By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind.”

–Pope Francis to the United States Congress, September 24, 2015

Saturn in Sagittarius certainly hit with an explosion, drawing our attention to all things philosophical and preparing the landscape for fireworks as regards our various religious establishments. Stuff happened, and some so bizarre it’s hard for the Western mind to grasp.

For instance, over 700 souls died, over 800 injured, in a stampede of Islamic hajj pilgrims just outside of Mecca. They were on their way to the traditional ‘stoning of the devil,’ the importance of which might seem reasonable to some of our evangelical brothers and sisters, but leaves most Americans scratching their heads. Indeed, one gent interviewed was too traumatized to continue his pilgrimage and planned to hire someone to do the stoning for him (scratch, scratch, scratch!).

Autumnal Equinox brought pagans across the world together for a celebration. One event in Kentucky (which has had its share of bad press lately) included a Pagan Pride Day which seemed particularly satisfying and well attended. The earth religions continue to exist in small, quiet groups, still cloistered in — as one Wiccan suggested — the ‘broom closet.’

It tickles me that we have an annual Harvest Festival, here in the Pea Patch, piggybacking on the earth-religion traditions while entertaining consumers of Amish jams and produce, local barbecue and handmade goods with serenades of old timey Christian revival hymns. If they only knew!

Born a Baptist, I sang along while working the Democrat’s booth last weekend, handing out buttons urging progressive activism while appreciating the nip in the air, the falling leaves, and the deep fellowship of community gathering. Here in the country we’ve forgotten a lot, but not the fecundity and generosity of Mother Earth. Should we humans begin to deflesh our beliefs and traditions, we would invariably find the good strong bones of the natural world at their base.

Of course, the whole concept of religiosity lit up like a Christmas tree here in America as the Pope hit Washington D.C. like a dose of salts. Conservative politicians flinched, Progressives hoped, and lapsed Catholics reconsidered, as the force that is Francis arrived with his signature warmth and expected candor. Give the man his due, he’s fearless. He insisted on traveling in a little Fiat — no bubbled popemobile for him — lunching with the homeless rather than the Congress, and even working the crowd line, allowing the occasional selfie.

On a political note, you may be surprised to learn that tanning enthusiast and Merlot drinker John Boehner has only been leader of the House of Representatives since 2011. Funny, it feels so much longer to me — and for him as well, it appears. Bringing the Pope to town has long been reported as the top entry on his bucket list, so it’s no surprise to learn that John, a devout Catholic, burst into tears during their initial meeting. What was surprising, however, even shocking, was the announcement that John has had enough of wrangling contentious Baggers. He will leave Congress in October, throwing water on the growing fire in the belly of his more ideological comrades to depose him.

Baggers are hell-bent on shutting down government over the funding of Planned Parenthood, something neither John nor Mitch McConnell in the Senate have stomach for, given the ramifications of the last government shut down. This has resulted in an assault on John’s speakership. According to The Hill, sharks have been circling for several weeks, a number of Reps eager to step into leadership should a coup occur.

So here’s the bad news: you can bet all of them are more aggressively right-wing than John. In fact, Establishment politicians everywhere, take note: the fat’s in the fire now!

The timing is synchronous on this, since the Pope’s visit seems the goad that pushed the Speaker into a decision he’s delayed since Eric Cantor lost his seat as Majority Leader in 2010, primaried by a Bagger who has offered little but fringe politics since. The replacement Majority Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, would be the default to step into John’s place, but that’s not a sure thing. McCarthy has a reputation of being easily bought and sold to the highest bidder — something the Baggers call “succumbing to the Borg” — and it’s their votes that are needed to enthrone him. There are others lining up, of course. Paul Ryan, failed VP candidate and remaining ‘young gun’ from a decade past, comes to mind, and there are others just as philosophically constricted and ambitious waiting in the wings.

As covered so well in Fe’s piece, I suspect John decided to go out in the blinding light that is Francis, hitting a high note of sorts. He’s got a point. The El Papa persona is beloved even by those who have no use for his Church, thanks to this man who has brought his Jesuit sensibilities to the Chair of St. Peter. He is perceived as compassionate, temperate and flexible, although his attractiveness belies his seriousness. Appropriate, I think, to a man whose Sun sits on the mysterious and compelling Galactic Center.

While we can truly appreciate how much gravitas Francis brings to his plea to our better angels — as illustrated by these quotes — and how that has shone light on what our world and nation so badly need, there is surely little change in the repressive doctrinal imperatives of the Catholic Church herself, nor should we expect any. In fact, the remainder of the quote at the top of the page holds up a mirror not just for us, but for Francis and his church as well:

A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.

Kudos all the way home for the Pope’s plea to world leaders to restore equality, opportunity and justice in a waiting world, but how can we attempt to come to equality when women are denied reproductive rights? How do we entertain equality of opportunity when women are forced to carry and care for ill-conceived children with few resources at their disposal? How do we contemplate justice when women have not been ratified into the Constitution, and are still treated as property on subliminal, even conscious, levels?

As a native Californian, I can tell you that the canonization of Padre Junipero Serra — who militarized the mission system to conquer the indigenous population under the guise of religious conversion, killing enough to constitute cultural genocide — has rubbed not just Native Americans the wrong way, but many of us who have carefully studied history. This controversial action may be a matter of Francis not seeing the larger picture of colonization, but that seems unlikely, given his previous commentary on American imperialism. More likely suspect is the infallibility of the Catholic priesthood in its hierarchical and paternalistic tradition that bestows upon ‘the chosen’ godlike qualities, no matter their personal sins.

What do we say to the survivors of sexual victimization who discover that this Pope praised his bishops this week for their handling of sexual scandals, characterizing their behavior as both courageous and generous? Vatican watchers argue that this was commentary on the (eventual) rapprochement of victims in response to the Pope’s launch of a Vatican tribunal to punish clergy who try to cover abuse, and his commission to discover how best to help survivors. Yet the Church continues to fight legal battles to protect priests from the consequences of their actions. Again, it’s important to note that in Church doctrine, priests are more than mere humans, subject only to the judgment of the Almighty, and add that there is a large contingent of clerics in the Vatican hesitant to see that judgment become secular.

