The book Opus by Garath Gore (about the right wing dark money cult Opus Dei) ends with the following paragraph. “If Francis dies before real reform happens - and if his successor proves unwilling or unable to carry out his initiative - then Opus Dei will emerge from its near death experience invigorated and defiant… The movement will plow forward with its plans to re-Christianize the planet… Gay Marriage, secular education, scientific research and the arts will fast become the next targets.” I’m guessing that Pope Leo XIV is no who Opus Dei would have chosen. Let’s hope that he follows through with what the good Pope Francis started.
My favorite line from JFK's inaugural address (which got replayed endlessly on TV throughout the late 60s as part of a PSA ad campaign) was "here on earth, God's work must truly be our own." I think that something -- God, the better angels of human nature, a universal life force -- came to the Cardinals in response to their prayers for discernment and led them to choose as they did, and quickly. Because something reminded in that room that here on earth, the work of good (or God for those who believe) must truly be our own.
. There are more Catholics in the world than Americans. America elected a very bad leader. Catholicism got a very good leader. Not all Americans wanted a president like the one that got elected. Most Catholics were jubilant over the conclave's selection. Thus there obviously remains more good than evil in that portion of the world affected by America and Catholicism. The light will extinguish the darkness but it just takes time. Omnes sub regno graviore regnum est. Trump's brief time will soon pass.
::Cardinals also have incentives to deny that Trump influenced them one way or the other (and sure enough, at least one has denied it).::
Isn't Timothy Dolan, the Cardinal who made that comment, one of the "MAGA Catholics" who tries to attach Roman Catholicism to Trumpism? Or at least has benefitted handsomely from Trump's "Republican Jesus" ranting?
Sure, Trump's popularity is sliding, but unless the Democrats change their tactics and have something realistic to offer voters, they'll simply stay home on election day.
Realistically, most voters don't find trans rights, abortion, climate change and income inequality interesting or compelling. Focusing on the most pressing issues (and by 2026, there will be a huge laundry list) wins elections, not lecturing people on issues they don't understand or that don't affect them personally. The GOP made people believe that immigration affected them directly by triggering their boogeyman fears. They focused on the fears held by young white men, not only about jobs but about their insecurities regarding women, and about their masculinity.
The Democrats claimed to be the good guys and still have a tent so large that it lacked any kind of lucid focus. They've got to run on more realistic issues that affect the most Americans, and stop giving the GOP fresh meat with which to attack them.
Poor baby. He blocked me after he got typist's cramp. I merely voiced an opinion that is shared by quite a few opinion columnists, that you run a campaign according to the issues most people find important. With all respect to trans youth, most Americans don't know any. Making a major issue about them can make a candidate look extremist or out of touch. Immigration ballooned into a huge issue possibly because Democrats became very vocal over it - and remember, Biden actually cracked down harder on immigration than did Trump, but without the cruelty and lies. All I said was in order to win, the Democrats have to narrow their issues down to the ones that affect the most people. This Darko guy went ballistic into a tirade against me personally, then blocked me before I could respond, which is cowardly.
And, by throwing the LGBTQ, Black and Hispanic communities, under the bus? YOU are repeating the same mistakes of all Clinton NeoLibs, which will GUARANTEE a Democratic Party minority at the polls!
It's not a Zero-Sum game, as Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Ilhan Omar et al have shown. Supporting unions, tuition-free higher education, Medicare For All, forgiving student loan debt, and rebuilding the social safety net are part of the same broad policy platform as supporting LGBTQ rights, supporting a strong pro-immigration policy, and not treating Black and Hispanic citizens like "illegals".
By pretending that you can pick and choose the planks of that platform you find "distasteful", and thus can ignore or throw out, is WHY Democrats keep losing despite The Shining Pile of Shit on the Hill that is Donald Trump.
