CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 104th edition. Buy the Big Ugly or we'll shoot this government. An Epstein offer somebody can't refuse. Ignoring Trump's dementia, Not knowing the details, Religious and Cultural appropriation, Why Wounded Knee?

Buy the Big Ugly or we'll shoot this government.

Famous cover of the National Lampoon, used under the Fair Use doctrine to illustrate the Trump regime's tactics on the budget negotiation.  Oddly enough, the dog was actually shot and killed by an unknown person in rural Pennsylvania, where its owner lived.

Headline says it all:

Government to shut down after midnight barring last minute breakthrough in Congress

It's a game of chicken.

If this all seems familiar, it's because we went through this once before with under the Trump regime.  Chuck Schumer, in his political dotage, didn't really know what to do, which has characterized his leadership of Senate Democrats since Trump's illegitimacy in general.  The basic hope was that Trump would suddenly start acting semi normal.  Since that time, he's acted more abnormal.

The GOP rails against Democrats being Marxist, Socialist, Communists, Fascist, Monarchist, Muslims most of the time, but now wants them to pay nice on a continuing funding resolution that, they say, will give them seven more weeks to work out a budget.  The last budget, The Big Ugly, is so unpopular that the GOP is working on changing its name.

The risk here is who the public blames the looming government shutdown on. Republicans are already trying to blame the Democrats, even though they refuse to give the concessions the Democrats are seeking.  Trump, whose "art of the deal" style of business tends to be all pressure base, is responding by saying he'll fire Federal workers.

Quite a few members of the populist far right will cheer that, at least up until it impacts them.

Democrats are accusing Trump of acting like a mob boss, and not without reason.  His negotiation style often seems to resemble one.

Somebody is getting an offer they can't refuse.

And speaking of that. . . 

This is a nice look at a grim topic.

Trump isn't supporting releasing the government's files on Jeffrey Epstein as somebody is getting protected, and that somebody is afraid.  We don't know who it is, but that's fairly clearly what's going on.

Somebody close enough to the Oval Office to impact it was screwing underaged girls provided by Epstein.  Maybe it's a collection of somebodies.  Or/and somebody is being blackmailed.

On this, efforts that seem designed to divert attention from this are getting just sillier.

Whoever the somebody is, they're wealthy.  

The Democrats did release a new list of names of people who were pondered as flight passengers to Epstein Island, which included Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon.  Musk has denied every going there, and his denial is likely completely backed up.  It may be the case than none of these individuals went there, or if they did, they didn't do any kiddie diddling.

Still, it's clear that Epstein got rich as a procurer and it's nearly impossible to believe that everyone who went there didn't know something was going on.  Epstein was targeting the rich.  The video claims he was blackmailing them.  Somebody is being protected right now, or perhaps blackmailed.

More and more unsound

Robert Reich posted this item the other day

Having seen dementia up close, I keep wondering the same thing.  Trump is increasingly demented.  

Have you ever been in the house of a demented person?  It's demented.  And that's what's occurring to our entire government right now.

Again: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s growing dementia?

Trump’s increasingly bizarre behavior can no longer be attributed to a calculated “strategy.”

We are on increasingly dangerous territory.  Those on the right largely want to keep claiming that we're just not used to Trump's unconventional management style, which is correct as he's slipping into dementia and we haven't had to contend with that in any fashion since Ronald Reagan, who was demonstrating signs of it in his last term.  Reagan seemed ancient at 77, two years younger than Trump is now, when he left office.

A sign that we're in a dangerous area is the increasingly obvious fact that other people are suddenly really prominent in a way that they were not before. Steven Miller is an example. Miller is impossible to like but he's now very much in the forefront.  J. D. Vance has reemerged quite a bit as well.

Some have asserted that in Reagan's decline Nancy Reagan took over some of his roles behind the scenes.  This definitely happened when Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and Edith stepped up to the plate.  As Franklin Roosevelt declined nothing like that happened, but then he didn't have mental lapses.  

We can be rest assured that Melania isn't going to step in.  The question is who is, and what are they doing right now.

Stake Center Shooting

We've become so acclimated to bizarre murders that it seems the news on the LDS Stake Center shooting in Grand Blanc, Michigan, has already cycled.  Maybe it should have, as stories like this are local stories.

While we really ought not to notice it, we'll go ahead and note anyhow that in stories involving the LDS the Press, and politicians,  clearly shows it knows nearly nothing about them.  Almost all the Press reported the attack as being on a church, which isn't the way the Mormons characterize this, the most common variety of their religious structures.  That probably doesn't matter but it'd be sort of like calling a synagogue or a mosque a church.