Republicans, who have co-opted religion in the last thirty years and rewritten the Gospels to suit themselves, have gotten over their initial spit-take over the Pope’s comments and are making it clear that he should get his nose out of their business. In their view, secular matters and religious matters are evidently as unmixable as sacred oil and holy water. Hypocritical, much, you ask? Best not to forget that money is the god we worship on these shores and power is the exchange required for access.

The very fundamentalism Francis warns against infects us all, it appears. Still, he has VERY successfully succeeded in changing the conversation, taking the focus off so much that seems out of our hands while pointing us back to our responsibility to create with ethics and kindness, reestablishing the Golden Rule as the commonality that must prevail within the human spirit if we are to succeed as a species. Those with ears to hear, as our biblical traditions tell us, will hear, and others will drag their feet. That’s the way of the world, and, as we’ve heard it said so often: Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Yet many hands have come together to build it, now, more than we know. Last week we also celebrated the 34th annual United Nations International Day of Peace, with a focus this year on “different parts of society working together to strive for peace.” Here’s a link to Deepak Chopra illustrating that principal within a very small group, and another report from Forest Whitaker, actor, activist and UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, discussing the one-on-one interactions that are required if we are to make the changes our hearts desire. Consider them the petrie dish upon which our evolution rests, growing and spreading as a gentle alternative to all the dispiriting things that howl and strut and beg our constant attention.

The Pope coming to the U.N. at such a time seems another of those synchronous moments, sternly urging cooperation toward international justice and compassion, end of conflict, and environmental stewardship. As is the custom of this Pope, he paints a big picture but he puts a human face on it; this week, the face of the crowd awaiting his touch are the children and the homeless. That is exactly the face we need to see, my dears. And this is where we all — you and I and those we interact with every day — must begin to lean in.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” –Abraham Lincoln

Despite what you may have heard, the world will not end this month. Yes, there’s chaos everywhere we look, and anyone watching the debate among America’s conservative presidential candidates can be assured there’s no help there. Robert Scheer called them fools, fascists and cold warriors, and even Ann Coulter — a Trump admirer — accused them of pandering to the Zionist crowd, tweeting with signature charm, “How many f…ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?” She later defended her remark by saying, “This kind of suck-uppery is humiliating.”

Yes, there are ominous signs. The Dow is as touchy as a wild hare, with prognosticators of world economy wound up like a cheap clock. Global migration is upon us, the needs of the displaced straining the compassion and resources of their reluctant hosts, encouraging growth of an alarming nativism that we see in our own Republican party. And let’s not forget that series of super-moons, especially the one due on September 27th aligning with a total lunar eclipse to produce a dreaded ‘blood moon.’ I know, I know. It’s downright biblical.

Even many Mormon families, who traditionally depend on their religious community to sustain them in hard times, are stocking up on essentials despite reassurance from their Temple leaders, pending catastrophic end. These folks are known as “preppers” — they used to be called survivalists — and according to the Salt Lake Tribune, a mix of “biblical prophecies, the Hebrew calendar, an unstable economy, world politics and astronomical occurrences” have convinced them that This Is It.

Those of us who deal in the larger picture know that literalism rarely tells the tale. NASA isn’t tracking any colossal asteroids headed for earth, activity from the space brothers isn’t any more evident than usual, and no nuclear power is engorged over some international slight at the moment, so life on the planet ending in the next 30 or so days seems illogical, but who knows — maybe that’s what Noah thought too.

On the other hand, like the Death card in a Tarot throw, there are ends and then there are Ends. A total lights out seems highly unlikely. Transformation, however, is another thing entirely, and if not signs of full blown transformation, there are indicators that the stonewall to reality has been cracked beyond repair, letting in light.

For instance, the Seattle teachers union has ended its strike (pending approval this weekend) having won their first pay increase in six years, but more than that, also won a series of positive policies for their students, including less testing and more assistance from counselors and therapists. Read about it here, it’s a heartening development in the push to put student welfare back into the educational system.

The U.S. prison population has dropped to its lowest level in the last ten years, although it’s still higher than any other nation, and Bernie Sanders is proposing legislation to end corporate “for profit” prisons, increasingly used by states to save money. By law, corporations must put profit above all other considerations, and Bernie argues, persuasively, that privately run jails and prisons have “perverse incentive” to increase their numbers. And because ICE is complicit in using privatized services, this strikes at the heart of the immigration issue. Considering our disenchantment with the Justice Department, this is a potent call to arms against the institutionalized power structure.

Sanders is a real mensch. He stood in front of an auditorium of Liberty University students — the late Jerry Falwell’s latest brood — to stump for political solidarity on the ethical considerations we Americans share in our Judeo-Christian tradition this week. “We are living in a nation which loves not brothers and sisters, not love of the poor and the sick, but worships the acquisition of money.” Bernie put rampant capitalism, and the meme that only the ‘worthy’ deserve riches, in the cross hairs among the fledgling Christocrats, and while he acknowledged differences on social issues, he never gave an inch on matters of democratic principle.

This is dear to my heart, in that I find politics a reflection of our spiritual principles, no matter our religious indoctrination. We are either people of the heart, or people of the wallet. We can agree that these days, it’s easy to tell who’s who.

Here’s another informative read, lining out the boggling, institutional mind-fuck — not to mention danger — of an education at Liberty. This is, I should add, the college from which Bush drew law school graduates to bolster the ranks of every government department prior to his exit, and why many of those departments do everything possible to avoid accomplishing anything meaningful at the direction of this sitting President.

Yes, there are portents to be read, tea leaves to swirl. Here in the U.S., Bernie made the cover of TIME — and about time, no pun intended. Across the pond, a rejection of austerity and Thatcheresque “tough love” is another sign of the needle moving. Comparison to the election of a dyed-in-the-wool British Socialist should tamp down the ‘oh-shit, oh-dear’ rhetoric about Bernie’s wildly leftist propositions, which are nothing more than mid-century American Democratic policies. You, know — the kind Eisenhower and Nixon would recognize as acceptable policy, if not entirely their preference. It SHOULD tamp down the hysteria, but probably won’t in Trumpworld USA.

