Tag Archives: religion

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, April 21, 2025. As if you haven’t heard already, Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff in nearly 1,300 years, has died on Easter Monday. He was 88 years old and died of a stroke followed by heart failure, according to CNN updates. Latest updates appear on an online CNN piece by Antoinette Radford, Maureen Chowdhury, Christopher Lamb, Christian Edwards, Issy Ronald, Aditi Sangal, and Elise Hammond entitled “The latest on the death of Pope Francis as tributes pour in worldwide.”

The news arrived as the pontiff spent his last days participating in the celebration of Easter and making a high-profile appearance in public after battling multiple health issues.

In the wake of such sad news, it was reported that Emperor Dump and his First Lady [who seems as invisible as they come] will be attending the funeral in Rome. Why? He wasn’t liked by this progressive pope at all.

Condolences and tributes started to pour in shortly after the announcement was made by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo (chamberlain) who said Francis died at 7:35 a.m. local time (1:35 a.m. ET). Until a new pope is chosen, Farrell acts as the head of the Vatican. Farrell was also the cardinal who sealed the Papal Apartment of the Apostolic Palace, the traditional residence of the pope, to mark the beginning of the mourning process. This tradition was highlighted in the recent Conclave film starring Ralph Fiennes that focused on the selecting of a new pontiff on the death of the current one. However, the apartment was not used by Francis, who lived in Casa Santa Marta, and that apartment was also sealed.

The fact that Pope Francis met odious Vice President JD Vance shortly before his death this morning has set off a torrent of internet memes and jokes in which Vance is somehow blamed for the pontiff’s death. Pope Francis had been released from the hospital less than a month ago following a five-week stay for life-threatening double pneumonia. Francis’s passing came soon after he briefly met with Vance to exchange Easter greetings on Sunday. Now, the internet is joking that Vance killed – Heaven forbid! – the Pope – or at the very least, his presence did. One meme depicted lasers coming out of Vance’s eyes as he greeted the Pope. Others darkly joked that Vance should meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next.

A second disturbing piece of news breaking today is the appearance of another Signalgate incident in which drunken Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has found himself in hot water yet again after revelations that a second high-level chat concerning military operations has been captured on the less-than-secure app Signal. Here he used the app to discuss classified military plans, this time involving his wife and even brother as participants in the chat. This is shocking beyond measure and it’s about time that this idiot president realize how much of a security risk is his stupid choice of Defense Secretary and fire his ass already! In the meantime, the asshole Hegseth just attacked the media for revealing the truth of his indiscretion. This is what these bums do: delay, deny, and deflect. The best thing this guy should do is tender his resignation immediately. This president will never admit he made a fucking mistake, so it’s up to Congress – sheesh! – to demand Hegseth be terminated. Let’s see if this ever becomes reality.

Tomorrow will be my last entry on this page until after May 2, as I’ve indicated yesterday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, March 31, 2025. I just heard this stunning piece of news on the Rachel Maddow show, and to me, it represents finally some good resistance to what is fucking going on in this country ever since the fascist retook the White House, and that is New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has taken to the Senate floor to protest actions taken by this cruel administration, saying that he will keep going “as long as I am physically able.” This breaking news is covered in an online CNN article by Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett entitled “Democrat kicks off marathon Senate floor speech to protest Trump administration actions.”

The speech is not considered a filibuster because Booker is not blocking legislation or a nomination. The Democratic senator’s address will keep the Senate floor open – and floor staff working as well as U.S. Capitol police members detailed to the chamber – but lawmakers had concluded voting for the day before the senator began his remarks.

Speaking at 7 p.m., Booker stated, “I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.” He added, “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.” Boy, is that an understatement!

Booker is undertaking this effort at a time when Democratic leaders in Washington are under pressure from their base to do more to stand up to the Orange Asshole. He is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership team.

