are some links that discuss this:

Trump on track to spend exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars on travels By one estimate the president has already rung up as much in travel costs as the Obama and Biden families did in eight years – all at the expense of taxpayers - The Guardian

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Trips So Far May Have Cost Taxpayers Up To $10 Million - Fortune.com

Trump’s first month of travel expenses cost taxpayers just less than what Obama spent in a year

Conservative activists refuse to believe Trump is spending more on travel than Obama

Why the Trumps' Travel Expenses Matter - The Atlantic

The Trump family's lavish lifestyle is costing taxpayers a fortune

Last night I fell asleep in my recliner. I made myself a cup of tea and said to myself, "I'll just have this nice soothing cup of tea and then I'll go to bed." I woke at 10:30 in the morning, with the television still churning out this nauseating daily horror of truly weird news. Trump has tweeted definitively that Obama arranged to have Trump wire tapped. Here is a copy of the tweet:

"How low has President Obama
gone to tapp my phones during
the very sacred election process.
This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad
(or sick) guy!"

His cohorts are demanding that, while Trump's ties to Russia are being investigated, they have to investigate Obama's supposed overstep of his power by ordering wire tapping.

Those who would know have stated categorically that there has never been a wire tapping warrant for Trump or Trump Tower. Trump is so ignorant of the workings of the government that he STILL does not realize that the President is not a King and that there is a system of checks and balances in our government that has frustrated many a president. As it happens, in this case, the President does not have the power to order a wire tapping warrant. Representatives of Obama's team have also confirmed that none of them authorized or ordered any wire tapping against any American citizen. Read the following links:

Trump's baseless wiretap claim - CNN - includes video clip

Earnest: It May 'Come As Some Surprise' To Trump That Prez Can't Order Wiretap - Talking Points Memo

White House calls for probe of Trump's unsubstantiated claims as Obama spy official denies wiretap

White House, still offering no evidence, demands probe of whether Obama abused executive power - Los Angeles Times

Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim - The New York Times

Trump’s charge that he was wiretapped takes presidency into new territory - The Washington Post

No one knows where Trump is getting his ideas because he refuses to tell us his source of information, nor will he provide any evidence of this or any other bat poop crazy assertion he has made, such as the 3 to 5 million people that he says voted illegally in the last election. No proof. He demands that everyone believe him and ACT on his crazy ideas. He has made it clear that it is the job of everyone else to prove that he is wrong, which is backwards, of course.

On the heels of the numerous discoveries of Russian ties to the Trump administration, including lies about meetings with the Russian ambassador, Trump has sent out one of his outrageous tweets, making accusations that are similar to other accusations that he has issued in the past, when the news cycle wasn't flattering to him. Former White House Secretary comments on this:

Former WH Press Secretary On Trump: 'The Bigger The Scandal, The More Outrageous The Tweet' - VIDEO included

Meanwhile, Mein Trumph's sycophants believe whatever he says and repeat it back to other people. I've seen it on social media. Crazy, unproven, illogical and highly improbable ideas that violate every FACT that I know are being broadcast by people who are pitifully ignorant and, evidently, too lazy to read a book or a newspaper or a legitimate source of solid information. Either that, or they simply wish to believe what Mein Trumph tells them because it dovetails with their own internal bigotry. Fringy, conspiracy theory rags that are created, whole cloth, out of an ideological world view rather than facts about things that HAPPEN, continually fan the flames. This is exactly what happened when Hitler came to power.

My gut instinct is that Trumps charges are fantasies created by a sick and aging mind that cannot tell the difference between paranoid imaginings and truth. Someone or some people are feeding off his mental illness and are using him as the figurehead for a movement to dismantle our democratic system and put something else in its place. We have already seen the beginnings of this in the nomination of people to department posts whose history has been one of hostility toward those departments and agencies. I've dealt with this in other posts.

I am old, disabled and poor. I can do nothing about the coming catastrophe except to try and alert people to the danger of what will happen if we do not put a stop to this insanity. There is a man in the White House who has no business being there. He's brought the lunatic asylum with him and installed them in positions of power over agencies they've fought against their whole adult lives.

At the very LEAST, I would hope that people will be incited to educate themselves about our government, our history, and how the American democracy works; not in a GENERAL way, but the specific, tedious facts. Most of what Trump says is disproved by history and the facts around the workings of our system. Don't throw flowers on this monster. Arm yourselves with knowledge.

As an interesting side note, I tried to

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

FATIMA, RUSSIA, AND DONALD TRUMP

Jeff Sessions, swearing to tell the truth

Just when I thought I could settle into the routine of my daily life, a fresh horror presents itself that, frankly, needs the attention of every American.

Last night the news broke. Jefferson Sessions, in his Senate hearings, emphatically claimed that he never met with any Russians during the Trump campaign. It turns out he lied. He met twice with the Ambassador of Russia. One meeting was public. The next was a private meeting, in Sessions' office.

Sessions now claims he didn't lie because he met with the Ambassador in his capacity as a senator, but that is not what he said in his hearing. He said he had NO meetings when he answered questions from Senator Franken.

There is a reason why our Lady asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. There are some who are claiming that this consecration didn't happen in the proper way and therefore didn't meet the instructions of our Blessed Mother. I can't make a comment about that. I don't presume to know her mind. I DO know that the Fatima "miracle of the sun" was witnessed by more than 70,000 people, including newspaper reporters, that there are photographs of the people and the sun that appeared in the newspapers, and that this miracle was forewarned for the specific date and time that it was going to happen. This is one series of apparitions that simply cannot be discounted and explained away.