Still, Jeremy Corbyn’s win has created as great a dust-up in the motherland as the thought of a real socialist has here (although ours has yet to win). It prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to tweet, “The Labour Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security and your family’s security.” Cameron joins the entirety of our Pub candidates in overblown emotion, exaggeration and hand-wringing, the kind illustrated by the gutting of Planned Parenthood funding in the House today.

I’m not conversant enough in British politics to offer intelligent analysis, but I can spot a lefty when I see one and Corbyn is hard to miss, suffering spasms of guilt that he owns TWO (oh dear!) bicycles. No car, of course. Our PW reader/poster, Geoff M., sent along a link, 24 Things That Jeremy Corbyn Believes. See how many of these positions light your fire. They must surely have made Bernie smile.

There are signs that the reality community is making progress, lots of them just below the radar. Aspen, Colorado announced that it’s the third city in the U.S. to run entirely on renewable energy. California has labeled Monsanto’s Roundup as a carcinogen. After years of advocacy against actions of the U.S. Navy, a federal judge has limited use of sonar and other underwater explosives that can inadvertently harm whales and dolphins. And — coming right up — the Pope is due to hand Congress, the U.N. and a good many of the presidential candidates a “come to Jesus” moment regarding capitalism, environment and immigration. I’m pretty sure these will be remarks it’s going to be REALLY hard to argue against.

While it seems that “The Great American Stupid” — as Matt Taibbi calls those who have embraced brutish and emotionally-stunted Donald Trump as a viable candidate for this nation’s highest office — are in charge of our politics, there are millions of us dedicated to making progress, harnessing the anger and disenchantment against our failed systems by supporting positive change. Those who know their metaphysics understand that when something has been the collective intent for more than a decade, as has the reclamation of government for and by the people, fruition is inevitable. Now, it can no longer be ignored.

The world isn’t ending, but this political era is. End times nonsense has been expected so often and failed to manifest, it’s a wonder we still fall for it, but like P.T. Barnum said (and Trump depends on), “There’s a sucker born every minute.” So let the preppers buy great expensive tubs of soup mix from old hucksters like the Rev. Jim Bakker (of the late Tammy Faye) to keep them alive when the worst happens, while embracing a loop of political malfeasance that keeps them victimized and frightened. As Lincoln told us, you can’t fool all the people all the time — and sometimes the cosmos conspires to give us someone like Donald to horrify the majority of rational souls and shake us out of lethargy.

If this week has shown us anything, it’s the truth that big business has no spokesman worth a tinker’s dam in this 21st century, and no face besides the exploitation of the public for its own gain. Left and right are on notice: the status quo is old news, outdated and toothless. Robert Borosage of Campaign for America’s Future, discussing the possibilities of Corbyn and Sanders, tells us: “… one thing is already clear: The center will not hold. The old consensus is collapsing in the wake of its failures. People are casting about for a new course.” And we know how this works, don’t we? If they open their hearts, they will find their way.

A last note, regarding my computer project. I’m pleased to report that there is enough now to make repairs and even upgrade, and I’m so very grateful to those who contributed, as well as Eric for giving me the platform. Thanks first to Geoff, who originated the plan with a donation, and next my sincere appreciation for the generosity of Terri, Carol, Stephen, Amy, Lois, Barbara, Robin and Medora. You saved me and I will not fail to pass it on. Bless you all.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.
–Wendell Berry

It’s all really confusing, isn’t it? So much suffering reported in the news, so much conflict. So many different ways to look at things. What is seemingly good is juxtaposed with what is seemingly bad, and yet things change so quickly we can’t be sure about any of it. What we consider the most awful sometimes works to good, like pictures of the lifeless body of a three-year old Syrian child that broke the immigration bottleneck, catalyzing the civilized world to open their hearts — and their border crossings — to hundreds of thousands fleeing violence in their homelands.

Those who have confused their infotainment with actual facts — you know: Obama is a Kenyan, the government is preparing concentration camps for conservatives and gun owners, the Constitution is really a religious document and all the founders were Christians — continue to scald those around them with disinformation campaigns, which should make us all suspicious when someone speaks in absolutes. Talk about a mind that’s baffled!

In Kentucky, Kim Davis has emerged from confinement and will go back to work this coming week, although her counsel has told press she will not betray her principles. It’s worthy of note that not all Republicans stand with Mrs. Davis, even some over at FOX who think she’s gone a bridge too far. At this point, the only righty candidates embracing her cause are Huck and Cruz, fighting over the photo ops and evangelical voters.

The judge has forbidden Davis to stand in the way of her deputy-clerks issuing licenses, making it clear if she should try, she will face the music. Many following the story think that Davis will end up in jail once again. Anticipating that prospect, Oath Keepers have gathered, pledging to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That includes, it seems, the federal judge in Kim’s case. They intend to protect her from law enforcement, if need be, and their spokesman’s statement sets the stage: “This judge needs to be put on notice that his behavior is not going to be accepted and we’ll be there to stop it and intercede if we have to.” Home grown terrorism, armed and dangerous.

Will we finally notice that not all jihadists follow the Prophet? Some of these ‘patriots’ target anything federal, like the building in Oklahoma City. Do we need another shoot out with the fed in order to get a clear picture of the hostility and resentment from which Donald Trump is feeding?

But take heart, my dears. There are other voices being heard. In case you weren’t one of the five million viewers that tuned in for Stephen Colbert’s Late Show premier, you might want to check out this little snip on Trump-binging. I will never think of an Oreo in the same way (although the cookie seems to have shape-shifting properties, having morphed into a racial identity at one point, and occasionally serving as illustration of middle-age responsibilities, balancing care of both children and parents). While he peppered his show with fun and puns and all things Colbert, he also told a somewhat befuddled Jeb Bush there was “zero percent chance” he would vote for him. He was smiling when he said it. I think we can all agree Stephen hasn’t lost his political edge.