Booker pointed out the insanity being practiced in this country under a Dump regime, stating, “In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy; and even our aspirations as a people from our highest offices for a sense of common decency.” He indicated the obvious when he said, “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

This marathon session by the New Jersey senator has its precedents in earlier times, including: Jeff Merkley against Neil Gorsuch in 2017; Chris Murphy on gun control in 2016; Rand Paul over National Security Agency surveillance programs in 2015; and the abominable Ted “Ooze” against the Affordable Care Act in 2013 (we know how that one went: it was passed nevertheless, thank God!)

As if you would recall this one: the late Strom Thurmond – who was a raging segregationist – holds the record for the longest speech when he spoke on the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

I don’t know about you, but I’m dumbfounded by this low percentage rating of Democrats by the American public which now stands at 27 percentage points. Huh! How could anyone with a brain support this president’s meshuganah agenda? I would suspect there would be a very small percentage of dimwitted bulbs who still support the “president’s” policies. Especially when their IRAs, Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits dry up because of Muskrat’s misuse of DOGE (new name: “Department of Greed and Evil” as offered by some protestor across the country who held such a sign).

Tomorrow we will see how Democrats really fare in crucial races in Wisconsin and Florida where two Democrats are almost favored over the stinking Republicans who are running. I truly pray that Brad “Schlimzael” is turned out by a blue wave. This fucking billionaire has no purchase anymore in this country and should be rejected by all decent Americans. I’m hoping that Susan Crawford does win, which will be a symbolic victory for the principles of fairness and decency. Let’s have some good news here finally in this country of woe.

As for tomorrow, I won’t be posting my blog since I will be at my gay men’s club meeting on April Fool’s Day discussing the merits of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country which has no relevance to the homosexual world at all. However, even though I plowed through it with great difficulty, I do consider it a fascinating portrait of an early Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, even though the two ladies of the present have done something more than the gold digging protagonist of Miss Wharton’s 1913 novel, Undine Spragg. All she could do was to move up the economic scale and leave less-rich husbands behind, which she does in a novel spanning over 394 pages. I’m very elated that I could actually finish this book in the allotted time. I started it around March 15 and just finished it last week, on March 28. This represents the longest I’ve ever taken to finish a reading club selection.

Let’s give our support to Senator Cory Booker who will be talking as long as it’s physically sustainable to give this country a bird’s eye view of the cruelty being practiced in this second Dump administration.

Oh, and today I baked my very first cake for 2025: a yellow cake with chocolate frosting that we will present to our good neighbor/friend “Diane” tomorrow on the occasion of her birthday on April Fool’s Day. I will post a picture of it without the chocolate frosting.

See you on Wednesday.

And so it went!

Here is my first 2025 cake: a yellow cake with no chocolate frosting as of yet!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, March 24, 2025. The latest outrage from this lawless, authoritarian regime is the accidental dissemination of classified information over a public group thread in which information about highly classified information about U.S. military strikes on Yemen was sent to a reporter for The Atlantic. And we thought Hillary Clinton was bad with her unsecured emails. That’s what the disgusting repugnicans would have you think way back in 2016, but this demands an immediate inquiry into the incompetence of this clownish administration. I’m praying that Democrats finally take an active stand here and seek answers to this glaring incompetence. we all know if this ever, ever happened under a Democratic administration, the other hypocritical side would be thoroughly enraged and promptly demand an investigation.

This breaking story is covered in a CNN online article by Katie Bo Lillis, Kaitlan Collins, Jeff Zeleny, Evan Perez, Oren Libermann, Jamie Gangel, Kit Maher, and Sean Lyngaas entitled “Trump’s national security adviser added a journalist to text chat on highly sensitive Yemen strike plans.” But with this involving the dolt in the White House, it’s not even shocking anymore.

Thus top members of the Dump administration sent detailed operational plans and other highly sensitive information about the Yemen strikes to a group thread on a messaging app to which a reporter had been accidentally added. The person at the center of this scandalous incident is The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

The least that the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” administration could do was acknowledge the messages, sent over the nongovernment-encrypted chat app Signal, seem to be authentic without offering any explanation for why senior officials were discussing national defense information outside of approved classified government channels.

Because of this horrible lapse in common sense, multiple administration officials told CNN they were shocked, with at least two speculating that this could result in the dismissal of one of their colleagues.

It goes without saying, the use of this app, Signal, to discuss planning for military operations is a shocking risk to national security. Multiple officials said they could not recall any instance in which Signal was used to communicate classified information or discuss military operations.

One former senior intelligence official said, “They broke every procedure known to man about protecting operational material before a military strike.” He added, “You have a total breakdown in security about a military operation.”

The shit bag who is president right now talked as if he were in an Alzheimer’s daze when he was confronted with this possible breach in national security, actually fucking denying he knew anything about it [this is his fucking modus operandi for 78 years!]. He said, “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic [because it has been overwhelmingly critical of him in article after article]. It’s, to me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business [here he is denying, deflecting, and talking trash about a news magazine]. I think it’s not much of a magazine [even though it’s been in business since the early 1800s – what a fucking shit! Excuse my French here] But I know nothing about it [what the fuck does he know anything about?].

I truly hope this new outrage will rally Democrats to demand these compromising actions to stop immediately and hold hearings on the subject and to inform the American people how careless the current administration is with regard to these security concerns. They should tell Americans in no uncertain terms that America is far unsafe under this current incompetent administration.

Oh, and the person who was mercilessly attacked for her supposedly insecure emails, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had this to say over this stunning bombshell. Taking to X today, Clinton posted, “You have got to be kidding me.”

As recently as 2023, the shit stain known as Dump attacked Clinton still, saying, “Hillary Clinton broke the law, and she didn’t get indicted” because “the FBI and Justice Department protected her.” Even former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg similarly posted, “From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.”

The Democrats should insist that the new totally unqualified Secretary of Defense, drunkard Pete Hegseth, be terminated immediately.

Yesterday, I wrote that Elliot and I began watching Netflix’s new series Adolescence. Today we watched episode 2 and it didn’t disappoint. In this episode, the two detectives, DI Luke Bascombe, and his female counterpart, DS Misha Frank, go into the school where the suspected murderer of a female classmate was a student, seeking answers as to his motive for killing the young woman. There they meet surly middle schoolers cursing and just acting sassy and crazy. Finally, Bascombe has to hear what really motivated young Jamie Miller from his own son who is a student there. The detective and his partner had it all wrong about Jamie and the female student, Katie Leonard. They assumed she liked him, but Bascombe’s son, Adam, steers him to the uncomfortable truth of what really happened: it appears that Leonard was calling Jamie an “incel” and was bullying him online. I mentioned this in yesterday’s blog. To me, it’s shocking, even, to suggest that 13-year-olds are having sex at this age, but today, girls and boys shockingly mature at much younger ages. I thoroughly enjoyed the use of one-shot filming in both episodes; the episodes are filmed in one tracking shot. There is no editing or any editing that I can see.

In this episode, you get to hear a little more about Bascombe’s past and his reluctance to being a father. His partner, Misha, also reveals her desire not to bear children. Hell, after seeing how these adolescents behave in a secondary school, it’s no wonder that Frank would not want children. The ending of this episode was quite touching: Bascombe picks up his son Adam after school and suggests they have lunch together. Adam gets into his dad’s car and they drive off.

The father of young Jamie, Stephen Graham, is the cocreator of the series, along with Jack Thorne. Without question, I strongly recommend everyone watch this series, especially those with school-age children or, even, grandchildren. As parents, it becomes increasingly difficult to know what your child is doing behind closed doors in the dark. This cautionary series attempts to fill you in on what is actually going down in that setting. The series has only four episodes, about an hour long. It’s a totally gripping, unsettling story of how our children can be so easily radicalized on the internet by misanthropic and misogynistic influencers. In this episode, the principal of the school, I believe, even mentions Andrew Tate’s name – the influencer I mentioned in yesterday’s blog.

And so it went!