It has been almost exactly 100 years since the first apparitions at Fatima to the three children, and we find ourselves up to our elbows in scandal about Russian interference with American democracy, and a president and his staff who can't seem to tell the truth when it really counts. The Russian elephant in the room is getting bigger and bigger, and I keep thinking about our Lady's concern about Russia and the peculiar timing.

I watched tonight various clips of Donald Trump, over the years. First, he is bragging about his relationship with Putin, then he claims he never met the man. There were many clips, and in each one he makes a different claim. Currently, he is claiming he's never met the man. Who knows the truth? Only the Lord...and 17 different intelligence agencies.

Politicians, in general, have the reputation for lying, with a few notable exceptions that prove the rule. We have become used to it, except that the type, nature and topic of the lies coming out of this White House are blaringly hot, pants-on-fire alarming.

Something which did not make a big splash in the news, but which I find equally stunning, is that Wilbur Ross, the new Secretary of Commerce, is part owner of CYPRESS BANK, where Russian mafia launders its money, and where Putin and other Russian Oligarchs funnel money back and forth with America.

At this point, Donald Trump has a cabinet that is stuffed with billionaires who either have explicit financial ties with Russia, or who have spent their lives working against the very departments over which they have been put in charge! Betsy de Vos, another Trust Fund baby like Donald Trump, has spent her whole adult life funding a movement to eliminate the Department of Education, of which she is now in charge. The new head of the EPA has spent his whole working career as CEO of EXON, which has 68 million acres of land in Russia that they cannot drill until the sanctions are lifted. Oh...and he has also sued the EPA multiple times in an effort to get the regulations lifted. Trump's right hand man, Steve Bannon, another person with no government experience, has been quoted in the past as saying that his aim is to destroy the entire government edifice in America and that he admires Lenin for doing that in HIS country.

Trump's son has previously boasted that Russian money has come "pouring into" the Trump businesses. It is easy to see that, due to Trump's numerous bankruptcies and his well known inability to make a success of any business, that none of the American banks would lend him money. He probably HAD to go to Russia, and now they have him over a barrel.  Just speculating here, but it is a likely scenario. Did the Commerce Secretary get that job as partial payment for loaning Trump money from CYPRESS BANK?

What is NOT speculation is that 17 intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia DID hack into our computer systems in an effort to defeat Hilary Clinton. The news reached the Obama White House, and Obama and his team made sure that this information was documented in such a way that the incoming Trump team could not make it disappear. During that time, when everyone on the Hill knew that contact with Russia was a problem, Jeff Sessions met with the Ambassador to Russia...and didn't remember it...but said he definitely did not discuss campaign matters...or something.

How much more information do you need to see into the future plans of Trump and his gang? This is the plan, as I see it: Destabilize the government to loosen all protections for America in order to accomplish some sort of deal with Russia that is going to financially benefit the billionaires, the banks they own, and the oil and gas companies with which they have ties. Trump has never been a charitable guy. In fact, he has, on several occasions, figured out how to get credit for OTHER people's charitable contributions, while putting none of his own money on the line.  So, why did Trump want to become president at age 70? Did he have a vision? Did an angel visit him and tell him to do it? Or is he just pursuing the next big deal?

Remember - just about all his businesses went into bankruptcy, and the only reason he had any money to begin with was because he INHERITED it. He isn't a "successful businessman" and never has been. Like everything else in Trump's life, it is all a lie. His income source in these later years is almost exclusively from adding his name to the work of OTHER people - other people's buildings and golf courses and country clubs. Even now, he is taking credit for the achievements of the LAST president, whose policies have resulted in an unemployment rate sinking from 10.5 percent to about 4.5 percent.

My writing skills do not veer in the direction of journalism. I advise you to do what I have done. Read everything you can get your hands on, watch EVERY news channel, and then PRAY and FAST. The fate of our country, the fate of American democracy, is at stake. I am not overstating the case. I am not an alarmist. I typically do not care much about politics, except to the degree that political decisions hurt the poor. If left unchecked, this flow of events will lead to much more than just an increase in the number of poor people in our country.

I can see that America will look like Russia before long if we don't put the brakes on. I don't want to be right about this. Please pray and fast for freedom from Russian aggression and American cooperation with it.

Silver Rose

MEDITATION FOR LENT - THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

Carmelite nun, praying in her cell

When I was young and writing for television, I used to see a lot of movies. It was part of the job to stay abreast of what was being made, and it was a good method of keeping the writing chops honed. I used to love French films because they didn't usually have a convenient sweet ending that tied up all the loose ends. The boy didn't always get the girl. The business venture did not always work out. Sometimes the hero ended up poor and disheveled at the fag end of his life. Most of the actors and actresses also looked like real people, rather than genetic marvels. The films were, in my estimation, more real, more authentic, than American films and television.

For the most part, we have a formula for American films in which there is usually a feel good "happy ending." There are a few remarkable exceptions to this rule, such as THELMA AND LOUISE and GRAN TORINO, both of which are examples of really fine films that have a considerable edge to them. Even at that, however, the protagonists in both these films "win" in the end, leaving us with a  satisfying feeling, albeit tinged with a bit of sadness. Bittersweet.