In fact, his new venue is giving him a broader base of response — one he has confessed his mental health had begged him for over the years — and giving us a larger view of not just the man, but his progressive view. Stephen’s quest for authenticity gives us not just a left-leaner — and as with the Stephen-charactor of yore, one willing to welcome all political positions to the floor — but one that’s unafraid to speak up for the things that inform that position.

On his third show, Colbert interviewed Joe Biden, getting straight to the heart of Joe’s emotional dilemma in entering a presidential race while still steeped in personal loss. Instead of moving quickly past Beau’s passing, Colbert urged Joe to speak to both his grief and how his faith had sustained him. Biden felt the love, aware that Stephen had also suffered personal tragedy. He lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was 10, leaving his mother with nine kids to raise alone. Those who were expecting Colbert to back off from pressing Biden on his sorrow, or play it for laughs, were surprised by the pathos of the conversation. In that moment, viewers learned a number of things: how likeable Joe is, and how deep his grief, which has led to endless speculation about the possibility of a run today. We’ve also discovered that Colbert is a man of deep faith who recently referred to himself as a “devout Christian.”

Colbert nailed the Trump issue with his Oreo bit. We’re all jonesing for another hit of his bullying buffoonery, knowing that the next will be the stuff that gives shock jocks wet dreams. And how can we stop, when he tops his last example of poor behavior every time he opens his mouth?

Ben Carson, when asked to describe the differences between Trump and himself, mentioned his own dedication to his faith in God, and belief that of himself, he does nothing. Trump, who has said that he’s never asked God for forgiveness, bristled — because he does, under every circumstance. He relied on his usual answer in the face of implied criticism, that the adversary “doesn’t know me,” although lack of personal information never stopped HIM when he was throwing an insult. Then he grudgingly admitted that Ben, hard on Trump’s heels as a front-runner, was an “okay doctor.”

Okay? The guy may be deeply conservative and religious, which I routinely reject as presidential material — not to mention, as my son pointed out, much too tranquil (and black) to make the final cut — but he’s also the brilliant neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins that successfully separated conjoined twins at the head. A little more impressive than okay, Donny. Maybe that’s why we can’t look away, we’re waiting for somebody — ANYBODY — to put this bully in his place!

Still, the Oreo response to Donald has become beyond tiresome even if we can’t seem to quit, and it works against us. Even CNN — infamous as one-trick-pony on topics that grab headlines, like missing planes, etc., running to tedium — has had an internal rebellion about covering the blowhard 24/7. Staff have complained to the boss, CNN President Jeff Zucker, that they’d like to move on to something else. Huffpost Media writes:

As John Sides at The Washington Post has pointed out, the media’s obsessive coverage of the reality TV star is precisely the reason he has risen in the polls.

[…]

CNN has basically provided Trump with hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, of free advertising.

Of course, Trump thinks he should be the one who’s getting paid. “Jeff is a friend of mine, but if I didn’t get ratings, he would not have all Trump all the time,” he recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “He should pay me a fortune, right? They should all pay me for this. I’m doing this for nothing.”

Trump knows no shame. And that, I suggest, is by design. This was also the week when Trump told Rolling Stone (and the world) that Carly Fiorina was, basically, unattractive by attacking “that face,” over and over, adding, “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that the face of our next president?” Subsequently, he went on “The View” and told Joy Behar that he didn’t insult Fiorina personally, it was her ‘persona’ he went after. When asked by FOX’s Greta Van Susteren why he’d been so rude, Trump admitted that “Some comments are made as an entertainer and as everybody said, as an entertainer is a much different ball game.”

As an aside, Sarah Palin has been hot on Trump’s heels trying to establish herself as his most useful political groupy since this all began. The above statement from The Donald — vague, poorly structured and, certainly, counter-intuitive to his bid for being taken seriously as a candidate — has that same rambling ‘word salad‘ trait that Palin is famous for. These are people who have narcissists personalities, enamored with themselves and entirely comfortable with who they think they are. They seem bewildered that they aren’t universally appreciated for their brilliance.

So that trait — confidence born of little more than pathological self-interest — is what has captured the zeitgest of the hour, appealing to frightened women and threatened males, the majority of them white. protestant and ‘of an age.’ Both of these people are lauded for their authenticity, which seems to mean a stream of consciousness mentality that allows anything to fall out of their mouths as soon as it takes shape in their brain.

At least Trump admits, with his ‘entertainment’ commentary, that some (if not most) of what he says is bullshit. Can’t say the same for the Hillbilly from Wasilla who advised immigrants of the need to “speak American” here in the homeland. Her coziness with the Trumpster has even Glenn Beck “embarrassed I ever supported her.” Best to remember that The Donald was, among other things, a reality show host. Sarah has tried it and failed, several times, and Glenn has ‘lived out loud’ for longer than I care to examine. Birds of a feather, preening and crowing, squabbling within their own flock, looks like.

The age old question to those with power? Why do you want it? I think we know why most politicians want it, why Sarah and Donald and Cruz and Huck want it. There are others out there with power — media power — who use it in an entirely different way. It’s easy enough to consider the fruits of their labor to see how worthy they are of our trust.

Take Jon Stewart, who played the scruffy umpire in Stephen’s very entertaining lead-in this last Tuesday. Jon’s “Daily Show” was pivotal in passing the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in 2010, a badly needed response to the physical problems suffered by almost all first responders at the Towers. The 2010 Congress dragged its feet as these brave Americans died off, but Stewart wouldn’t let it die. The bill was finally passed but is now soon to expire, and there seems little interest in Congress to renew it, nor a peep of objection when it was diminished by 90 million as the Republicans decided sequester was best for America.

With no show at his disposal, Jon will still shepherd a critical renewal measure, walking the halls of Congress on 9/16, urging legislators to stand by those who stood by them. He enlisted New York’s Senator Gillibrand to join him, inviting her to one of his last episodes of “Daily” to promote the visit. Very few legislators are on board at this point and if that doesn’t sit well with you, you can urge your member of Congress at this link. I doubt there’s a politico who hasn’t used the phrase “remember 9/11” to their advantage. It’s time to pay the piper and do what’s right for those still suffering health crises and economic loss.

