That's how much it will cost to replace the granite in the reflecting pool so that the water isn't Tid-Y-Bowl Blue.
It'll happen. When the demented octogenarian is out of office the damage will have to be repaired.
Trump has some of the worst taste imaginable He just pegs out on the gaudy meter, and on absolutely everything. It's amazing in that he inherited his wealth so he shouldn't have the gaudy sense of nouveau riche, but he does. It extends to absolutely everything.
Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 125th Edition. Monum...: Geez, this is stupid. Harrison Design, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Last edition: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 124th Edition. On ...
Something really weird is going on with Donald Trump and Washington D.C. architecture.
First he started putting up gold crap all over the White House. Then he ripped down part of the White House in order to build a ballroom. After that, there was the paver application to the Rose Garden. Now he wants to put up a Triumphal Arch. This past week he had this done:
Geez, this is stupid.
Harrison Design, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
And your ongoing support of Donald Trump may have guaranteed that result already.
There were plenty of signs that the Germans were going to lose World War Two well before Hitler put a PPK to his head and blew his diseased brains out. Conservative Germans knew that. Some tried to act, with the last major act being the July 20, 1944 plot which nearly ended the Nazi regime.
And no, we aren't advocating that in this thread. We're advocating the use of the 25th Amendment.
The fact of the matter is that by July 20, 1944, it was too late to save Germany form complete defeat. It wasn't too late, however, to rescue German conservatism. Even as it was, the first post war West German governments were conservative.
The Republican Party is not Donald Trump's party. Just like German conservatives of the 1920s and 1930s, real conservatives made a terrible bargain with radical German populists as they were obsessed with what they thought was German decline, looked back on a mythical German past, and listened to the words of a radical and heard what they wanted to hear. They then followed along with evil thinking, most likely, that it wouldn't last forever, and at least the Nazis were addressing the Communists.
That's basically what the Republicans did.
Donald Trump spent most of his life registered as a Democrat, but at the end of they day, Trump's political party is Donald Trump. Unlike Hitler, Trump isn't a very smart man. He's a semi good salesman who mostly sells what people want to hear, and Donald Trump. He tapped into Rust Belt, Southern, rural and conservative discontent and sold it all as a movement. Truth be known, people's interest in that movement was fairly personal. People were worried about high immigration rates and wanted something done, but they weren't really for violence in the streets. And in their minds, an illegal immigrant was a guy working a construction job they couldn't get, not Maria who has been doing their shirts at the cleaners, or Jose who takes care of the sprinkler system. But, just like the German conservatives, once you have blood on your hands its hard not to have a lot more.
Indeed, it's hard not to have a lot more even if you have to endorse outright hypocrisy. Some were worried about social sexual issues, including gay marriage and transgenderism, both of which are in fact legitimate concerns. The dear leader is so worried about that such that he has Scott Bessant, a married homosexual who will support any dumb thing Trump says, in his cabinet and who has had his family photographed with Bruce Jenner post "transition". Some were worried about what they perceived as an irreligious drift in the country to such an extent they've made Trump into a near demigod even though he has no demonstrable attachment to Christianity at all. Some were worried about endless foreign wars and are now endorsing endless foreign wars.
Most people have absolutely had enough, however.
To add to it, Trump is increasingly erratic. Signs of dementia were clearly there in his first term, but now he's rocketing into insanity. He babbles absolute nonsense in the middle of the night with childish tweets that no sane adult would tolerate. If he was a member of your family you'd be seeking to have him committed.
The end result of this is completely clear. If Trump is still in office in November, the Republican Party will be destroyed. Not just defeated, but absolutely destroyed. The GOP will not regain power nationally in any serious way for a generation, assuming it simply doesn't dissolve. Local MAGA expressions, even in deeply Republican states will be put in the trash bin. Politicians who were loyal to Trump, like Mike Lee, Lindsey Graham, J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Chuck Gray, Megan Degenfelder, and a host of others (including John Barrasso) will find their political careers over, even if they are still in office. Some, such as Graham, Gray and Vance, will be regarded as absolute jokes.
The only way to avoid this, and it might not be avoidable at this point, is for the 25th Amendment, or his obviously bad health, to remove Trump by November. At this point there's a fairly good reason that Trump's dementia is advancing so rapidly, and his health declining so quickly, that Trump will expire of natural causes any day now. He's not well. If death arrives him and takes him to his final reward it would spare people like Vance, Rubio and Barrasso from having to have a spine. Assuming it does not, only the 25th Amendment stands a chance of saving the Republican Party.
The 25th Amendment option has to be invoked very soon if there's any chance of saving the GOP. And by soon, I mean this month. Early voting is already starting for primaries. Voters everywhere are trashing the GOP. Virginia has been flipped to the GOP in a way that the Republicans cannot recover from for a generation. Every single day that goes by makes the extinction of the Republican Party that much more inevitable.
Political parties do not last forever. The GOP is not likely to survive Trump, and if it does, it'll be a minority party the way it was after 1932, standing for. . . well pretty much nothing but a sort of milk toast conservatism. If it boots Trump now, it stands a chance of reforming itself sufficiently before November that the looming disaster can just be a bad one, rather than a catastrophic one.
Of course, booting the demented would be dictator requires courage, something most of them lack. Most of them fear MAGA. But a breach with MAGA, which has nowhere else to go. It took Soviet tanks in Berlin to free German conservatives from the Nazis. The Republicans will be freed from MAGA, but at what cost?
If nothing is done, by January 2027, it'll be way too late. Like Red Army policemen directing the traffic in Berlin, the Democratic Party will be directing the social and legislative traffic of the country. That might be what's going to happen definitively anyway. I do not see the Republicans being able to salvage their immediate electoral fortunes. The absolute stench of Donald Trump and his betrayal of democracy sticks to them too much. But at a bare minimum, the GOP can avoid the discredit of the metaphorical fighting in the streets of Berlin, which will occur in November through January as Trump and his fanatic backers maintain they didn't loose and they aren't going to recognize the results. That will occur.
And if that' occurs, a pox on the GOP in general . That's what most Americans will think as well.
And perhaps its necessary. The party of Lincoln sold its soul and became the party of Orange Mussolini. An entity like that needs to be purged to its core, with the Lees, Tubervilles, Millers and all relegated to the political dustbin and recalled in our memories the same way that Trump will be, an embarrassing disaster.
Last edition:
April 13, 2026.
The number of Catholics in the world: Over 1,422,000,000, with the number growing.
The number of Catholics in the United States: Between 50,000,000 and 70,000,000, with the number growing.
The number of Orthodox in the world 260,000,000
The number of Orthodox Christians in the United States: 2,600,000.
The number of Protestants in the world: 600,000,000 to 1,000,000,000.
The number of Protestants in the United States 140,000,000 to 150,000,000, of which 10 to 15% are mainline protestants, and of which the largest denomination is the American Baptist Conference, which includes 13,000,000 to 15,000,000 members.
The Catholic Church, all rites (the Roman Rite is the largest by far) is the largest single church in the world and the largest single church in the United States, in spite of the United States being a protestant nation.
The second largest church in the world are the Orthodox, meaning that the Apostolic Churches, those which go all the way back to the Apostles, far exceed the number of Protestants.
While all churches have their problems, the Catholic church is growing everywhere. Protestant churches are dying.
And then we get this:
But some have. I know plenty.
Some are just shallow political thinkers, others not, and all are conservative. I'm conservative, but I've never supported Trump.
These people are opposed to abortion (so am I), and were horrified by transgenderism (so am I). That frankly is just about it. Some buy in to the other hardcore aspects of the far right as well, being opposed to immigration, for instance, which actually requires a more nuanced thought process than they are giving it. And the Democrats made it impossible for Catholics to really support them, becoming the party of death and weirdness.
None of which meant that anyone had to support a dim, narcissistic, serial polygamist.
For those of you who supported Trump on social issues, there were and are other parties. And how much do we know about Trump and any of the positions he supposedly supports. He own track record on moral issues is poor at least in so far as his treatment of women is concerned. And we're talking about adult women. This administration outright opposition to releasing the Epstein files certainly raises questions about it being willing to support child rapists, and there's enough smoke around Trump to at least raise questions about how far in the shallow end of the pool he may have been willing to go, although nothing's been proven. His family's financial dealings this term certainly raise questions of a moral nature. His launching of an illegal war and threatening mass civilian deaths is criminal.
We could go on. He's a horrible, demented, man. Christians who are supporting him need to rethink it immediately.
Catholics supporting him have helped bring us to this.
From here on out there's no excuse for a free pass by members of the Apostolic Faiths. None. And that includes the two members in the administration, Marco Rubio and J. D. Vance. Supporting Trump is supporting this mockery of the Faith and of all Christianity.
But for the voters too. In the midterms there are already candidates who note they are "endorsed by Donald Trump". One Catholic candidate here in the state hardcore embraces Trump and another runs, on all of her signs, "Endorsed by Donald Trump".
That needs to end right now.
The 25th Amendment needs to be applied, now. Catholics cozying up to Trump need to stop, now.
Cont:
Q: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus?
Trump: I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor. And had to do with red cross as a red cross worker
Donald Trump.
If that's what he's thought, it's because he's demented.
That being what he thought is rather difficult to believe. What's more believable is that he's worried American Catholics are now waking up, if they were not already awake, to what a terrible person he is.
April 16, 2026
We'll probably close this one out and start a new one, but this story is still playing out.
Something that should be really obvious, but MAGA just won't accept, is that Donald Trump is insane. Of course, accepting that a leader who they loved is nuts would mean that some of what they're supporting is nuts. Nobody wants to acknowledge that, but it needs to occur now.
We're in really dangerous territory.
Trump Rage at Pope Darkens as Ex-Allies Warn of Worsening Mental State
As Trump’s own ex-supporters start sounding the alarm about his mental state, a former top Trump official explains why the president’s madness is now badly messing with ordinary Americans’ everyday lives.
That's from The New Republic, which those with the real Trump Derangement Syndrome, the one that keeps a supporter from acknowledging that he's gone insane no matter what he does, will disregard. But these warnings aren't in isolation by any means.
Here's one from the National Catholic Reporter:
Trump is detached from reality. The 25th Amendment exists for this moment
For the reporter to call for the 25th Amendment to be invoked is pretty extraordinary, but again those with the real TDS will just say, well, that's because he insulted the Pope. Indeed, American Catholics in the political far right are already busy dissing Pope Leo XIV as some sort of flaming left winger, which is patently absurd.
Well, here's one from Jewish bonafide somewhat left winger Robert Reich:
He is Seriously, Frighteningly, Utterly, and Completely Losing His Mind
We are in great danger
The man is going insane. We're in some sort of a race now to see if his cabinet can screw up its courage or finally do something so patently nuts that it can't be denied. What that is, at this point, is almost too horrific to imagine.
What seems clear, for those who bother to observe, is that the U.S. is going to invade Cuba, unless the military puts a stop to it. Nobody in the Administration seems ready to stop it. We're basically starving the country to death, for no reason, right now, other than its a vengeful project supported by Cuban Americans. The chances that we revive Trump's lust for Greenland at some point, and committing forces to satiate it aren't beyond possibility. Maybe one of those two acts causes somebody to say "no".
Or maybe it'll be the war against Iran. We seem to have wondered into a war that has no way out and the stress it's causing Trump is rapidly wiping out what mental faculties he had left. The thought that Iran may win, and it may, is terrifying for him. It's also destroying the political chances of J. D. Vance, which Vance likely knows, and which gives Vance, who opposed the war, the chance to be Brutus to Trump's Caesar. Still, Trump launching an act of absolute barbarity to try to force Iran to surrender, which would fail, isn't beyond possibility either.
Or maybe it'll be something benign. He says something he can't retract about something abhorrent, or walks out in the paved rose garden sans clothes, or forgets who the first lady is.
Or maybe we wake up one day having deployed nuclear weapons with MAGA wondering, for the most part, how we got there, and with some supporting it as they must or must wakeup.
We're in dangerous territory.
I'd predicted when we started this series that Trump's second term would last 18 months, from January 2025 to June 2026. We're rolling right up on that. What is clear at this point is that in November the Democratic Party is going to resume control of the House and the Senate. At that point Trump's ability to reign like a dictator will end. Knowing that, if he is still in office, he'll do everything possible to disrupt the 2026 election and steal it.. People like Chuck Gray will help him in that attempt, and are already helping him. It probably won't work. If he goes too far, it'll result in mass violence.
The fact that he'll try it, and that it will become increasingly obvious that he's doing to try it as we move towards November, will mean that there will be a fair chance that if Trump is still in office after November, he'll face impeachment and be removed in 2027. Because of that, there's also an increased chance that if my original timeline was off, the 25th Amendment will be invoked then. An impeachment of Trump, at this point might very well be followed by an impeachment of Vance, who will not want to face that.
Hitler didn't resign rather than take Germany into defeat. Comparing Trump to Hitler is something even his opponents hate to have done, but he has a very similar mindset in certain ways. Hitler was democratically elected and co opted the state as well, and believed manically in himself. Trump is like that. Stress and drugs eroded Hitler's mind, as well as the burden of evil. Trump came into office in his first time an obviously mentally unstable person and it's grown worse. He's never been a person who is personally admirable.
The longer this goes on, the worse it will become.
April 21, 2026
Last edition:
April 9, 2026
He's eating his own.
Make no mistake, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelley, Candace Owens and Alex Jones deserve no sympathy. But their Trump's little lap dogs. The fact that he's attacking his own is profound. Trump has very few friends, and he's going after them. There are fewer and fewer people in the bunker.
We might actually be on the very cusp of the 25th Amendment being applied.
Last edition:
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Why these people are in this position is another matter. Some got there as they believe in Trump. Others were placed their by forces supporting Trump, knowing that he was too lazy to actually do the work to pick competent people. The Heritage Society, for example, saw Trump as a hollow vessel they could pour their radicalization through.
Trump's cabinet, therefore, is much like Hitler's. Where was Goebbels going to go? And Trump's true followers are much like members of the German SS, who fought to the bitter end. They didn't see a future, literally, in a post war Germany where they figured they'd be killed, if not by the Allies, then by the Germans. MAGA still shows up like the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne, the French SS unit that went down fighting in Berlin. They thought the alternative to that was a bullet in the back of the head. Real Trump loyalist show up as they fear that if Trump fails, or more likely when he does, they're era is over. And like the SS in Berlin, they fanatically hope that Der Fuehrer will pull off a miracle, which he won't, or that they'll be saved by some mysterious outside force at the last hour.
That won't happen either.
Many people have wondered how the Germans were so cowed by a leader who was sending them into a disaster. It can't be said that Americans are. Only 30% of Americans actually support Trump. Probably an equal if not larger number outright hate him at this point. If the election was held today the Republicans would loose both houses, and in November when the election is held, they will.
But here's the dangerous thing. Between now and November the leadership of the US is in the bunker and Der Fuehrer is insane.
I've long held that Trump would be removed in 2026 by the 25th Amendment. I hadn't considered, however, the points Richardson raises. He still might be but as she notes if Trump goes down, they all go down with him. They're a bunch of cowardly sycophants and they do not appear to be willing to save their country any more than Goebbels was.
Still, even in Hitler's cabinet not everyone was unquestionably loyal towards the end. Himmler actually serious considered trying to cut a separate deal with the Allies and effectively remove Hitler via a coup. There was even one SS member in the July 20 plot. It remains possible, but only barely so, that the cabinet will vote to save itself.
We know that at least a few people in the cabinet likely are willing to do that. J. D. Vance is one. Marco Rubio another. Both of them hope to be President and neither benefits from going down with Trump. I've long thought they were playing out this string until they could act. But two men alone won't get it done. There's likely a few more, but only few. None of the ass kissers in cabinet meetings are amongst them.
Which brings us to this. Over the next few months things are going to be extremely bad. Trump's mental state is declining so rapidly it's difficult to gauge. He's going to pull out of the war he joined with Israel which will be a major defeat he can't disavow. The economy will not rapidly recover and he can't blame that on Biden. He's lost the Hispanic vote and he won't be able to get it back. The Arab American vote which dimly voted for him is lost as well. The people who are left in his cabinets who openly support him increasingly look like outright kooks. The financial flood to his family is not being ignored and is very likely to result in post Trump criminal prosecutions, maybe of Trump himself.
And yesterday, a judge made clear that his obscene bordello on the Potomac addiction to the White House will never happen.
He's a desperate, and demented, man.
Trump, from now to November, will try to steal the November election. He's already trying. And he'll do every odd thing imaginable or never imagined to try to deflect attention form his failure. There will be no limit to what he will try. Invasions of Cuba and Greenland are possible, with Cuba almost a certainty. Deals with Russia, or China, or whomever. Attempts to cancel the election, or seize the polls are probable. Ignoring the courts a near certainty.
The 25th Amendment should save us from this but might not. Impeachment of Trump should occur, but will not, unless there's a massive post November shift in Congress.
Instead, expect things to get worse and worse. And expect the few members of the administration who aren't willing to go down in the bunker to start resigning. Vance can't, Trump being removed or dying in office is his only hope of being President. Rubio can, and he will, likely before November.
April 6, 2026
Trump's mental status is collapsing.
This post has renewed public demands for invocation of the 25th Amendment, and it should. Trump is insane. The reference to God in Arabic is insulting to Muslims, the vast majority of whom have nothing to do with Iran or its leadership.
We're committing war crimes under the leadership of a madman.
I'll note I'm not the only one whose concerned.
I'd originally posted that yesterday as a standalone, which I've taken down as I've posted it here. But what I'll note is that Klungman doesn't say what a lot of us are thinking. Trump is, in my view, edging up on using an atomic bomb.
In normal times, which these are not, there'd be sufficient people around him to probably put a halt to that. Now there aren't. The cabinet appears to be nearly complete flunkies. We'll know this is true if Trump remains in power this week. The military is being stripped of those who oppose rationality.
We not only live in dangerous times, we live in times in which the most powerful nation on earth is governed by a madman.
At this point anybody running in the fall with an "Endorsed by President Trump" (this means you, Delgenfelder) is absolutely unqualified for office.
By the way, the man whom Evangelicals and some others routinely praise as a great Christian spent the day riding around in Washington DC and visiting one of his golf courses. No attendance at church.
cont:
Today is a very special day. It's a day where we celebrate Jesus. It's a day where we celebrate religion. It's an honor to be the president. Our country is doing so well. We've broken every record in the stock market. We've broken every record in our military. And what about the rescue?
Donald Trump in an Easter speech. He's insane.
cont:
If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil, because it's there for the taking…Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I'd take the oil. I'd keep the oil. I would make plenty of money.
Trump. What a morally bankrupt human being.
cont:
I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela. So after I'm finished with this I can got to Venezuela. I will quickly learn Spanish. It won't take long. I'm good at language. I will go to Venezuela. I'm going to run for president.
Trump again.
There are a pile of these from today. Trump is bat shit crazy. Supporting him at this point is criminal, and not invoking the 25th Amendment is as well. He's completely, utterly, insane.
April 7, 2026
Today we have the news that the insane Donald Trump, in addition to declaring his intention to run for the Presidency of Venezuela (don't discount that with any of the numerous excuses his apologist give for his bat shit crazy statements, we should assume he means it), is defending his statement about keeping Iranian oil on the basis that he's "a businessman" and "to the victors, go the spoils".
Today we're promised a full slate of war crimes.
We offer here a bit of a note.
Often people with a psychotic criminal drive they cannot control hope for intervention. Trump is so out of control right now there's more than a little reason to believe that he's hoping for the same. He has no way out, he's lived a life of utter depravity. The 25th Amendment and hope supervision get him out of the mess he's created, and frankly away from a host of people he probably doesn't like.
Cont:
Even this threat is immoral.
If carried out, it's murder.
Only the immoral will support a thing like this. Donald Trump is a deranged monster.
April 9, 2026
Having learned that being a demented madman didn't impress Iran, he's back at it again with Greenland.
Last edition:
The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified. There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples. I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.
After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem, and his first words were ‘Peace be with you.’ As the Holy Father, in his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter reflected, the peace that ‘Jesus gives us is not a peace that merely silences the weapons, but one that touches and transforms the heart of each of us! Let us make heard the cry for peace that springs from our hearts!’
Pope Leo has invited everyone to join him in a prayer vigil for peace on Saturday, April 11. I make a special plea to my brother bishops, the priests, the laity, and all people yearning for true peace to join the Holy Father’s Vigil for Peace, whether virtually, or in parishes, chapels, or before the Lord present in the quiet of their hearts to join with our Holy Father as we pray for peace in our world.
Let us entrust to the Lord ‘all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only he can give. Let us entrust ourselves to him and open our hearts to him! He is the only one who makes all things new (cf. Rev 21:5).
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Last edition:
April 1, 2026
The British are hosting talks on opening the Straits of Hormuz.
The intellectual toddler King Donny is threatening to take the US out of NATO, which he cannot legally do.
Things are going to get very bad.
The illegitimate demented octogenarian would be king will address the nation tonight.
April 2, 2026
King Donald, his popularity sinking like a rock and facing the inevitability that Congress is not going to vote to fund an additional $200B for his losing vanity project war against Iran, came on to television last night to try to explain and get support for it.
I didn't watch it. I've been to nursing homes and, while I'm ashamed to say it, they make me uncomfortable.
It was the usual pile of shit. The war will be over soon, we're going to bomb Iran into submission, they've been at war with us for 47 years, other people should do the hard job of fixing the Straits of Hormuz that we broke.
This is insane.
April 4, 2026
One crewman was recovered, another is alive but on the ground in Iran. An A-10 was shot down.
And, like the claims made by Herman Goering at the time of the Battle of Britain, Trump's claim of air invulnerability prove to be stupid.
No surprise there, however.
More leaked information reveals that J. D. Vance, to his credit, was adamantly opposed to the war.
The new budget being sought by the Administration seeks $1.5T for the Defense. This has reached the absolutely insane level. It's probably dead in the water, and should be, but frankly it's time to take the military way down in size and vest most of its resources of all types in the reserves.
April 6, 2026
Eine Tirade aus dem Bunker.
Oh don't worry, nothing to see here. Donny is completely well and in command of his faculties.
That went out on Easter, by the way.
On the same day Americans woke up to the news that a pilot on the run was rescued, which is or should be a relief to everyone.
Because it is, or should be, a relief to everyone, nobody is supposed to look at the overall story here. A F-15E was shot down by a country we told can't shoot anything down. An immediate rescue mission resulted in an Army Blackhawk being shot down and an A-10 being shot down, the latter being piloted to Kuwait airspace before the pilot ejected. The Special Forces unit that rescued the pilot used two C-130s of a special type and actually had them land, and had to destroy them. We're told the ground they landed on was too soft to allow for them to be taken off, but frankly I have my doubts about that.
Overall, it's amazing that this didn't result in an additional casualties. It's a tribute to the post Jimmy Carter era military we're busy destroying right now that they could pull this off, but it was a close run thing. We can't guarantee that will keep occuring.
And we have no way out, as we never had any concept of what we were doing in the first place.
While Donald, who is insane, was ranting about killing people, committing war crimes, riding around Washington D.C. and visiting a Golf Course, the Pope delivered his Easter address.
Brothers and sisters,
Christ is risen! Happy Easter!
For centuries, the Church has joyfully sung of the event that is the origin and foundation of her faith: “Yes, Christ my hope is arisen / Christ indeed from death is risen / Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning” (Easter Sequence).
Easter is the victory of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred. It is a victory that came at a very high price: Christ, the Son of the living God (cf. Mt 16:16), had to die — and die on a cross — after suffering an unjust condemnation, being mocked and tortured, and shedding all his blood. As the true immolated Lamb, he took upon himself the sin of the world (cf. Jn 1:29; 1 Pet 1:18–19) and thus freed us all — and with us, all creation — from the dominion of evil.
But how was Jesus able to be victorious? What is the strength with which he defeated once and for all the ancient adversary, the prince of this world (cf. Jn 12:31)? What is the power with which he rose from the dead, not returning to his former life, but entering into eternal life and thus opening in his own flesh the passage from this world to the Father?
This strength, this power, is God himself for he is Love who creates and generates, Love who is faithful to the end and Love who forgives and redeems.
Christ, our “victorious King,” fought and won his battle through trusting abandonment to the Father’s will, to his plan of salvation (cf. Mt 26:42). Thus he walked the path of dialogue to the very end, not in words but in deeds: to find us who were lost, he became flesh; to free us who were slaves, he became a slave; to give life to us mortals, he allowed himself to be killed on the cross.
The power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent. It is like that of a grain of wheat which, having rotted in the earth, grows, breaks through the clods, sprouts, and becomes a golden ear of wheat. It is even more like that of a human heart which, wounded by an offense, rejects the instinct for revenge and, filled with compassion, prays for the one who has committed the offense.
Brothers and sisters, this is the true strength that brings peace to humanity, because it fosters respectful relationships at every level: among individuals, families, social groups, and nations. It does not seek private interests, but the common good; it does not seek to impose its own plan, but to help design and carry out a plan together with others.
Yes, Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of a new humanity; it is the entrance into the true promised land, where justice, freedom, and peace reign, where all recognize one another as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father who is Love, Life, and Light.
Brothers and sisters, through his resurrection, the Lord confronts us even more powerfully with the dramatic reality of our freedom. Before the empty tomb, we can be filled with hope and wonder, like the disciples, or with fear like the guards and the Pharisees, forced to resort to lies and subterfuge rather than acknowledge that the one who had been condemned is truly risen (cf. Mt 28:11–15)!
In the light of Easter, let us allow ourselves to be amazed by Christ! Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!
We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel. There is an ever-increasing “globalization of indifference,” to borrow an expression dear to Pope Francis, who one year ago from this loggia addressed his final words to the world, reminding us: “What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world!”
The cross of Christ always reminds us of the suffering and pain that surround death and the agony it entails. We are all afraid of death, and out of fear we turn away, preferring not to look. We cannot continue to be indifferent! And we cannot resign ourselves to evil! Saint Augustine teaches: “If you fear death, love the resurrection!”. Let us too love the resurrection, which reminds us that evil is not the last word, because it has been defeated by the Risen One.
He passed through death to give us life and peace: “I leave you peace; I give you my peace. Not as the world gives it, I give it to you” (Jn 14:27). The peace that Jesus gives us is not merely the silence of weapons, but the peace that touches and transforms the heart of each one of us! Let us allow ourselves to be transformed by the peace of Christ! Let us make heard the cry for peace that springs from our hearts! For this reason, I invite everyone to join me in a prayer vigil for peace that we will celebrate here in Saint Peter’s Basilica next Saturday, April 11.
On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil. To the Lord we entrust all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only he can give. Let us entrust ourselves to him and open our hearts to him! He is the only one who makes all things new
Happy Easter!
cont:
And more war news since we first posted.
Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey proposed a 45 day ceasefire which was hopefully reported on by the news. Fighting would stop for 45 days and the Straits of Hormuz reopen. Basically, what they cleverly were proposing was a 45 day break in the fighting as once it stops, it's not going to restart. That would give the US enough time to declare victory and get out, like in Vietnam.
Iran said no. It doesn't, it says, want to give time for the US to rearm.
That's amazing as they likely know that if the fighting stops the US will leave. Their thinking isn't clear, but they clearly don't believe they're losing.
Something that's been missed in reporting is that Iran is selling and shipping more oil now than before the war. About 1/3d more. And of course, they're getting more cash for the oil they are selling.
They are reportedly also repairing missile bunkers rapidly.
The only way the U.S. can actually win this war is through a massive ground invasion. Congress is not going to approve that.
Trump's war crime deadline expires tomorrow.
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