The American formula for films and television reflects the American ideal of the "right" to pursue happiness. It is what our country was founded upon. While happiness is a good thing, it is a pathetic goal, when you think about it. There is nothing grand in it. On the face of it, it is a narcissistic goal, but it is a goal that many people I've encountered in life have swallowed.

When I was in the Hindu convent, the purpose of life was to get oneself to a state of "realization of God." Taking anyone else along with you wasn't a focus and, although the occasional feeding of the poor was practiced, the goal was a solitary one. It was selfish at its heart, and this is what disenchanted me about the Vedanta philosophy, in the end.

A Mormon relative once said to me that "the purpose of life is to have as many fun experiences as possible," to which I replied that the purpose of life is get yourself, your family and your neighbor to heaven. It just popped out of my mouth, but I now realize that this is the profound difference between Catholicism and many other religions and philosophies.

The Catholic faith is like those French films I enjoyed when young. It is real. It is authentic. It doesn't promote the rainbows and bubble gum Jesus to whom so many people cling. It doesn't promise a happy life or wealth or "prosperity" because Jesus didn't promise those things. He promised the cross and the sword. Later, we enjoy the bliss of living with our heavenly father for eternity, provided that we follow his commandments, especially the two that he most emphasized.

"Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy

God, with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and

with all thy mind. This is the first and great

commandment. And the second is like unto it,

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On

these two commandments hang all the law and

the prophets."

~ Matthew 22:37-40 ~

These greatest of commandments points away from oneself and toward God and neighbor, going so far as to decree that we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. In an era when conservative Catholics are promoting the idea that we all have the right to pursue success but the poor do not have the right to live as well as others, it is clear that we have lost our way, but what can I do about that, aside from mentioning it in my blog?

My meditation for this Lent will concentrate on what Jesus said are the two most important commandments. I plan to put this scripture passage before my eyes every day during the lectio divina portion of my prayers, and I will endeavor to listen to what the Lord has to say to me about these greatest of all commandments and how I may better practice them in my life.

What will YOU do for lent?

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2017
All rights reserved.

CHECKING OUT FOR LENT

This year, I would like to try to withdraw a bit for Lent. Recent news has had me jangled, alarmed and shouting warnings from the rooftops. Now it is time to cuddle up with God and see if I can purify and calm myself. It may be more difficult this year, with all the giant machinery tearing up the roads outside my window, but I will just have to regard it as another penance.

Friends are giving up various things for Lent. One friend tells me she is giving up desert. Another is giving up music in the car, which is interesting because, for me, music in the car would be torture. It is too much stimulation for an activity that, for me, requires all my concentration.

Catholics are actually required to do specific things during Lent, unless they are under age 14 or are sick with something that will be affected adversely by fasting. There is an upper age limit also. I think it is 62, but I am not sure. I AM one of those people that fall into the illness category. I'm also too poor to have much control over what kind of food comes into the house, but I will do my best to get as close as possible to the rules.

Those wishing to refresh themselves on the rules, can read this handy ARTICLE.

One thing we are told to do is pray more. I plan to do that. Consequently, another reason not to write my blog during the Lenten fast. Instead of blabbing, I am going to spend time listening...to the Lord.

Lent doesn't start until March 1st, but I want to get ready for it: stock the pantry with the appropriate foods, find my Lenten reading materials, etc.

I hope you have a beautiful and fruitful Lent.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2017

GOD BRINGS ALL THINGS TO THE GOOD FOR THOSE THAT BELIEVE

About halfway through the month, I typically run low on food. There are things to eat in the cupboard, but I have to be creative sometimes, and I often have to eat things I'm not particularly keen to have at that moment. I liken it to a type of perpetual fasting and, in that light, it becomes a blessing. Fasting as a method of sacrificing the ego, its will, and its constant need to be fed, enables one to grow closer to God. It has been continually advocated in the Judeo Christian world, as well as in other religions, for thousands of years. God brings all things to the good for those that believe - even when something looks bad at the outset  - even when something is uncomfortable or downright painful.

Tonight I was pondering dinner, when I noticed that I have a lot of half-and-half leftover, as I have reduced my consumption of tea over the last few months. Calculating that the half-and-half was going to go bad before I could use it all if I only used it for tea, I realized that I also had the other items necessary to make alfredo sauce with chopped walnuts. Sunday dinner was delicious. Another thing brought to the good that, on the outset, appeared to be somewhat sad.

If I stop to complain about whatever is going wrong, I may miss the good that the Lord wants to bring out of it and into my life. If I look at the deceptively empty refrigerator and become focused on THAT, it may never occur to me to become creative and make a masterpiece.

The last five years or so have been rough and getting rougher. Someone had me written out of my father's will after he got Alzheimer's. My father died, my uncle died, my son died, my dog died, my cat died. My relationship to the church I loved was destroyed by a callow young priest who ridiculed my weight in front of a group of people, pantomiming how funny it would be if he couldn't pull me out of a chair because my bottom is so big. He disparaged my disability status. He went on to harass me every time he got me alone, and I had to leave the church - the only Byzantine Church in New Mexico. My health has gotten worse and my illnesses have multiplied. Among other things, I am going blind, very slowly, from macular degeneration. My inability to find an appropriate place to live has been documented in other blog posts.

When I became disabled, friends of many years dropped me immediately. The few family who had the resources to help me picked a fight or found some bogus "reason" to be angry with me, giving themselves an excuse not to behave like the Christians they claim to be. They say that family is all one can count on, but but some families are not good. Some families hate God and goodness, living only for their own comfort.