There are other entertainers out there, too, doing good for others. If you’ve wondered where Michael Moore’s been these many months, you have a treat in store. Those at the Toronto International Film Festival enjoyed the premier of his newest offering, Where To Invade Next. Mike calls this his “Happy Movie.” Not what it sounds like, this is a close look at policies around the world that are not just successful for their citizens, but — Mike hopes — dupicatable. They include progressive options like free college, terrific and inexpensive school lunches, expansive women’s rights, humane incarceration and more.

Much as “What do you want the power for?” is a telling question, “What have you done with it?” is a better one. Colbert took a pay cut to become part of the nightly conversation, waving a progressive banner while waking up the sleepers. Stewart continues to be a voice for betterment, and time will tell where he’ll decide to put his talent, but bet on it — he’ll be appearing again soon. Moore is still asking us to think, and making it easier by providing all the information we need.

We American’s adore being entertained. We have a love affair with the silver screen, a habit with the boob tube, and now an obsession with whatever techno-whatsis hits the market. We pay a price more dear than money, these days. The price we’re paying at the moment is confusion and disconnect from what is ethical in favor of what is trendy. For the moment, Gordon Gekko’s mantra, “Greed is good,” has occulted Mr. Smith’s altruistic attempt to bring humanity to Washington.

We’d do well to consider that almost all of what we see around us is configured as entertainment, and we are defined by what we ‘take in,’ what we are addicted to, and what we believe about the world. If the voices we’re listening to are false, then that’s what we become. There are entertainers like Trump and Palin and Beck, car wrecks on the information highway we can’t look away from, and then there’s entertainment like that provided by the others we’ve discussed today.

“The mind that is not baffled is not engaged.” Evolution is a messy business, and a mind that is ‘made up,’ like a bed that can’t be slept in, isn’t useful when we need it. Stay open, intuit what is worthy and create more of it! I still have my button from the ’60s that says, “Relax. It’s just a movie.” It is, and since it’s the one you’re going to put your name to, create with passion and respect and love — entertain the best and leave the rest.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s the Labor Day weekend, a time when we anticipate the best retail deals since Black Friday. No, wait. That’s not it, that’s just what we’ve made of it in this century. Prior to that, it was a holiday to reflect the end of summer and return to school, football season at hand, celebrated with cook-outs and the best retail sales since … ummm. No.

Labor Day was designated a federal holiday in 1894, on the heels of the Pullman strike that ended badly, with then-President Grover Cleveland ordering military intervention in favor of the railroad. At the time, the country was struggling to unionize under the leadership of Eugene Debs, who was found guilty of conspiring to stop the mail (trains). Debs was sent to prison for six months, only to emerge a confirmed socialist and energized to become the father of the growing union movement. The history of unionization in this country is fascinating, and echoes our current struggle against income inequality and diminished working rights.

The holiday was meant to be a tribute to the laboring class, offering them a sop in the wake of the deaths of their fellow workers and defeat of their union attempt. Remember, eight-hour work days and five-day work weeks were unheard of then. Sick leave, overtime and child-labor protections were non-existent. A day off to honor the average worker’s contribution to the nation’s prosperity was a real concession, nothing to sneeze at.

A hundred and twenty years later you’d be hard pressed to find either a parade to attend this weekend, or someone who knows the history of the labor movement. With twenty-some states having passed Right To Work legislation, you’d be challenged to find a union member, which is reflected in the crumbling middle class neighborhoods everywhere we look. And, insult to injury, some of us feel we have a right NOT to work while we continue to collect a fat paycheck

Four-times-married Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, took on the federal government this week by disregarding a U.S. District Judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to gay applicants. The elected public official had refused to issue marriage licenses of any kind since the Supreme Court ruling in June. A class action lawsuit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of four couples — two gay, two straight — resulted in court orders that Mrs. Davis has defied.

Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian, believes that marriage must be between a woman and a man — and, it appears, another man and another and another, in her patchwork of serial monogamy — although, to be fair, Davis has only been a convert for the last four years. Leaving behind a permissive past that would put a Days Of Our Lives script to shame, Kim’s Old Testament ardor proves once again that no one is as zealous as the newly reformed. And, let me add, few so useful to the Christian corporatocracy as the newly recruited.

Now, thanks to the liberal bias of the Roberts court [sic] her $80,000 a year job has brought her to a knee-shaking, soul-crunching “Heaven or Hell decision” that she refuses to make. And although Davis swore an oath to perform the duties of her job description, her ability to make same-sex marriage possible has come under “God’s authority,” violating the teachings of “Jesus himself.” She claims that to do so would “violate her conscience” (which, once again, her earlier divorces seemed unable to do).

Apostolic Christians are also known as primitives, embracing a mix of Amish, Mennonite, Nazarene and Baptist liturgy. Asked if he had advice to offer Davis, a spokesman for the GLBT Chamber of Commerce quipped, “Girl, take off that romper.” Indeed, Mrs. Davis presents herself in shapeless dresses, sans makeup, long hair hanging loose — the epitome of, to use the Quaker inference, ‘plain,’ which is a tenet of this very small religious sect.

So is strict adherence to the Bible as the literal word of God. Those looking on have suggested that Kim and her supporters are proponents of a Christian version of Sharia Law: a law of theological absolutes, piggybacked onto the Judeo-Christian traditions that inform the Republic. It’s that ‘literal’ business that has split us into camps.

I watched a black comedian talk about FOX News on Comedy Central this week. He took a poke at the dust-up last Christmas that had a very blonde commentator insisting that Santa Claus was white. “No, bitch,” he commented, shaking his head. “Santa Claus isn’t real.” It struck me that a good percentage of Americans feel the same way about Kim’s crusade to serve her tribal god of antiquity.

Found guilty on charges of contempt and jailed, Mrs. Davis will be released when she pledges to do the job she was elected to do. Meanwhile, rule of law has returned to Rowan County, as her deputy-clerks — many of whom disagreed with her stand but were afraid to cross her — have begun to issue licenses to all comers. There was one hold-out, by the way: Kim’s son. Evidently nepotism isn’t frowned upon in the Old Testament.

All of this could have been avoided if Kim Davis had simply submitted her resignation rather than do something that offended her sensibilities, but the Almighty is evidently in need of defenders. Mike Huckabee points to this incident to prove that there IS a war on Christianity, that true believers and their freedom are in the cross-hairs. This is the kind of martyrdom that thrills Christocrats, making Davis a poster child for the victimization of fundamentalist believers by the hellhounds of secularism. Almost all of the conservative candidates have jumped on board to support this cause, which is calculated to energize the base and put stars in their crown.

We are once again gnawing on the bones of an old sociological carcass that arrived on these shores with the Pilgrims: can Davis exercise her religious preference, conceptualized as religious ‘freedom’ in this circumstance, without denying the public their own spiritual belief or constitutional right to marry whomever they please? Does her distaste for her responsibilities supercede the rights of others? And importantly, is a literal interpretation of Christian theology the final authority here, or is that the purview of our secular government?

I first noted this workplace anomaly early in George W.’s tenure. It began when pharmacy employees refused to fill prescriptions for morning after pills, and It didn’t take long for their boycott on ALL contraceptives to follow. This was my first red flag indicating the political clout of the right’s fundamentalist coup, protected by a sympathetic administration.

Then — as now — I thought those people unwilling to fulfill the duties of their job description should either resign or be fired. Responding to push-back from secular America, WalMart solved its problem by careful scheduling of  pharmacy personnel, assuring that someone would be available to wait on those customers. Lesser facilities had to make a choice between which medications, therefore which customers, to serve, which I considered an assault on the separation of church and state, and still do.

Those who realize how often we repeat patterns won’t be shocked that this Labor Day weekend, already resonant with the energies of the coming super moon and eclipse, we are still sorting out the ethics of our working lives, still engaged in the kind of infighting that delights the plutocracy and weakens our collective power by pitting us against one another. That has been the weakness of this epoch, according to channelers.

Around the same time that Eugene Debs was organizing his railroad strike, a Theosophist named Rudolf Steiner was plumbing the depths of Christian mysticism. We are living in the “fifth post-Atlantean epoch,” wrote Steiner, a time of “Christ mind and spiritualization toward an ethical future.” The goal, said he, was to “overcome Luciferic-Ahrimanic forms of community with rigid belief.”

Seems Mr. Steiner is describing the clerk from Rowan County, Kentucky, doesn’t it? And so to Mrs. Davis, who is hostage to powerful political influences, I would simply suggest that if the god she believes in requires her defense of hate-speak and homophobia, he ain’t worth his salt. She might also benefit from studying up a bit. Jesus, the one she has proclaimed devotion to, never mentioned the issue, one way or the other.

While she spends Labor Day martyred to a losing cause, she might consider the dark unforgiving tongue her religion speaks, as opposed to other more loving and inclusive religious messages out there, although it will be harder, now that she’s a hero of the radical right. She will not hear the truth from them: that she is a useful sacrifice to the culture wars, a convenient tool for the plutocracy — or that Santa, bless his little heart, isn’t real.

One last mention that my Fix The Computer project still needs a little love. If you’re able to throw something in the hat, please go to PayPal and contribute to judeshere@yahoo.com, or write me there for a snail-mail option, and with thanks.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

The week had its ups and downs. With the Dow taking fits, Starbucks issued a memo to its baristas to be particularly gentle with their twitching customers. Farther down the consumer food chain, McDonalds’ customers barely noticed. The panic has largely subsided, although China seems to have lost its hard edge as the nation most likely to swallow us whole.

A third-grader in Georgia brought a gun to school and accidentally killed a classmate, a shooting at Savannah State resulted in one death, and murder was televised in Moneta, Virginia when a reporter and cameraman were killed by a disgruntled ex-employee during a live broadcast. The latter incident prompted Obama to call on the public to rally for gun law changes, saying the shooting “broke his heart.”

That was the statement that prompted teen-killer George Zimmerman to call President Obama an ignorant baboon. Frankly, I find it fascinating that a person so obviously non-white feels competent to use skinhead rhetoric, or that people who should know better indulge in name calling. Cases in point: John Boehner called Ted Cruz a jackass, and The Donald renewed his feud with FOX by calling Megyn Kelly a bimbo.

Joe Biden may be running in 2016, or maybe not, although it would be damned strange if he didn’t. He’s been running one way or another since the 1980s. His late son, Beau, urged him to run, but that very wound, still so fresh, may be the stopper card in the deck. Meanwhile, Joe is going through the motions, meeting with Elizabeth Warren and potential donors.

Bernie Sanders got the endorsement of respected black activist Dr. Cornel West as well as faux-candidate Deez Nuts, who was revealed to be a 15-year-old Iowa high school student named Brady Olson. Brady decided he’d run after hearing that a cat from Kentucky, Limberbutt McCubbins, was making a presidential bid. Although unsure how the feline is faring, Deez Nuts is polling at 9% nationally.

This was the week that Donald Trump put a fork in the miniscule possibility that he might capture the White House by tossing Univision’s Jorge Ramos out of his presser. He needs 45% of the Hispanic vote in order to succeed, but remains seemingly oblivious to their disenchantment with his xenophobia. He says he’s (under)paid tens of thousands of them in his day and they all love him dearly. Uh-huh.

Ramos, who left Mexico because he felt stifled as a journalist, prides himself on tough questions, none of which Trump can, or will, entertain. Watching the two go at one another should remind us that riches do not assure integrity, nor can they put a dent in the dignity of honest men. Seems to me the vain man made a strategic error in insulting the proud man, highly respected by the Latino, Cuban and Hispanic communities.

Donald’s illogical ‘plan’ to deport some 11 to 12 million souls has earned him a new endorsement, that of the white supremacist publication The Daily Stormer, which is urging its Neo-Nazi readership to support Trump as the only viable candidate. Which brings me to an early Trump supporter, Rush Limbaugh.

