Evangelical Witness

People of certain religious persuasions have their own parallel language. It is not terminology of specifics that do not exist elsewhere. No, it is the same words with different meanings. I read an article about Trump's effect on the evangelicals. He created a disruptive wave among them. This writer says it is lingering, but over all they are as they were. The one area where it has caused a problem is in "witnessing".

When certain Protestants use the word "witness", or "witnessing" they are using internal code. Witness in standard speech refers to attesting to fact as in testimony, evidence, proof, knowledge from being present, and the like. They mean proselytising. They want to recruit converts. To many this is not wanted, it is uncomfortable, irritating, sometimes insulting, especially when it is intrusive, or aggressive.

Outside of religious services, this is the most religious activity they engage in. This activity is verbal, almost exclusively. One does not have to behave as a Christian (they find good works meaningless, faith is expressed in words), one hectors. Many see this as an aspect of conspicuous hypocrisy.

So why is witnessing in the age of Trump more difficult? This is the elephant in the room that is not mentioned, but fully acknowledged silently—credibility. White evangelicals were [and are] so allied with Trump. It was noticed with disgust by the world, because Trump has no positive attributes in common with good Christian living, morality, or ethics. The only thing that is shared is hypocrisy, and unnecessary verbiage. Trump is first, and most of all—a liar. He is a psychopath. This bears a  permanent stain of shame.

red line greenway

 

trail officially opened 12 May 2021

The Cleveland Metroparks do a very good job in making the county a better place. A new path next to the electric rail lines has opened up between West 53rd down to the Columbus Road Bridge, before Riverview Park.

Alan Giberson. 2016. 

Some mural graffiti art was commissioned when the devils came to gather in Cleveland to crown Orange Caligula in 2016. The phrase "noblesse oblige" is from the fanciful, French romantic concept of the obligation of nobility to be honourable and generous to others and society. Of course this had to be condemning sarcasm when to be viewed by the self-satisfied Repukes convening in Cleveland.

grievance culture

A grievance is a complaint, often at a perceived unfairness or injustice. Sometimes they are justified. But crying for justice is not always appreciated. Some grievances are false. Some people are not interested at hearing any grievance (outside of their own). In slightly coarser language, complaining is called bitching, which is so applied to downgrade the process of any complaint. Truly there are people have suffered great harm and distress, and truly there are people who claim such for every instance of their displeasure over even the slightest matter. 

In a non-genteel occupation i labored in, which is rife with gossip, one fellow complained so often he was nicknamed “Bitch” ; later his son joined the same labor force, and was christened “Son of Bitch” . Years later, when they were no longer working, and not seen, they were still recalled; and their tale was spread to new workers. 

This year was a very angry year in this country. The chief subject was race. Lyndon Johnson did say,“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”  He was right then, and is still right. Bernie Sanders, who is class conscious, ran in 2016 and this year always gives economic arguments. It is true, that the wealthy, obscenely wealthy bank on race to camouflage their mercenary greed. To divide and thus conquer the population over racial antagonisms has been a sure winner. Trump was the champion of white grievance.

The chief beneficiary of race hatred to gain political office in this country has been Donald Trump. He began his public 2016 campaign with hatred of Mexican migrants, and he never relented. He began the private campaign in response to Barack Obama, a man of color. Now and always, Donald is a wretched soul. Opposition to Obama was immediate. Soon tea-baggers formed, financed by rich Republican interests, and Fox News [sic]. This ersatz 'populism' appealed sotte voce to racists, and also screaming racial hatred directed at Obama, his wife, and others. With Trump the white racists found their standard bearer, and the grifter Trump would sell standards for them to bear.

Trump was born a rich man, and failed at everything, but being the son of a rich man failure became a success. If we were to put Donnie on the couch, he might remember his first grievance was he was not breast fed enough, if at all. That baby crankiness enveloped him to a mental sickness [krankheit]. Look at him in film, and fotos. He looks the opposite of happy. His smiles are always posed frozenly, and never come to him naturally. His humour exists only in mean-spiritness. He has a near permanent, fish pout.