It may never become apparent to me exactly what sort of good the Lord plans to bring out of all this pain. The good may not be realized during my lifetime. It may never make sense to me. It may never make sense to you, but sometime before my story comes to a close, I need to send out a reassuring message, and that is simply this: The Lord is bringing all these things to the good - for me and for others.

This is the blessing of living the Catholic faith, being a member of the church founded by Jesus - even if some of the priests are horridly broken and cruel people - even though I cannot get anyone from the bishop's office to return my phone calls about my vocation - even though our dear Papa is sometimes hard to understand - even though family and friends have left me twisting, by myself, at the end of a short rope - even though I have been suffering continuous pain FOR YEARS. I am being blessed.

Some people mistakenly believe that if we live the Christian faith well, Jesus will reward us with a comfortable life. That is not what he promised. This is what He said:

"Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth:

I came not to send peace, but the sword.

For I came to set a man at variance against his father,

and the daughter against her mother,

and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's enemies are they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than me, 

is not worthy of me;

and he that loveth son or daughter more than me,

is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth

me, is not worthy of me."

Matthew 10: 34-38

Christianity is the hardest gig you will ever do. It isn't rainbows, lollipops and unicorns, as some people believe. It isn't warm and cuddly. It isn't about prosperity. It is the sword and the cross, just as Jesus promised.

May we all be blessed.

Silver Rose Parnell

Copyright (c) 2017

All rights reserved.

DONALD TRUMP DISMANTLES GOVERNMENT AND THE PLANET WHILE HIS FANS CHEER

Donald Trump (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise )

Scott Pruitt, who disputes the reality of climate change, despite the science that says otherwise, and in contradiction to the majority of the scientific community; who has spent many years of his career fighting the EPA and its regulations that are necessary to the preservation of clean water and air and life on earth as we know it, has been picked by Donald Trump to head that very same agency.

Ben Carson, a surgeon with no administrative experience, no government experience, and no applicable education, has been tagged to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His ideology is hostile to the poor, whose interests he is supposed to serve in his capacity as head of this department.

Betsy de Vos was made the Secretary of Education. She is a billionaire heiress with no experience in education whatsoever, who has spent tremendous amounts of money in an effort to abolish the public school system and turn it into a voucher system for privately owned schools. Betsy herself has never attended a public school, and neither have her children. She is an elder in the "Christian Reformed Church" which holds a Calvinist theology.

The most alarming appointment, Chief political strategist Steve Bannon, has declared himself a Leninist. Of his political viewpoint, Bannon once said:

"Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal too. I want to bring

 everything crashing down and destroy all of today's establishment."

 ~ Steve Bannon  (SEE: THIS ARTICLE)

These are but A FEW of the incredible collection of billionaires Trump has begun to collect around himself; billionaires who are the opposite of the common man that voted him into office, and whose interests are the opposite of the common man. 

When you add up the fact that Trump's nominations, in the main, are people who have a long term antagonism toward the mission of the departments which Trump wants them to head, with the fact that Trump's primary political strategist is a Leninist who wants to tear down the government, and the added fact that they are all billionaires, all of us should be very very worried.

What will be left when Trump and his billionaire cronies destroy American democracy? Think about Cuba, where everyone is poor except the dictator and his cronies.

Trump's representatives have already begun to speak as if he is a dictator. 

“Our opponents, the media and the whole world 

will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, 

that the powers of the president to protect our 

country are very substantial and will not be questioned,” 

~ Stephen Miller, Trump's Senior Policy Director

It has become apparent, through comments made by Trump and his surrogates, that he is either ignorant of or dismissive of our government's system of checks and balances and he intends to behave as a king or dictator, rather than a part of a system into which he has been inserted.

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

Copyright (c) 2017

All rights reserved.

THERE IS NO CASTE SYSTEM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I am blessed to have some extremely pious, devoted and intelligent Catholic friends. One of them is Mary Hammond, whose recent Facebook post clearly articulates the Truth of a truly pro-life point of view that I have been trying to write but which has eluded me.

With her permission, I am copying her words here. Thank you, Mary, for letting me do this, and thank you for your heart-felt words.

Who Is Worthy?

When last October, Fr. Pavone answered my objection to Donald Trump's anti refugee and anti immigration stance with his view that American babies dying in American clinics should come before Syrian babies dying from bombings or drownings because abortion of the most vulnerable was the greatest evil, he unwittingly defined my entire objection to his brand of "pro life" and opened a new avenue for pro euthanasia advocates to follow.

Why? Because he created a "class" of persons set apart from the rest.

The Church does tell us we need to defend those who are most vulnerable, or the weakest. But in her wisdom she did not create classes of these and rank them for us. What does the Church say?

"CC 2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being."

Father Pavone and "the old guard pro life" have most of the sentence correct. It's that sticky last part he eliminates from the discussion: "like any other human being".

One of the concerns of anti euthanasia activists is that euthanasia will be used to clear out, if you will, those persons defined on a secular basis of being no longer able to contribute meaningfully to society. Which really means nothing more than they will not be working and paying taxes.

But secular aside, Catholics should be more concerned with the creation of classes in society by some pro life activists - the reason being is God does no such thing.

It is theologically incorrect to state that unborn children being aborted in America are deserving of more help and attention than unborn children being bombed or starved in Syria because abortion in the womb is worse than being bombed in the womb. Does God make these distinctions? No. Does the Church really, actually, make that distinction? No. Father Pavone makes that distinction and he is wrong.