As a broken clock is right twice a day, Rush occasionally makes sense, although you have to dig for it. In the first days of Trump’s ascension to Pub favorite, Limbaugh loudly bemoaned the media’s disapproval of Donald’s candid speech as “uncivil discourse.” In part, he was also taking a hit at Establishment Republicans — this was, of course, before the truly cynical candidates hastened to shift right to try to capture their share of Bagger outrage.

This was all about the dreaded political correctness that is infecting the nation, Rush insisted, the sheeple-pleasing determination about what is acceptable for public discussion. The combination of liberal media [sic] and establishment politics kills off the GOP’s brightest and best. Said Rush, “This is how they get rid of Republicans. Should I throw a name out there? Sharon Angle. Todd Aiken … Sarah Palin. Any number of them. I mean the list is long.”

While the blusterfuck shock jock from Missouri surely seems delusional about which folks are representative of the nation’s brightest, he’s buried an important point. The media and establishment can push worthy candidates to the edge of the herd by simply insisting that they are unelectable, but this time it isn’t working as usual.

The Pubs are desperate to get Trump off center stage, while the last person corporate America wants to deal with is still-surging Bernie Sanders. Both are exceeding expectation, and neither is ready to fold, nor should they. It’s long past time we had this painful, revealing and informative national conversation.

Despite proclamations from the talking heads, these outlier candidates do not speak to the fringe. They speak to those who have watched the federal system fail. Each side wants a different result. The left wants to fix the system while the right wants to kill it off, and both Trump and Sanders are well positioned to take the nation down his respective path.

Today, Bernie challenged the Dems to give up on establishment politics and establishment economics. He challenged them to create a no-nonsense movement or prepare to fail as a party. The old and the young seem to agree. It’s a positive sign that many more Republicans have become Bernie admirers than vice-versa, and no wonder. Bernie’s politics are no more radical than were Eisenhower’s, nor are many of the policies he champions, and those values he represents define the most stable period of the twentieth century.

My comments are just tip of the iceberg, of course, but it’s taken two days to tippy-tap this far on my tablet. With something like 400 days before this election — and powerful transits to influence them — we’re just beginning to talk it through. If Biden jumps in, the whole mix changes.

The choice of a productive future remains ours to make. As Bernie says, “If we stand together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish,” and that’s the goal: to put aside petty differences, come together over common cause, and transform our nation into a government worthy of 21st century challenges.

(By the way, I want to thank Geoff for his kind contribution to my Fix The Computer project, which would put me back on the road to being technologically functional. If any of you would like to throw something in the hat, please visit PayPal and contribute to judeshere@yahoo.com or send a note to that addy for a snail-mail option, with my gratitude.)

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.”
— quote attributed to George Carlin

There continues to be a remarkable amount of babble going on in the world — media gone berserk and people either sensitized to the extreme, like the brave Greenpeace activists attempting to halt Arctic drilling by hanging from a bridge in Portland, Oregon, or deadened, like those who sneer at the callous criminality of Cecil the Lion’s death and think the Putinesque narcissism of the dentist that killed him admirable. While I take note of all this —  grist for the mill, given what I do — bathed in the energy of a Blue Moon in Aquarius, I’m oddly detached, almost to the point of disinterest.

Over at Huffington Post, the focus Friday morning is speculation about who will make the cut for the FOX presidential debate, as only the top ten candidates are to be given air time. Clearly, ten is too many for in-depth conversation, and campaign strategists are feverishly working overtime to produce some clever and/or theatrical response to put their candidate on equal footing with the improbable leader of the pack, Donald Trump. I wish them luck. He who goes unscripted, in this case, won’t be soon outdone. The Donald is King of Blurt, channeling the anger of a confused electorate, riding the sodden energy of political cynicism, uncontrollably rash and cavalier to the point of absurdity. In short, a train wreck the Looky-loos can’t look away from.

I’m not excited about any of it, since all the Pub candidates sound alike to me and for good reason. It should seem obvious that when your party ambition is to kill off government, there’s not much policy to work with, which is why the hopefuls, waving their unique cultural flags, suffer so generic a platform that they can’t distinguish themselves from one another. For my money, if you put them in the same room with a microphone in front of them, they’ll begin to whine in a high pitch like the unseen teacher in Charles Shultz’ Peanuts cartoon, identifiable by the drone of her wah-wah-wah. Waiting to see how this spectacle shapes up seems as silly as holding your breath until you know who has the opening act at Ringling Bros. One way or another, when the show starts you’ll know you’re at the circus.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, my favorite historian, was on Jon Stewart this week, and agreed with Jon that she’d never seen anything like it  — then blinked nervously, asking if he’d actually found something like it on video to prove her wrong. That will be Stewart’s legacy, his ability to hold someone’s feet to the fire by serving them up on a platter of their own words. With only a week left before he leaves The Daily Show, the progressives are mourning the loss of his keen eye and enormous service to a politically unaware nation.

For fifteen years now — and in a mere two hours a week of comedy offering — Jon Stewart has schooled an entire generation of young people in how government works and why, at this point in history, it doesn’t. Because we no longer have to sit in front of a television to get the message, as media exploded, so did Stewart’s influence. Satire is Jon’s forte, skewering  hypocrisy wherever it is found. If you look up the definition of satire, you’ll find words like “scorn, derision, ridicule” and yet, to his credit, I’ve never found him cruel which, given the circumstances,  would have been effortless.

A Sagittarian, Stewart has that jovial affability that identifies him as a really nice guy. Truly, if he’d been mean-spirited, he’d not have succeeded so remarkably. And, self-effacing, he’s been more realistic about who he is and what he does than the rest of us, who plainly adore him and find him indispensable. Typically, he retreats when praised. He recently took questions from his audience and when asked about a farm in upstate New York he and his wife bought to dedicate as an animal sanctuary, quipped that he was really just planning a big barbeque.