I'm being realistic. Democrats keep losing because they do nothing to help themselves, which includes making their agenda more relatable to the parts of society who care more about taxes and jobs than about transsexuals and DEI. I have nothing against forgiving student debt, but making it a campaign promise is a mistake, as is Medicare for all. People think those ideas will cost them in increased taxes. They don't understand that corporations must be made to pay their share, but blabbing about these issues just scares people into the arms of MAGA, and their false promises of prosperity. Do you understand now? Democrats don't fucking understand that running a campaign on things people are wary about is guaranteed to fail. What you campaign on, and what you do in office, are two separate things. Campaigning on cultural issues is merely handing MAGA something to weaponize against us.
You're being "realistic" like Donald Trump is "realistic" by being a bigot.
Much as I hate Hate HATE Republicans? I have to give them credit for NOT being "realistic" (as YOU put it!), and pushing forward their agenda year after year, absorbing loss after loss, but never ever making their agenda "more relatable". That's why people say, in the absence of all logic and reason, that Republicans have "principles"‚ while Democrats have none and will turn on their constituents, and throw them under the bus, at the first sign of adversity...just like YOU want to do.
What you need to do is not change your principles to fit the fashions of the moment, but to stick by your guns win or lose, so the LGBTQ, and Black and Hispanic and Arabic and Chinese, communities know that you will always have their backs even if the rest of the country is baying to throw them in gulags.
But you don't, do you? You're just like Those Losers Schmuck Schumer, Notorious P-Lousy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, betraying supporters to chase a momentary advantage—which is why you lose, and will KEEP losing, to a stinking mountain of shit like Donald Trump. All you care about is holding onto your little patch of power and privilege, because it's easier to attack Bernie Sanders and AOC, who ARE sticking by their guns when you can't be arsed to!
Also, Janet Mills, the governor of Maine, flatly defied the bully. See you in court she said. Trump and his bully boys from DoJ caved.
Maine is quite a Catholic state (21 percent). Worth remembering here.
Last I looked, it also had close ties to Canada, especially (Catholic) Quebec.
The book Opus by Garath Gore (about the right wing dark money cult Opus Dei) ends with the following paragraph. “If Francis dies before real reform happens - and if his successor proves unwilling or unable to carry out his initiative - then Opus Dei will emerge from its near death experience invigorated and defiant… The movement will plow forward with its plans to re-Christianize the planet… Gay Marriage, secular education, scientific research and the arts will fast become the next targets.” I’m guessing that Pope Leo XIV is no who Opus Dei would have chosen. Let’s hope that he follows through with what the good Pope Francis started.
Opus Dei—the Catholic Church's Heritage Foundation!
Yup. That's it.
My favorite line from JFK's inaugural address (which got replayed endlessly on TV throughout the late 60s as part of a PSA ad campaign) was "here on earth, God's work must truly be our own." I think that something -- God, the better angels of human nature, a universal life force -- came to the Cardinals in response to their prayers for discernment and led them to choose as they did, and quickly. Because something reminded in that room that here on earth, the work of good (or God for those who believe) must truly be our own.
Nope we say what we mean. He’s just a bully grabbing at power however he can.
It's really third grade math and logic
. There are more Catholics in the world than Americans. America elected a very bad leader. Catholicism got a very good leader. Not all Americans wanted a president like the one that got elected. Most Catholics were jubilant over the conclave's selection. Thus there obviously remains more good than evil in that portion of the world affected by America and Catholicism. The light will extinguish the darkness but it just takes time. Omnes sub regno graviore regnum est. Trump's brief time will soon pass.
The "shining city on a hill" turns out to be us, setting ourselves on fire and serving as a warning to the rest of the world.
We're glowing real bright NOW! 🙀
Apparently, you just read anything, and then when you have no defense of the indefensible turn to insults. 💯% of the time, Baz
You people just say anything.
Baz:🙄
::Cardinals also have incentives to deny that Trump influenced them one way or the other (and sure enough, at least one has denied it).::
Isn't Timothy Dolan, the Cardinal who made that comment, one of the "MAGA Catholics" who tries to attach Roman Catholicism to Trumpism? Or at least has benefitted handsomely from Trump's "Republican Jesus" ranting?
Sure, Trump's popularity is sliding, but unless the Democrats change their tactics and have something realistic to offer voters, they'll simply stay home on election day.
Realistically, most voters don't find trans rights, abortion, climate change and income inequality interesting or compelling. Focusing on the most pressing issues (and by 2026, there will be a huge laundry list) wins elections, not lecturing people on issues they don't understand or that don't affect them personally. The GOP made people believe that immigration affected them directly by triggering their boogeyman fears. They focused on the fears held by young white men, not only about jobs but about their insecurities regarding women, and about their masculinity.
The Democrats claimed to be the good guys and still have a tent so large that it lacked any kind of lucid focus. They've got to run on more realistic issues that affect the most Americans, and stop giving the GOP fresh meat with which to attack them.
Poor baby. He blocked me after he got typist's cramp. I merely voiced an opinion that is shared by quite a few opinion columnists, that you run a campaign according to the issues most people find important. With all respect to trans youth, most Americans don't know any. Making a major issue about them can make a candidate look extremist or out of touch. Immigration ballooned into a huge issue possibly because Democrats became very vocal over it - and remember, Biden actually cracked down harder on immigration than did Trump, but without the cruelty and lies. All I said was in order to win, the Democrats have to narrow their issues down to the ones that affect the most people. This Darko guy went ballistic into a tirade against me personally, then blocked me before I could respond, which is cowardly.
And, by throwing the LGBTQ, Black and Hispanic communities, under the bus? YOU are repeating the same mistakes of all Clinton NeoLibs, which will GUARANTEE a Democratic Party minority at the polls!
It's not a Zero-Sum game, as Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Ilhan Omar et al have shown. Supporting unions, tuition-free higher education, Medicare For All, forgiving student loan debt, and rebuilding the social safety net are part of the same broad policy platform as supporting LGBTQ rights, supporting a strong pro-immigration policy, and not treating Black and Hispanic citizens like "illegals".
By pretending that you can pick and choose the planks of that platform you find "distasteful", and thus can ignore or throw out, is WHY Democrats keep losing despite The Shining Pile of Shit on the Hill that is Donald Trump.
I'm being realistic. Democrats keep losing because they do nothing to help themselves, which includes making their agenda more relatable to the parts of society who care more about taxes and jobs than about transsexuals and DEI. I have nothing against forgiving student debt, but making it a campaign promise is a mistake, as is Medicare for all. People think those ideas will cost them in increased taxes. They don't understand that corporations must be made to pay their share, but blabbing about these issues just scares people into the arms of MAGA, and their false promises of prosperity. Do you understand now? Democrats don't fucking understand that running a campaign on things people are wary about is guaranteed to fail. What you campaign on, and what you do in office, are two separate things. Campaigning on cultural issues is merely handing MAGA something to weaponize against us.
You're being "realistic" like Donald Trump is "realistic" by being a bigot.
Much as I hate Hate HATE Republicans? I have to give them credit for NOT being "realistic" (as YOU put it!), and pushing forward their agenda year after year, absorbing loss after loss, but never ever making their agenda "more relatable". That's why people say, in the absence of all logic and reason, that Republicans have "principles"‚ while Democrats have none and will turn on their constituents, and throw them under the bus, at the first sign of adversity...just like YOU want to do.
What you need to do is not change your principles to fit the fashions of the moment, but to stick by your guns win or lose, so the LGBTQ, and Black and Hispanic and Arabic and Chinese, communities know that you will always have their backs even if the rest of the country is baying to throw them in gulags.
But you don't, do you? You're just like Those Losers Schmuck Schumer, Notorious P-Lousy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, betraying supporters to chase a momentary advantage—which is why you lose, and will KEEP losing, to a stinking mountain of shit like Donald Trump. All you care about is holding onto your little patch of power and privilege, because it's easier to attack Bernie Sanders and AOC, who ARE sticking by their guns when you can't be arsed to!