And his view can also over take the anti euthanasia movement if supporters of Pavone's peculiar theology apply it to euthanasia.

God is not petty. He does not operate on some weird value system making one unborn child more deserving of help than another unborn child based on which type of unjust death they are dying.
One wonders if, in the March For Life, mothers holding signs really believe their born children are not as worthy of life defense as the unborn child. When pregnant, do mothers view their older children as less deserving of assistance than the child they are carrying?

Are older people with cancer more deserving of life defense than the 40 year old in a serious car accident and on life support? Secularists would say no. The 40 yr old might recover and go back to work. What would the old guard pro lifer say?

If we logically follow Fr. Pavone's thinking we can say Jesus was most deserving of love, care and attention before he was born and it was all downhill from there- He was no longer worthy of our attention.

His importance, His value, if you will, lessened when He reached an age where He could heal people and multiply loaves and fishes by Himself. Presumably Fr. Pavone would have found Christ adequately vulnerable and worthy of his attention when Christ was dying on the Cross. We won't know of course until he decides to comment fully on end of life issues.
But does God really think this way? I think we would be hard pressed to find any Christian faith of any denomination, much less the Catholic faith, who has such an insulting view of God or accuses God of such minimalist care.

Copyright (c) 2017 by Mary Hammond
Copied here with permission.

THE BOOGEY MAN RETURNS

I know, as I write this, that my friends are going to give me a hard time for taking the dog out late at night for his doggy business, but I inadvertently took a super long nap this afternoon and evening, and the dog had not been out for a really long time. At 2:00 a.m., when I awoke, the pooch was doing the pee pee dance.

Sure enough, as soon as I snuck back toward my apartment from a quick trip to the back yard, I was approached by the same guy that I posted about on Sunday (see previous post!)

I raised my heavy wooden walking stick and raised it, yelling, "I don't know you! Get away from me."

Just like Sunday, he circled around and back, swearing at me, then he disappeared into an adjoining hallway of the apartment complex, which clued me into my suspicion that he had taken up residence in one of the building. Earlier this week, my neighbor told me that some of the homeless have been sleeping on the upper floors, surprising neighbors when they came home late or left for work in the morning.

His walk toward me, into the hallway, had been purposeful, and I think he had probably been heading back to the electrical outlet, not realizing that our maintenance man had plated over it this week.

Ironically, the little dog I got as a service dog and watch dog didn't even bark ONCE while I was yelling at the Intruder. Boo Boo just stood there. Some watch dog. As I explained to everyone before getting a service dog, my doctor felt I needed to get a large dog, for safety's sake and to help me get off the floor when I fall. Also, if the dog has to go outside at a weird time of day or night, or if there is someone unsavory waiting for me in the hallway, a large dog would be intimidating. I couldn't afford to buy one myself, no one was giving away hypoallergenic large dogs, and I was unable to raise enough money to purchase one. My little dog will bark if someone knocks on my door, and that is helpful. Plus, he's the cutest, most loving little dog in the world. There's that! He is a permanent part of the household, but I will need to add a large dog as a seeing eye dog in the years to come.

When I became disabled about 14 years ago, I looked upon it as a blessing from God. Although I was not able to hold down a regular job, I imagined I could lead a quiet life of prayer and meditation, devoted to the Lord, something I had wanted to do since leaving the Hindu convent to become Catholic in my late 30's.

My health and finances became worse and worse, however, and I have not been able to find a quiet place to lay my head. When I first moved into this low-income apartment complex, I was charmed by it, and had high hopes, but the management has gradually stripped away all the trees and greenery, while the number of noisy maintenance projects has increased. It got into a fight with the Mid Rio Grande Conservancy District, which then ripped out all the old trees that flanked the back side of the apartment complex that had helped to shelter us from wind and wanderers. This property is wide open to intruders, extremely noisy, and stuck in an isolated, crime ridden, unsafe area. It is a grave comment on the lack of compassion that Americans have, in general, about the poor and especially the disabled poor. Vulnerable populations need to live in safer, more protective environments, not neighborhoods where there are more criminals.

My doctor tells me I have developed a heart murmur, which doesn't surprise me, considering the stress I've been under. He is sending me for an EKG and an ultrasound of my heart in the near future. I'm waiting for a call from the hospital clinic. At the same time, I've been referred for genetic testing to pin down my illness and get a diagnosis. We think it may be Ehlers-Danlos, but we are not sure.

All of this seems like a great distraction to my deep desire for union with the Lord, but the words of the Hindu swami keep coming back to me. He would say, "Your whole life is your spiritual life." These words echo the sentiments of many Catholic saints and have given me solace, as well as a guide to handling this chaotic life that is the opposite of what I'd hoped for.

As much as possible, I pray always. All my actions are dedicated to the Lord, and I keep a running dialog with Him, Our Blessed Mother, the saints and the angels. I may have pictured myself sitting serenely on my recliner in front of my shrine, chanting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, various rosaries, special prayers and chaplets, but the reality is something else entirely. Simple care of the body and the house require much more time and effort than an ordinary person. My schedule is not my own and cannot be geared to the typical monastic routine, because of the nurses and caretakers that are coming to care for me, the maintenance crew that seems to have an unending "to do" list, the needs of the dog and his frequent walkies, and my doctor appointments.