Because he’s brilliant, and because he’s on his way out the door, Stewart explained his relationship with the sitting president on-air this week — don’t miss it, here. It turns out that Jon had been ‘summoned’ to the White House a couple of times over the years, news of which forced the right into typical faux-outrage that Jon has been proven, as long supposed, to be an Obama minion — as if everyone BUT Jon and his cleverly disguised protégé, Stephen Colbert, weren’t Bush minions for eight long years.  And that includes a compliant and cowardly media!

Do watch the clip — I’m going to keep it in my archives for when I need a rational moment in the worst way — and note that Jon describes his visits with the president as starting out with “five to seven minutes of scolding … not to turn young Americans cynical,” to which he protested that he considers himself not cynical but “skeptically idealistic.”

Maybe it’s a Sagittarian thing, but that’s pretty much how I’d describe myself. If it had been me at the White House, instead of that really nice and probably less rash Jon Stewart, I would have had to plead that it isn’t pointing out hypocrisy that leads people to become cynical, but the behavior of elected officials who consider lying to the public the larger portion of their job description, deception a form of job security, and profit the highest goal. It’s the system itself, not hacked from the outside but rotted from within, taking respect and admiration for a history of statesmanship with it, that has turned us cynical and unforgiving.

If Carlin was correct and a cynic is a disappointed idealist, then Stewart and I should be deeply in the doldrums right now. Although Jon confesses to be tired of trying to push the boulder up the mountain (not to mention top each previous night’s work month after month, year after year) I don’t sense cynicism in him. Those born under the sign of the Centaur aren’t wired that way. We came in with a passionate sense of what is fair and an equally compassionate awareness of the plight of the underdog.

I’m more inclined to agree with Oscar Wilde, who said, “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” Looking around, it’s easy enough to believe that most people are motivated only by selfish desire, but here’s the key to understanding cynicism: if under NO circumstance do you think people are serving other than their own self interest, it is probably because you are describing yourself. My great-grandmother referenced that as “a fox always smells its own scent first.”

Cynicism is about ‘me’, not ‘we’. It’s as uncomplicated as a free market that charges all it will bear simply because it can. It holds court in a consciousness looking to feather its own nest even if it has to kick somebody else’s chicks out to take residence. It thrives in a human whose appetites have grown so singular that they have eroded any higher aspiration than shallow self-indulgence.

Political cynicism is hopeless, it despairs of achieving anything for the common good, and it takes root if we make no attempt to grow beyond it. In truth, we are only able to love others as much as we love our selves. We are only able to give to others what we would give to our selves. We are our own self-fulfilling prophecy until someone comes along with a mallet to the head (or a punch to the heart) and makes us reconsider, if just for a moment, how dysfunctional our nation — a reflection of our personal lives –has become. Jon Stewart made us think again.

Some say that Jon leaving the air seems as if he’s caving in to further political mayhem, an act which itself seems cynical, but I don’t blame him a bit. In fact, I understand his dilemma and his desire to allow the weight of the world to slip off his shoulders. He’s held up his part of the contract with the Universe admirably and brought us far from where he first found us. From a (highly recommended) Salon piece, this quote:

It’s hard to think back to what it was like in a world where the mainstream media really did have the power to memory-hole stories like Bill Cosby’s lawsuit because they made advertisers uncomfortable. The pace of change is accelerating: The media landscape of only 10 years ago feels as foreign now as Walter Cronkite telling all of America “That’s the way it is” felt then.

It feels weird today, in a world of a thousand contending voices on Twitter and Tumblr and YouTube, to talk about how much it meant that there was one dude back then telling the truth. That there was someone in the mainstream media willing to kick a hole in the pusillanimous civil consensus of the respectable pundits, someone willing to call bullshit on the whole rotten circus, to reject the asinine convention that the party in power had to be given token respect simply because they were in power and to openly call them out as evil lunatics.

Clearly there is great need for the new Jon Stewarts of the comedy world to step up, since there is still danger out there, much of it lost in the haze of obfuscation. The very cynicism that has welcomed the highly charged rhetoric of such as Trump — Huckabee with his oven references, Cruz with his accusations of presidential treason — has cheapened the presidential process, but that process long ago succumbed to a level of bi-partisan institutionalized cynicism that leaves us without hope unless it is by rebellion and/or [r]evolution.

The irony is that the answer to cynicism is simple enough — it’s truth. Truth-telling opens up that dark tunnel to let in some light, blows out the walls that keep us in ignorance and provides room to expand our understanding. Despite the President’s fears, Jon Stewart didn’t promote cynicism, he offered us hope to defeat it, and even now, his lack of ego over the television show he created — the one that caught lightning in a bottle by making truth undeniable — continues to speak to a productive, informed future.

If he didn’t believe that, I don’t think he’d go. He wouldn’t be funding an animal sanctuary or planning creative projects, nor would he insist that there are others out there to fill his spot. That is called “faith in the future,” and we need to cultivate it as a psychic amulet to ward off the evil spirit of cynicism and apathy so prevalent in this time of purging.

Stewart leaves a talented legacy. Those whose careers he promoted can offer us hope as well. Stephen Colbert, who will take Letterman’s desk this fall, is a really great guy who teaches Sunday School and is chomping at the bit to get back in the comedy saddle. Often featured Lewis Black has enlarged his following, and it amuses me that he almost always has his cute and evidently unembarrassable elderly parents in the audience. John Oliver has his own well-received show on HBO now, while Larry Wilmore has earned a respectable following on his Nightly Show, following Jon’s time slot. The list is much larger than that, as regular viewers are aware.

These are people who make their living fearlessly speaking truth to power, and there are others waiting for their chance to take us farther down that road. Stewart will step away but where void is created, energy rushes in. Best not to compare what comes next to what was, but to discover and celebrate the next voice for truth. Speaking of such voices, here’s a snip from a commencement speech Stephen Colbert gave to Knox College graduates in 2006:

“Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes’.”

As long as we remain open to “yes,” as long as we remain dedicated to helping one another — to see what is rational, based on what is factual and informed by what is possible — there is the promise of growth and change. For all of us who recognize that as the alchemy of an open mind and spirit, there is our quiet, almost detached benediction for a Blue Moon, and a final moment of Zen.