Some politicians were quick to claim it demonstrated increasing violence against Christians, which they've wanted to claim about the Kirk assassination as well.  Trump, for instance, stated ""yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America".  Kirk seems to have been murdered because he spoke against transgenderism, not for an expressed religious position, but I suppose you could argue that his opposition to transgenderism was based on his faith, although that would be a rather underdeveloped argument.

The thing is, at least right now, is that we seem to have no idea whatsoever why this guy attacked the Grand Blanc stake center.  Mormons actually are not regarded as Christians by at least Apostolic Christians, who are the first and original Christians, as their theology doesn't support it.  Mormons do assert they're Christians, but they certainly do not believe in a Trinitarian God like Christians do.  Indeed, their belief is so significantly different that an informed Christian really can't regard them as Christians, which doesn't have much to do with how they view themselves.

Anyhow, if the location was picked out more or less at random, well then it might have been targeting Christians.  Or it might be an act targeted specifically at Mormons for some reason.  Or this guy may just have been flat out insane.

As an aside, however, it's interesting to note the degree to which outside of the West, and more particularly outside of the Jello Belt, most people sort of assume that the LDS are sort of just very clean dressing Protestants or something.  This isn't casting aspersions, but it reminds me of the occasionally questions I'll hear directed as Jews by really ill informed Americans which assumes that Judaism is basically a Christian religion.

And the speculating probably ought to cease until we have an idea about what was going on, which might never occur.

The first storm

The first of the storms we wrote about on Sunday will hit Quantico today. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will address the flag officers.

Reporting so far is that Hegseth is just going to deliver a pep talk, in which case this is the most expensive example of boring people for no reason in the history of mankind.  I continue to suspect that more than that will occur.

Probably not what Hegseth will sound like later today.

We want our symbols back, dude.

Speaking of the wannabe War Secretary, we've noted here before that Hegseth is all tatted up.  Indeed, we noted that in an earlier version of this trailing thread, in which we stated:

The over tattooed and expropriation.

Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is taking a lot of flak.  Some of it is for things he's said or believes

Some of it for his tattoos, which are interpreted to mean things which they might not.

One of those tattoos is of a Jerusalem Cross.

The Jerusalem cross consists of a large cross potent surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses representing the spread of the gospel to the four corners of the earth.  It was used as the emblem and coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after 1099.

Hegeth is a member of a church which is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.  Therefore, he's appropriating a Catholic symbol, while he's not a Catholic.  Indeed, he's not even close, as he's on his third spouse, something no adherent Catholic would have done.

He also has a tattoo on a bicep that states Deus vult, "God wills", a phrase that dates back to the First Crusade, but which has been appropriated by many groups over the years.   And it doesn't stop there.

“Israel, Christianity and my faith are things I care deeply about,” he's stated.

Perhaps he should learn more about the faith espoused by the symbols that he's had inked on himself.  Indeed, quite frankly, the men who cried Deus vult in the 11th Century and those who fought to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem would have regarded him as a heretic. 

Anyhow,  one thing that I've worried about since the rise of Christian Nationalist is that Catholics are the ones who are going to take a beating in the end, even though its really a Protestant movement.  I can already see it starting to happen.  Former Senator Adam Kinzinger, who comments heavily on Blue Sky and Twitter, had a post noting that "the Crusades weren't Christian".  Oh yes they were, the thing they weren't is the edited version that English Protestants came up with to attempt to tar and feather the Church.  Others have been running around claiming that the Jerusalem Cross, which Catholics use a lot, is a Nazi symbol, which it isn't, or a camouflaged swastika, which it isn't.

The United States remains a Protestant nation, including in the way it reacts to symbols and in its misunderstanding of history.

All this serves, I'd note, to bury a deeper item that should be of actual concern, which is the American Evangelical view towards Israel.  This is not universal, by any means, but there's a branch of American Evangelicalism which sees itself as having a direct role in bringing about the Second Coming through its interaction with Israel.  According to somebody who knew him and commented on it recently (therefore at least making it somewhat suspect) former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has been nominated by Trump to be Ambassador to Israel, and who is a Baptist minister, has those views.

Really, people with the apparent views of Huckabee and Kinzinger really have no business in the offices they've been nominated to serve in.

We also very recently had an article on Christian Dominionism.

Because of that I'll note use of these symbols by far right Evangelicals, and frankly Protestants in general, is cultural appropriation.  If you dig what these convey, look into what the originally conveyed and study up.  You won't remain in the New Apostolic Reformation camp for long.

Persistent cultural appropriation.

Bai-De-Schluch-A-Ichin or Be-Ich-Schluck-Ich-In-Et-Tzuzzigi (Slender Silversmith) "Metal Beater," Navajo silversmith, photo by George Ben Wittick, 1883

While I'm at it, I'll note that there's a politician I'm aware of who consistently angles for the Navajo jewelry look.

I guess that's the person's look, its just so persistent, black clothing with turquoise jewelry, that it's hard not to notice.  Perhaps its meant to look Western, which if that's the case, it sort of does, but it looks Southwestern.  And a person in this era needs to be, or should be, careful about that as the gulf between the regions Republican politics and Reservation views is growing a great deal.  

Indeed, I've been wondering if we'll see Lynette Gray Bull run again for office locally.  My prediction is that if she does, Harriet Hageman will not debate her.

My further prediction is that if Hageman is challenged from the center of her party, which is admittedly on the decline, she'll suffer a whopping defeat.

Remember Wounded Knee

Finally, Wounded Knee has certainly been back in the news, thanks to Hegseth.

What's going on here anyhow?  It seems like an effort to turn back the clock in a way, but to what point on the dial?  1915?  1945?  1955?

Finally, some really important news.

Blackpink member member Lisa went to the Louis Viton fashion show in Paris.

Why can't se  have Congress people who look like Lisa from Blackpink?  Shoot, if we're aiming for cultural appropriation, given Kawaii a chance.

And Bad Bunny will sing at the Stupor Bowl.

I'm sure I will not watch that, but a coworker of mine loves Bad Bunny.  I don't know why he's a bad bunny, and I'm not particularly inclined to find out, but I guess the Hispanic singer has been avoiding the mainland US due to the Sturmabteilung so it's a big deal to his fans.

Postscript:

Watching Patton one too many times.

Behind the stage on which Hegseth and Trump were expected to speak was a large American flag, with banners showing the words "strength, service, America" and the various flags of the armed services on either side.

Oh geez, now Donald Babbler is making an appearance and the stage is seemingly decked out like the opener of the movie Patton. 

This just piles absurdity upon absurdity.

My prediction is the Trump speech will sound something like this:

And Hegseth's?  It'll be rah rah, but when it falls flat, the next speech will be:

On a matter of serious concern, however, this is extraordinarily weird, but then much of what this administration does is extraordinarily weird.  Still there's a little reason to worry that this regime is concerned that the military's senior leaders are not going to endlessly back illegality.

I have to wonder what it's like to get a rah rah speech from a guy who, when his country was calling, when to the doctor's office.  Oh well.

More Kirk

I meant to put this up above, but I thought this interesting:

Blog Mirror: Sisters of Charity of New York Respond to Cardinal Dolan’s Remarks on Charlie Kirk

Because I paid so little attention to Kirk when he was alive, I still don't know what to make of the post mortems

Fr. Joseph Krupp, whose podcast and blog I follow, was a Kirk fan and had an interesting episode on him.  He stated that Kirk was basically a middle of the road Republican by most measures up until our current times, when middle of the road, in his view, is regarded as right wing extreme.  I'd agree that Kirk's views on things like transgenderism are in fact pretty average, up until quite recently.

Having said that, I also heard Kirk say that somebody should raise the bail money to bail out the person who attack Nancy Pelosi's husband, back after he was attacked. That's a flat out evil thing to say.

At any rate, I really think Cardinal Dolan let things carry him away.  Kirk a modern day St. Paul?  I don't think so.  I suppose Cardinal Dolan meant that Kirk was killed for saying things that are true but unpopular, but St. Paul never excused violence.

As noted here the other day, I think that Catholics have to be really careful about embracing figures from the Evangelical right, which Kirk was.  Kirk was headed into Catholicism pretty clearly, but hadn't yet made it there.  Assuming he was a Catholic figure may be assuming too much and embracing Dominionism is assuming too much.

Related threads:

Storm Warning.

Labels: 119th Congress, 2020s, 2025, Donald Trump, Government, Pete Hegseth, Predictions, The Second Trump Administration

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 66th Edition. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer up your pants.*

Labels: American Dumpster Fire, Catholic, Christianity, Donald Trump, Hypocrisy, Kennedy, Mae Winchester Effect, Men, Politics, Protestant, religion, Republican Party, Tattoos, The Crusades, Traditionalism, Women, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

A look at the later lives of Wounded Knees' Twenty Medal of Honor recipients.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, 1890, 1890s, Army, Battle of Little Big Horn, Immigration, Personalities, Pete Hegseth, Philippine Insurrection, Spanish American War, The Frontier West, World War One, Wounded Knee

Today In Wyoming's History: Whitewashing Wounded Knee. The Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

Labels: 1890, 1890s, 2020s, 2025, Army, Blog Mirror, Commentary, Indian Wars, Native Americans, Pete Hegseth, Philippine Insurrection, South Dakota, Spanish American War, The Frontier West, This Day In Wyoming's History, Wounded Knee

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 103d edition. Missing the obvious demographic aspect of the story . . ."Wyoming Churches See Revival, Shakeup After Charlie Kirk's Death"

Labels: Catholic, Charlie Kirk, Christian Nationalism, Christianity, Mainline Protestant, Populism, religion, Sunday Morning Scene, The Reformation, The wealthy, Zeitgeist

Comparison, and Contrast, and presentations.

This post may be completely superficial.  Or maybe not.

It's about presentation.

Harriet Hageman, no matter what a person otherwise thinks of her, has a unique look. Sort of a Steampunk meets Southwestern Navajo type of style:

From Hageman campaign site: https://www.hagemanforwyoming.com/  Fair Use exception and directly linked in for copyright reasons.

Funky glasses lots of jewelry, a lot of which is turquoise.

From Billings Gazette which was from Wyoming Tribune Eagle.  https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/harriet-hageman-releases-first-paid-ad/article_04274d77-a57c-5a6c-a534-a3412cd6bc64.html  Fair use and directly linked in.

Lynette Gray Bull is understated, but wears some things that emphasize the culture she's part of.

From Wyofile:  https://wyofile.com/grey-bull-aims-to-be-first-wyo-dem-in-congress-in-44-years/

Even at that, however, it's notable.  Hageman's appearance, most of the time, is loud, and includes a lot of turquoise.  Gray Bull's is not. She's wearing a little turquoise and some ear rings, in the photo above, that are a bonafide part of the culture she is a bonafide part of.

Lynette Gray Bull from her campaign site.  Very understated dress compared to Hageman, with some turquoise jewelry.  Fair Use and directly linked in.  https://www.greybullforcongress.com/

Hageman didn't always dress the way she does now. At Casper College, when she was an ag student, she wore blue jeans and polo shirts, the uniform of ag students, and she dressed much the same way when she was in law school.  No loud earrings or jewelry, and no funky glasses.

Of course, a lot of us don't wear the same things daily now, that we did in school.

We've heard a lot about cultural appropriation in recent years. I don't think such things should be taken too far.  I.e., I don't think it matters if a person of European American ancestry wears a traditional Chinese dress to the prom.  

But on some sensitive issues, it's harder to say.

Last week the State Bar Convention was held and among the "break out sessions" was one on what used to be called "Indian Law" and maybe still is.  They've had similar sessions in the past, but this year's was taught by a University of Wyoming professor who is a Native American.  Because I was attending remotely (via Zoom) and had my audio turned down fairly low for a reason I'll not go into, I may not have heard all of the very first section perfectly, but it was clear that the professor was angry with European Americans.

Again, I'm not really going to do into this, but appropriating a lot of Native American style jewelry may not really be the best idea for a person running for office who is non-Native.  Or does it matter?

Going from there, I'd note that Wyoming political races tend to leave a person's family completely out of the race as a rule.  By and large this is a good thing, although I'd note that candidates themselves tend to interject their families into the races in some fashion.

Cheney's family was definitely interjected into all of her races from the onset. This was inevitable due to her last name alone, which by its very nature interjected the family legacy type of debate into the races, and the "where are you really from" issue into the race.  Hageman's last name is one that should be familiar to long time Wyoming residents, but that hasn't come up much.  If it were to, it should cause us to recall that her father was one of the Southeastern Wyoming legislators that backed a wildlife privatization bill.    Cheney doesn't have a great record on public lands, I'd note, but then I'd also note that Barasso doesn't either.  Nothing has come up since Lummis returned to office.  Hageman, when public lands as an issue arose earlier, gave a very reserved answer to the question.

Anyhow, Hageman's parents probably won't make the news, and probably shouldn't. Gray Bull's haven't either, and probably shouldn't.  But it's interesting to note that both have family in their photographs, and Hageman has emphasized it.

Hageman has noted in her campaign that she's pro family and loves spending time with her nieces.  In her campiagn material, she's shown with her extended family, and is starting to be shown with her husband.  Her husband is also a lawyer, some decade and a half older than she, and they have no children.  We don't know why, and we aren't entitled to know why.  Gray Bull doesn't talk about family in the same fashion, makes recent frequent reference to being pro abortion, but appears in photographs with her three children.  So we have one candidate that speaks about family and appears with her immediate family, consisting of her husband, and we have one candidate that doesn't but appears with her three children, but no husband or significant other.

Again, this is all personal in nature.  Does it matter?

Maybe not.  The questions aren't going to be asked, and they probably shouldn't be.

But it does matter who people are behind what they claim to stand for.  What their daily lives are like, and what has mattered to them on a really personal level.