Accepting the will of God is essential, so I have traded in the dreams of what I'd hoped my monastic life would look like, with the reality of what it must be.

In order to obtain needed medical equipment and supplies while finding an affordable house that accommodates my physical needs, I will make an effort to create more income, with my writing, religious paintings and crocheted lace projects. Fund raising will also be necessary, as my income producing abilities are very limited.

The details of the equipment needed and the donation options will be dealt with in my next blog post. As usual, the donation button on the upper right hand side of the column to the right is still working!

What I do not need is advice. If you are not able to help financially, please just pray for a happy outcome, a new residence that suits me, and the cure of my many illnesses (if God so wills it.)

In the meantime, God bless you!

Silver Rose

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE HERMIT

Things are looking more and more bleak, and I am beginning to understand the loss of heart, faith and hope among the poor.

Today, I woke from a nap to see a strange man staring at me through my window while fondling himself with a red bandana. I freaked out, of course, jumped up from my chair and did my best to wake myself up as soon as possible. I had the typical vertigo that I get when I awake, and it took a few minutes to get my bearings and try to decide what to do. My PTSD adrenaline kicked in automatically. I was spinning around the apartment.

Eventually, I heard a voice outside my door. I opened it to find the transient leaning against the opposite wall where there was an open electrical outlet. (The painters had been using it for their multiple electrical machineries and didn't bother to reinstall the locking cap.) He was talking on his cell phone while he continued to steal the electricity from the building.

The man was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, red haired, highly freckled. He was carrying a big black backpack that was wide open and revealed what appeared very much to be a policeman's baton. You can do a lot of damage with one of those.

My automatic reaction was to yell at him and tell him to get lost. What I didn't know is that he'd been there long enough to defecate ON THE SIDEWALK near my window.

I was flabbergasted, and running hot on adrenaline. I'd called a neighbor with whom I'm friendly. She's older than I am and a little more beaten up, but I wanted some company while I walked the dog. It was time for him to do his business and I didn't feel safe in the parking lot yet.

My neighbor didn't like it that I was upset and reeling from the experience, and she attempted to calm me down by telling me to calm down, which never works,of course. I don't know why people do that. Even though it is natural to be upset about something so bizarre happening to a person, they tell you relax, even though it is stupid and impossible. Perhaps the upset makes them nervous or uncomfortable. They can't themselves remain calm in the presence of someone who has been severely jangled.

There are some circumstances under which being calm is NOT the answer. Generally, I am calm, and I enjoy it, but when transients are violating your dignity through a plate glass window and depositing feces on the sidewalk before casually stealing electricity, being calm would be rather odd, in my mind.

I had to call the maintenance man, completely oblivious that it is super bowl Sunday and that he was most certainly watching the game. He did come out during half time, and I think he is a real brick for doing it. He cleaned up the feces from the sidewalk outside my window while the police office talked to me about what had happened.

We were promised that the police would keep an eye on us tonight, with the hope that the locking plate for the electrical outlet would be fixed ASAP.

This has happened before. Whenever the plate over the electrical outlet goes missing, word gets around the homeless population and there ensues a constant stream of transients outside my door, bellowing their odd personal business into their cell phones while the cell phone charges at the same time.

I told the police officer that I understand that most of these homeless people just CANT live like the rest of us do. If you put them into an apartment, they wouldn't know how to live there. Camping out in the Bosque is preferable to some people, even in the biting cold of winter. I crochet hats for them and give them to the Joy Junction people who send their van out on the cold nights to pick up the willing homeless and take them to their facility. They give the hats to the ones who refuse to go, the ones they leave behind. It isn't just poverty that keeps them in the street or in the Bosque. It's temperament and/or insanity. I understand. I am unusual, in my own way, and, although I have no problem living indoors, I have other problems with some parts of civilization with which most people have no problem coping. Perhaps coping isn't the word, really, because for most people these things are not problems at all.

For the last three years I have been trying to find another place to live, someplace near friends who have middle class lives, near middle class grocery stores. They have comfortable old houses, with landscaping of varying pleasantness. Nothing too fancy. I like it there, in the middle of the road of life. I don't crave excitement, but rather ordinariness and calm.

These friends, with their large families and regular church attendance and duties, are special to me. They are kind to me, and loving. They have been trying to get me to live closer to them so they can help me easier, but finding something suitable and affordable has proven to be impossible, so far. After 3 years, they won't say they would give up. They are sturdier stock than that! They won't give up, but I think they may also be losing hope.

All of the affordable housing is located outside the magical realm of the nice middle class neighborhoods and grocery stores. Every single one is in an awful part of town, on a busy main street. Nothing is available in any residential neighborhood. It is almost as if it was PLANNED that way...a plan to keep the poor away from anything pretty, good, nice or decent.

I wonder if the city planners, when they think of poor people, imagine people like the man who left excrement on my sidewalk. When people talk about what to do about the poor, is it them that they think of? In reality, poor people are mostly elderly and disabled. The homeless, in reality, take up less than 1% of the poor, but they are so visible and their behavior so memorable that they overshadow the rest of us - those who know how to keep an apartment and pay our bills.

If I was a saint, I wouldn't be so distraught. I would not concern myself with my comfort. I would simply feel sorry for the man who is so broken that he would do the things he did tonight outside my window. In reality, I feel trapped and sorrowful, stuck in an ugly life that has room for these kind of atrocities. I feel incapable of wanting to rise to sainthood. I don't even WANT to be comfortable with what has happened here tonight. Not a shred of my being is interested in self-abnegation.