Trump projects continuously. In April, in Concord N. Hamp., he again told the Scalise (the congressman, not the mobster) story. Scalise was shot, and his wife cried; Trump says a lot of wives wouldn't (his three). Also, for years he has told the snake story, “Foolish woman, you knew i was a snake when you took me in.”. Trump always talks about himself.

White people, and black people have grievances. Some of both think there are only two people: me, and the other person of the other race. Because you have a grievance, it was not caused by society favoring the other guy against you in every situation. America has angry white people, and angry black people who resent each other. Sometimes it is a turf war (and it should be acknowledged, when a formerly white neighbourhood becomes a black neighbourhood, the white people left behind are often targets of hooliganism, and crime; and this is never described as racially motivated). Other times it are the economic interests manipulating, and playing with people's lives. First look at the numbers. There are many more whites than blacks. Every white man is not set back by advantage to a black man, there are not that many black men. Also, because there are so many white men in spots, not all of them are there because a black man was cheated; there are not that many black men to be cheated.

“...Who renderest the iniquity of the fathers to the children, and to the grandchildren unto the third and fourth generation.” — Exodus 34. vii.

“...who visitest the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” — Numbers 14. xviii.

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” ― William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

Systemic racism exists. Some white people object to the term, and the idea. The effects of history last far longer than those who propelled them. A hundred years is not much time in history, history lingers. The chief event in American history is the war fought between 1861 and 1865. All those alive then, are dead now. Many in America to-day are not descendants from those in America at the time. That war was fought over black chattel slavery, and yet some people lie about it. The losing side, as Faulkner pointed out, was defeated but unvanquished. The social antagonisms, and classism did not stop. It still exists. Why are people publicly lamenting the confederate war banner? and confederate statues? The Germans do not fly nazi flags, and there are no nazi statues in Germany. Now, some white people resent this, and some black people are permanently angry. There is no collective guilt for future generations. There are lingering effects.

Black Lives Matter is a response to police brutality. Police in America are often given extreme latitude, often to the point of carte blanche. The black population, especially, feels like a captive population. Police have freely killed black people often enough, and without penalty. It is perfectly expected for black people to be upset. The examples of their lives being treated as something without any value is too frequent. One of the cliches, that are so often recited, is that nothing is worth more than a human life. It is not true in America. To this openly, obvious reality the police and their supporters go ballistic. Of course the use of ballistics is part of the problem. Police accept no reproach, and fiercely bristle with anger over criticism. Blue Lives Matter is a nonsense slogan. Black people did not say other lives do not matter, but many people do not value black life. Further, police have created a fiction, in which they are warriors preserving society. And when anger spills into rioting, many people damn the rioters while ignoring the reasons for anger. Police aggression is then positively viewed. Also the slogan “defund the police” was self defeating. Police are a political power in cities, and politicians (especially Republicans) love to use their support, and this year they were part of their campaign language. In Cleveland the police union president, Steve Loomis, in 2016, and later when he was out of office was himself an organiser of Trump events. Loomis is one of 2020's Trump electors.

White privilege is a stupid, and self defeating term. It is not a privilege to be white. Being white is not an extra gift: it even suggests that not being white is existentially inferior, and that truly black lives do not matter. It is often an advantage in America to be white. All white people are not privileged, many suffer the problems other people have. There is a privileged and favored class, and that status is primarily based on wealth. Using the term, white privilege, is meant to be provocative, and is counter productive. When making a plea for justice, to attack people with accusation, and condemnation when they are not those who are your enemies is asinine. 

And there are people who use the complaint of political correctness, as a term for censorship. They are upset of being socially not accepted for saying often rude things. There is also times when the powers in charge do not want to hear views, and they have the situational power to keep people silent. Some of those views silenced are considered politically liberal. Other terms in this realm are call out culture, and cancel culture. And then it also goes for noting lewd behaviour, e.g. slut shaming. Not all grievances carry the same weight, or importance.

some of East Cleveland

Windermere Lodge #627

East Cleveland Masonic Temple on Belmore. 1927-83, now The Living Truth Center Church. 
After Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922, there was an Egyptian fashion for a few years. Several movie theatres, and other establishments used an Egyptian theme. On of the Masonic founding myths were the building of the pyramids, and the pyramids were burial places, and one of their chief rituals is to have the initiate under go the third degree inside a coffin, so as to be raised.

the ornament still retains its color

band of lotus blossoms

The lotus was a symbol in ancient Egypt of re-birth, regeneration, and resurrection. The flower would close, and sink beneath the surface, and in the morning re-emerge and open.