I think about Mother Theresa and the hardships she CHOSE. I wish I was a better person. I don't know whether or not to pray for the courage to remain here, happily, without complaint...or run screaming to some other town or state or SOMEWHERE, anywhere but here, where the stains of that man still mar the sidewalk.

It is a sad night, my friends. Please pray for the little Hermit, that I may become better than I am.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

PATTERNS OF NATURE INFORM THE MIND

"Mystic River"

Copyright Silver Rose Parnell

Abstract patterns give the impression of river.

I woke this morning wondering what fresh hell would assault me when I checked into the news, as I am wont to do these days. I admit I HAVE been worried about our country since Donald Trump took the throne.

First up was the propaganda show put on by Trump's propaganda machine, carefully scripted and dripping with inappropriate superlatives in a concert of hyperbole known as the "Press Briefing." Sean Spicer read from his daily tribute to The Dear Leader, extolling his virtues, where even Trump's incredible faux pas and failures are couched in self-congratulatory terms.

If I wrote about every occasion upon which Trump threatened our national safety, reputation or security, I would spend my entire day writing political blogs, and that isn't my role in life. Nor is it even my genre, as a writer. As a religious woman, matters of state do not typically take any space in my mind, except where I feel that religious freedoms may be at stake, and this is where I feel Donald Trump may do us the most harm, which is why I write about him on occasion.

As is customary with these so-called "press briefings," Spicer has very little definitive information in answer to any of the questions asked by the press. He dances around all the topics like an aged ballerina. It is obvious from his verbal Swan Lake that he has not been given permission to convey any information that is not contained in the highly scripted Ode to the Toad.

This is the pattern of the joke known as "The Press Briefing": Spicer reads the Ode, the contents of which convey the uneven input of the Greek Chorus that has combed through it, overseen by Trump, who has thrown clunky, brash superlatives into the mix, like flat notes inserted into an overwhelmingly loud and brassy piece of performance art. The entire tone of the opus is false, where all of Trump's failures and missteps are characterized as grand successes, such as the recent debacle in Yemen in which lives were lost. Trump, through the mouth of Spicer, insists that it was a "success" (because everything he does is a success in his own eyes and anyone who disagrees is invited to leave or is summarily fired.)

The Press tries to get detail from Spicer, who has OBVIOUSLY been put under some kind of gag order by Trump. Trump issues the "truth of the day" and that's it. That's all you get. Even when the topic of RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS was batted around,  Spicer was obviously trying not to say anything that would get him in trouble on either side.

In this morning's briefing we learned, in general terms that Trump is in favor of religious people being able to adhere to their religion without interference from the government, but Spicer couldn't commit to what that meant exactly. He can only deal with general theory because his boss hasn't prepared any specifics or his boss doesn't want anyone to be prepared for the specifics when he writes one of his flood of executive orders that he's been printing up like playbills for the show that is Trump.

Because Trump behaves so inappropriately and has become a laughing stock with the majority of Americans and the rest of the world, Spicer's announcement this morning about religious freedoms is painful to hear. If the press secretary of a man with gravitas were saying the same things, it would be of great benefit to those of us who are pro-life and do not wish to be forced to participate in any activity that even whispers the name of abortion. None of us wants federal money going to Planned Parenthood. We do not want little family businesses bankrupted because their religious sentiments prevent them from baking cakes for weddings of same sex couples. People voted for Trump SOLELY because they hoped he would reverse Roe v. Wade by a well placed Supreme Court placement or two or three.

If Trump was a serious diplomat, a skilled and elegant leader, aware of the nuances of politics and people, his support of religious freedom would have some weight. He would be able to change the flow of culture that is careening close to the edge of outright public persecution of Christians, but since he is such an incredible boob, it is harmful to the cause to be affiliated with him. Everything he does is wacky, uninformed, boorish, impolite and just plain primitive.

Sometime in the future, when Trump is out of office, everything he does will be reversed, just as he is now trying to reverse everything that Obama did, and our country is going to have to figure out how to prevent someone like this from grabbing power ever again. We are going to have to rebuild our democracy, after he and Steve Bannon are through tearing it down.

When Trump was first elected, I worried a lot about how his behavior would affect America's relationships with our allies and our enemies alike, but I now realize that our allies have leaders who are more intelligent, skilled, nuanced and educated than Trump. Foreign leaders in the developed world see him for who he is, and they also see us for who WE are. They know that Trump lost the popular vote by close to 3 million people. They have seen the videos of mass marches and demonstrations against him in cities all over the U.S. They know that "America" is not behind Trump, but these leaders also see diplomatic affairs through the lens of history, where patterns of behavior are crucial to the apprehension of future events.

Trump is not the first fatally flawed egomaniac to take control of a country, suppress freedom of speech and produce masses of propaganda to disguise what is really going on. Autocrats throughout history have picked out a vulnerable population to blame for everything that is wrong in the country. With the Nazis, it was the Jews. With Trump it is the "illegals." It is typical for this type of leader to move their family into the seat of power, giving the closest jobs to those to whom they are related. Trump is not the first man to fire anyone who dares refuse to do something illegal to satisfy the monarch. Nor is he the first to make wild, impossible promises like Trump's promise to improve services and create more jobs while cutting costs at the same time. Hitler's promises of wealth and plenty upon the removal of the Jews was a similar promise. PATTERNS. Patterns (history) count.