Rosalind, a residential street with two solid cement Corinthian columns with acanthus capitals

On Euclid Avenue (an extension of Cleveland's former 'Millionaires' Row is this donut shop sign,

and on the side of the donut shop is the 2016 presidential result.

Succession of presidents

There was some question in historical analysis and commentary, was gwbjr America's worst president? Some compared him to Harding, no Harding knew he was not up to the office, and died before completing a term. Then to go back before the War of Southern Secession/War to Preserve the Union, Buchanan and Pierce are brought up; but if they were more competent, aware, energetic could they have prevented it anyway? Seeing recent events, no, the desire to keep racial slavery was too strong. Politically, there were the Compromises of 1820 & 1850; and still the tension was to spring. 

gwbjr was the worst president in US history up to 2009. Then came Barack Obama, who was and is being mercilessly attacked by partisans and racists. That smear campaign began the morning after the election of 2008, and has not ended. No, gwbjr is no longer the worst president; that which is there now is. I know many people who have said how horrible Obama is; if they were honest, and most of them are not, they would not say that Obama is "an embarrassment", or he is "terrible", or whatever...they would say, "I hate that a black man is president", or in some cases, "I am so brainwashed, that, i cannot stand for a Democrat to be in office". History will, history is treating Obama kinder. If he did nothing at all, he would be a giant standing between two gobs of _____.

'T' is for

'T' is for Trump

'T' is for Treason

rip and read

Y'no, Johnny Carson used to begin his show joking about the news of the day. On several programmes he would remark on how easy it was. There used to be teletype machines in newsrooms, which would constantly print out incoming messages. Johnny would say, "sometimes it's just just rip and read". The jokes did not need to be framed, crafted, thought about, or anything; it was just "rip and read". He also would call some things "comedy gold".

 Don the Con just carries on.

Presidential Quotes

Last July in Cleveland, the quadrennial Republican National Convention descended upon Cleveland. A fenced off vacant property between the West Side Market, and the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge had quotes of several presidents and M.L. King Jr. printed on banners. They have returned, with two of an additional one.

 George Washington also had a greyhound, his name was Cornwallis.

Truman also supposedly said, but it first appeared in a stage play,“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”.

i had thought gwbjr was the worst...

Y'no, the history books were already written that georgebushjr was the worst, and dumbest president since at least before the war of 1861. Trump has forced new editions to be written.

The constant mendacity is a given, but he excels at degradation of the 1st Amendment. The bush/cheney régime attacked the press, and at times effectively controlled the press. Our present dictator wannabe has called the press "the enemy of the people". White House press conferences have not allowed video, photography, and tried banning audio, while official spokesmen have denigrated the press for doing their job.

What Trump proposes instead is his bursts of tweeting, which promotes his ego and attacks all who do not give him homage. President Obama will look like a giant in years to come, for he stood between these monstrosities. In addition, Trump has a great compulsion to cancel Obama. He would like to erase all evidence of Obama's existence. Stephen Colbert, last night, presented this fake tweet to show one of the differences between the twain.

Baron Trumphausen

In high school, we translated chapters from The Tales of Baron Münchhausen, a fictionalised account of the ridiculous stories of an 18th century German nobleman who was an officer in the Russian army. Here is a cartoon from Croatia by Nik Titanik:

southern white electorate

In 1874 a paramilitary group, Crescent City White League, battled the New Orleans police. In 1891 an obelisk went up to celebrate the conflict. For many years the inscription:

"McEnery and Penn having been elected governor and lieutenant-governor by the white people were duly installed by this overthrow of carpetbag government, ousting the usurpers, Governor Kellogg (white) and Lieutenant-Governor Antoine (colored). United States troops took over the state government and reinstated the usurpers but the national election of November 1876 recognized white supremacy in the South and gave us our state."

was visible.

This monument has been removed from public view this week, in the dark hours of the day, with workers dressed in police armour. The foto shows part of the wording. This is the attitude of the great majority of the southern white electorate and their supporters. This is American conservatism. This is the tea party, these are the trumpsters.

golf

The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
—Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn

I grew poor in the urban working class. My attraction to golf was negative. I was surprised there was a golf team in high school. In my thirties and forties, i worked construction. On at least one job, Harvey Penick's Little Red Book on golf was commented on, and borrowed.

no thanksgiving

"It's rigged", was a continual cry of Trump. He threatened not to accept the results if he lost. The election happened, Hillary Clinton received more votes, Trump won. Yes, it was rigged by the electoral college, a non-democratic constitutional creation. Russian computer vandals aided Trump's campaign. The coup de grâce was FBI director James Comey creating a scandal out of nothing directed at Hillary Clinton. There has been no great cry that the Russians were involved. It is reported, that, Trump believed on election night he was to lose.

Trump is a fascist buffoon, a man of malignant narcissism. He must win every point, or becomes unhinged. He wants to be fêted. His people begged for top flight entertainers for his inauguration; they could not even get deep into the country-western types that overlap with his voter base. All they could get was Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood, and a one hit wonder rock band from Mississippi. Then Trump, realising he lost the popular vote by nearly three million, invented a voter fraud scheme which no one has even shown invented evidence.

But he did become president. His cabinet picks are deplorables. Some individuals, such as Pruitt for Environmental Protection are enemies to their assigned realms; Puzder is the anti-thesis of a friend to the working man. Trump's choice for Labor, Puzder, shows an extreme class hatred. Trump's White House advisors are extreme liars, and Bannon is a prominent fascist.

As soon as Trump was ensconced in office, the memory hole became active. Websites were made to hold the new party line. Science was going to be nullified. Resistance did come, and from who? From park rangers. They began alternative government twitter accounts where accurate and truthful statements would be posted, and with this followed parody sites. Parody, and sarcasm were the vehicles to present truth to the public. Trump made twitter a conduit to directly subvert the press, so as to get his version unblocked by probing questions of reality. Twitter (a social electronic media similar to telegraphy) was also available to the public to tweet back.

Part of Trump's anger at the National Parks was that they did not provide propaganda for his inaugural crowd numbers. Trump's crowd was a small fraction of Obama's; and the next day the Washington Women's March exceeded his inaugural, and there were such marches across the US and elsewhere.

I was deeply depressed the day [November 9th] after the election. I had watched the returns the night before. I fully expected a Democratic victory. I had champagne, i would need it anyway. I saw Florida fall, and got worse. It was if i was hit full on in the chest. I was going to post my thoughts then, but couldn't; and then, as the title suggests, a few weeks later, and still could not. I was right when i thought the Republican Party would be split with the teabaggers, but it was not a break. The teabaggers got Trump, and Trump absorbed the rest of the party. Now, i am chastened, the future is not mine to predict.

To-day, General Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor since the evidence is overwhelming he is the third Trumpster (Paul Manafort, Carter Page) compromised by the Russians. Hillary Clinton was right again, Trump is Putin's puppet. Gerald Ford once said, "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be". Dan Rather, to-day, likened the current news having similarity to Watergate. 

Alternate attendances

I have seen a few real news pieces to-day concerning the chief mouthpiece for the Donald, She-Goebbels Conway, a hatchet faced crone that will always attempt to manipulate reality to make the Donald look good. Well, Trumpy's Whiter House press secretary, Propaganda Spice lied about attendance at the inauguration. The lies were so egregious, so obvious, and so vehement that Chuck Todd [NBC] challenged Kellyanne Conway's defense of Sean Spicer. Conway said he offered 'alternative facts'. There is no such thing. There is only alternative realities in fiction. It is already fully evident that this presidency is thoroughly founded on lies. As Solzhenitsyn taught us in his Nobel speech, lies are violent: "Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with LYING. ...Whoever has once announced violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose lying as his PRINCIPLE. ...usually it demands of its victims only allegiance to the lie, only complicity in the lie."

The Republicans have long followed the principle enunciated by Göbbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” — Dr. Joseph Göbbels

But many people know this, one Star Trek episode filmed a version of an episode in Orwell's 1984 [see and click]

beyond sad

Democracy died. It should be given a funeral before the mourners are rounded up.

I wonder if Don McLean has another song in him.

on a lawn in Oberlin Ohio

So many trumpsters' signs (and flags), i have seen, are hjuuuge. This sign was almost tiny. Perhaps, the owner does not know the definition of 'deplorables', or it is self-mocking humour taken for a point of pride.

Two weeks before Election Day

A convenience store has just finished a coffee promotion tied to the election. They had three cup designs: blue for Democrat, red for Republican, and an undecided cup (which makes little sense since they had their regular cups too) which is winning [click]. Well, we took the coffee poll in the environs about here, and the result was unambiguous.

Every day i read electoral-vote, i find it very current, accurate, and when snarky--dead on. The denouement of the story has been evident from the beginning [fake spoiler alert--Hillary Clinton and the Democracy wins], but with that assurance the show has been entertaining. The press had from early on, as it always seems to do, reported it as an horse race with the various horse and rider teams striding forward against each other; but very recently it appears that the homestretch is going to be a breakaway. The lone question is how many lengths will Secretariat win by?

At first, my question was will this be nearer a Barack Obama total, or a Lyndon Johnson total? Some Republicans fear the latter, it has come to five Republicans running for Congress threatening to sue because of advertisements saying they support Trump. The complaint is: “substantial and immediate harm to the campaign” is being done. The party of tort reform against frivolous lawsuits, the party of personal responsibility turn out to be all Trumplethinskins.

I must remember and go buy a bottle of champagne. I expect the cork to fly early in the evening.

King Obama

I have posted several Sysack signs. She survived her brother in their family business. Every once in a while, a new sign goes up in front of her business. I had thought the anti-Hillary Clinton sign would hold until the election. It had several bugbears, and b.s., that Republicans love, and love to babble about.

Well, this one after several points of nonsense says the election will be voided, and Obama will declare himself king. The other figure portrayed is Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle USMC. One of his repeated lines on the television was, "Surprise, surprise, surprise". Yes, this is the 'October surprise'.

Two things i like to point out: firstly, as a sign painter, she makes several spelling and other mistakes in sign after sign; secondly, as so many of these crazy 'conservatives' after their predictions (and points of argument) prove false, they never make the admission. Hillary Clinton will be elected president.

St. Andrew and the Democratic Presidency

Most of Parma Ohio is working class, and votes with the Democracy. This year there are more Trump signs (it seems), and Trump flags from flagpoles. With the vehemency trumpsters display, some democrats are not willing to show lawn enthusiasm. Inadvertently the vandals have made a Scottish flag of St. Andrew, which is a blue field with a white saltire/St. Andrew's cross. They may be familiar with the pattern since the traitorous confederate battle flag is a saltire too.

Last day of the circus

A lot of the interesting pictures are from Public Square, which has just re-opened after major reconfiguration, and construction. The one thing that has not been moved, is the massive monument (and museum) memorialising those who fought and died for the Union. Supra is part of a statue group.

One of the added items is a group of water spouts. See the shirt the girl is wearing, most probably not a Republican.

PETA can be interesting, or stupidly provocative. There were two stilt walking 'sisters' (the second a guy with whiskers--not cool).

A lot of police, a lot of good pictures. One Michiganer told me twenty one states. A Hoosier told me he wasn't allowed to share the information because of security concerns.

These anti-Catholic bigots made sure they would be seen on the live teevee feed. There were signs on both sides of the picket stick.

The little Don the Con's head is too small. The vendor said he's going to Philadelphia. The picture taker had a media badge, and proclaimed her hatred for the 'liberal media'.

 

 More expensive cameras, bigger jerks attached, this guy squatted and took a minimum of a dozen shots, also used the movie function. My one picture is better than his.

 These kite puppets are with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

With all the partisan strangers in town, a little local balance is needed.