Autocrats like Trump commonly use force, bullying, intimidation and personal humiliation as primary tools to accomplish his real purpose. Look to his Leninist, white supremacist sidekick, Steve Bannon, for clues to Trump's real agenda. Trump is out to dismantle our brand of democracy and create something else. He just hasn't told us about it. You can read about it, though, in the Breitbart editorials.

World leaders see Trump for who he is, which is why the Australian Prime Minister didn't mention Trump's boorish rudeness during their telephone call. When asked about it by the press, he only said, with a slight smile playing on his lips, that the deal between America and Australia (with regard to some refugees who have been stuck on some islands outside Australia for a few years) is still in place. Later, he expressed regret that there was a leak of his telephone conversation with the president.

Leaders of foreign countries can see the patterns of Trump's behavior, patterns to which he seems to be enslaved. In every interaction, no matter who it is, Trump first flatters his target and then he flatters himself a while, at which point, he makes a grab for whatever he wants or makes the self-aggrandizing point he wants to make. If Trump doesn't get what he wants out of the interaction, he goes on the attack and in his most hostile, boorish manner, starts calling his adversary unsavory names and insulting them. Everyone knows this about him. Nervous laughter ensues. No one is going to give a hint that they disagree with him.

He certainly did this with the women he pursued and assaulted. First, he flatters the woman, then he flatters himself, then he makes a grab for what he wants. If rebuffed, he calls her ugly or whatever other vile insult comes into his mind. He did this to at least one of the dozen or so women who came forward to confirm that his bragging about sexual assaults was true. He has no shame, this man. His support of the cause of religious freedom is about as helpful as that of the KKK.

We take our cues of behavior from the patterns of what other people do and say, wear and consume. Our bodies are conformed of patterns of cells. Bees produce wax homes for their queens and their honey using hexagonal patterns that are beautifully laid out. This is a natural gift given by God. Patterns of behavior inform our consciousness and help us decide what is safe, what is good, what is bad.

Criticizing Donald Trump, based on his patterns of behavior, isn't safe. Nervous laughter.

After watching the Press Briefing reality show, I took a look at some film of Trump's meeting today with Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. He stroked them for a short time with a handful of whatever flattery he had in his head at the moment. Then he immediately switched to flattering himself. He talked about his great win of the presidency (which he can't seem to get over and continues to crow about), then made insulting comments about his telephone call with the Australian Prime Minister (which has nothing to do with the Harley Davidson people who were sitting in front of him and which prompted nervous laughter.)

Trump is the original solipsist, except that you may not exist in his consciousness even if you ARE sitting right in front of him. His mind is captured by the latest irritation he experienced and/or the current lie he is trying to promote. I guess he thinks that if he says it enough times to enough people in enough venues it will magically become true.

This is not the man who is going to reinstall God at the head of the government of America. People who think they ARE God never do that. If anything, he will hurt our cause. I am sorry, my dear friends who voted for him, but you will be greatly disappointed when the Trump show is over and the final reviews are in. Abortion will not be abolished because of anything that Trump does. Although a great number of Americans do not believe in abortion, there are far more people who want it to be legal, and that is going to be the overriding consideration of even the most obtuse political hack who isn't saddled with Donald Trump's crippling emotional need for approval.

As far as whether or not our reputation will be lost with leaders of foreign countries,  I suspect that the people who REALLY run the world, the guys who never lose their jobs, the CIA and other intelligence people on the ground, those whose job relies upon anonymity -  THOSE people are far smarter than all of us and are not about to let this child-man throw the world into chaos, if possible. These people have relationships with counterparts in other countries. They are on the job, doing their best to protect us on the ground. I hope they are successful because Trump has threatened to invade Mexico with Troops, break an agreement to house refugees currently housed in Australia, pull the U.S. out of Nato, take military actions against Iran, etc. etc. etc.

The only people who may be moved to action against him would be leaders in countries that are completely disconnected from us. Notice that Trump hasn't said anything about North Korea? If he insults their Dear Leader, who knows what would happen? They don't have the sophistication of the rest of the world, having removed themselves from it. Their leader may not be able to put aside a loss to his honor because of some slight by The Donald. He likely does not have the savvy of the Prime Minister of Australia who clearly knows what he's dealing with.

While hobbling home from my first walk with the dog this morning and thinking about all these things, I happened to notice the beautiful job that is being done on an apartment complex in my neighborhood. The patterns of the work conjure up, in the most abstract manner, the surrounding landscape, and the history of place. I had to stop for a while and just admire the design. The architect had won a very prestigious architectural award for its design many years ago. I hadn't appreciated it before, when someone else had destroyed the design by slapping a few ill-conceived paint colors over the original masterpiece.

The painting isn't finished, but I can already feel the vision of the architect. The pattern of his work clearly evokes the New Mexican vibe. The very top part of the building incorporates the colors of the stormy summer clouds that we love so much in this part of the world. The colors actually made my brain feel good....and I really needed to feel good today.

Please pray for our misguided and childish President, as well as everyone else who has to work with him. Please pray that the Lord illumines Trump and gives him inner guidance that will encourage him to cease this turbulent, disturbing method of doing business.

Please pray for our beautiful world and its stunning symmetry of pattern. Pray that we all experience the teaching that is inherent in our appreciation of the beautiful patterns of the world and let it calm and soothe us, giving us peace within ourselves and in our relationships with everyone else in the world.

Lord save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell