Today in Insurrectionist news

Some idiot decided to attack the Cincinnati field office of the FBI with an AR-15 and a nail gun. So much for my theory that MAGA egalitarians do not act alone. He has now joined Ashli Babbitt among the heroes of MAGA.

So, does this mean that there just may be legions of MAGA foot soldiers around the nation waiting to defend the honor of Donald Trump?

No. He was one of the January 6th crew. On that day, no one was held back. Most of the rioters were just sympathizers. The ones who are dangerous are being rounded up. I suspect that today's Zero thought they were coming for him next, so he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

It turns out that FBI agents are better shots than most anyone in MAGA. Oops. He was either doing suicide by cop or had delusions of grandeur. Either way, he is an example for anyone stupid enough to shoot at federal officers. Lucky for him, God is kind hearted toward children and fools.

Video

MAGA Egalitarians

Say what, Michael?!!

Yes, for the most part the followers of Donald Trump are egalitarian in terms of political culture. The other term for them, which Mary Douglass first used in Purity and Danger (the foundational work of grid-group theory) is Sectarian.

Within the sect, there is great freedom and equality. Sectarians do not govern within the group so much as expel those who do not conform to their message. The Reign of Terror in France to the Killing Fields in Cambodia were both egalitarian/sectarian events. Once an enemy is identified, all manner of violence is justified. The Holocaust? That too. The Jews were the enemy other, so said the leader, so they could be killed without inspiring opposition.

Hitler was not an egalitarian himself. Egalitarian leaders impose order because the followers do not. The leaders are authoritarians, like Trump. I find commonality among  those at the top of any of the four Ways of Life defined by Professor Douglass' grid/group typology. Authoritarians have a lot in common with Libertarian Capitalists, Hierarchs (both military and religious) and true Egalitarians (Civil Rights movements who speak a powerful vision to move the movement).

I wrote about MAGA eglitarianism as a cult a year ago at http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2021/06/maga-egalitarianismthe-cult-of-q.html, after the insurrection at http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-november-4th-i-explained-economic.html and after the election at http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2020/11/compassion-for-trump-voters.html

In what way are Trump supporters egalitarian? 

They resort to violence. They threaten outsiders, although they may not carry those threats out. Given the number of anonymous threats, how many were actually followed up? I have not heard of any. Violence happens when the gang gets together. January 6th was a prime example of egalitarian  gang violence. It is transitory, however. Those who have been caught have left the group and are amazed at what they did on that day. They are not lying about their regrets.

Egalitarians do not like rules. This is why they remain unvaccinated. Lucky for them, Omicron provides herd immunity so that they won't die. However, they were very suspicious of the medical establishment and their call for obedience in wearing masks and distancing. Doctors are "them". They make a lot of money - more than anyone truly in MAGA makes. Egalitarians cannot stand economic inequality when they are the ones who are not considered equals. 

I wrote about MAGA attitudes during the pandemic at  http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-cultural-theory-of-covid-19.html  Culture also affected how the medical establishment saw itself as a moral venture - or a religious experience. See  https://xianleft.blogspot.com/2020/05/pandemics-as-religious-experience.html

MAGA members don't trust the drug companies either. It is not the MAGA membership, however, who resisted Medicare drug negotiations - that was the libertarians in PhARMA. The only reason MAGA did not rise up in support is that Biden is among the other, even though he has great street cred as an egalitarian.

What cost Biden his street cred? Abortion - as if you could not guess. MAGA members consider the unborn as "in" as a persecuted group. There are enough female conservatives for MAGA men to get away with their belief.  Both men and women in the pro-life movement see sexual self-denial as virtue and believe that those who do not are the enemy other. This plays into the hands of libertarian (authoritarian) capitalists who fund the movement.

Most women would not admit to having an abortion or never would do so. If their child needed one, well that is another matter. They cannot see their children as evil. It is a safe belief, or was when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Now that it is not, expect fractures in the pro-life movement.

Individualists, such as your's truly, point out that the way out of having abortions is to provide more money to families in terms of minimum wage and child tax credit benefits. 

So far, MAGA egalitarians have not jumped on board to Build Back Better. Most of them worked in authoritarian capitalist systems where, by working and behaving themselves, they earned enough money to get by. Those who had egalitarian unions got by even better - as well as veterans who had adequate funding in that most hierarchical system on the planet. In the military, your pay goes up in rank and that feeds your family, although there are some very egalitarian benefits for soldiers and veterans as well - all earned.

For MAGA, the idea of giving money to people who did not join them in the workforce is a non-starter. Those people are among "the other," especially if there are demographic differences - from race to immigration status. The Libertarian Capitalist Elites take advantage of this, which is a benefit to them.

The error Obama and Biden have made is to aim at these elites in paying for healthcare and the expansion of the child tax credit. Members of the Senate who believe that work is freedom are paid good money to protect their donor base. Senators are also correct in their surmise that if you solely tax the wealthy to find equality, the wealthy will hide their money. 

Making the wealthy pay, rather than using broad based tax reform, makes the child tax credit and minimum wage look like welfare. Enact a broad based tax to fund child tax credits for all income levels and you may get takers. 

MAGA franchise employees and employers see themselves as victims if wages and benefits go up.  Any minimum wage action that does not include reforming the entire franchise system is doomed to fail. Employer distributions of a higher child tax credit should include a lower tax if they have more children than average supported by firm workers.

There are plenty of workplace reforms needed. Farmers who are outside the cooperative system who are locked into exploitative contracts with Food, Inc. for seeds or factory farming have, quite unintentionally, joined the ranks of authoritarian followership. 

Most gig workers are paid to obey, although many don't see it that way. The Libertarian Capitalist Class is more than happy to let them think they are working as free people, rather than following orders. That is all propaganda. No one likes to think of themselves as a wage slave. That this has become a common theme in most workplaces is why MAGA exists. 

The working class is humiliated and underpaid on a daily basis. Donald Trump offered a way out - a road to the same success he had. Of course, if people really knew about his finances, they would see him as both a spoiled rich child and truly one of their number (aka, poor). The whole bloom comes off the rose once their savior is dethroned.

That still won't be enough, however. The thing Trump fears the most, indeed, it is why he and his cronies staged an Insurrection, is that any honest investigation will show that Trump's softness on Putin was not due to foreign policy but to bribery. 

Donald Trump being tried as a KGB asset (the GRU label is only branding) will turn his followers against him. Given the certainty that being loyal to Trump is to be soft on Putin will end MAGA forever. Seeing that Roger Stone, the figure behind the radical right movement since Nixon, is a driving force in the Russia affair, will lead that network at the top of MAGA to disappear. Permanently.

This is why we not only have to keep Trump out of the White House - we must link him (and his cronies) to Putin's war on Ukraine. Nothing else breaks the MAGA spell. See the following blogpost and related videos for more on how the Pro-Life movement have become MAGA's useful idiots.:

http://xianleft.blogspot.com/2022/03/donny-and-vlad.html 

https://youtu.be/UP63WEdMK0w

https://youtu.be/Zyjho9mTMZs

https://youtu.be/6_Napa1V5Mw

YOUTUBE VIDEO

Trump's New York State Deposition

Today, Trump took the Fifth. One of the reasons he cited was the FBI raid. There is one way he can prove that the raid had to do with the NYS case: provide A/G James with a copy of the inventory of what was seized. Of course, she may already know what was seized and be in receipt of copies of anything having to do with her case.

Because this is a civil case, Trump need not be present for the trial. If he is, expect proceedings to be televised, with the insanity of Donald Trump displayed for all to see (again). It is his best chance to avoid federal criminal trials because any NY trial will prove incompetence to assist in his own defense.

I expect that both the FBI raid and the deposition are signs that each case is almost done, with all paperwork ready to go. The only question is whether Trump will take any deal offered.

What will his kids tell him to do? They are likely co-defendants in both matters, so how they are treated will matter.

If Trump takes a deal with NYS, there will be a feeding frenzy for any property surrendered, unless it has already been divided between governments, victims and creditors. This could move very quickly.

The federal criminal case could happen very fast. Trump held it together today. This means that, when asked to allocate to his crimes. (aside from the occasional outburst), he may get through it. Can the deal be done without his presence? What say you, network legal analysts. Alternately, the effort to hold it together may kill him. It would be the final act of narcissism to drop dead in the hearing as a MAGA martyr.

I expect house arrest, either at his Bedminster home or Walter Reed - Bethesda. Regardless, he will be at the mercy of court provided mental health professionals, although fixing his psyche is probably a lost cause.

The media would love to see a long, drawn out trial. Too bad for them. Instead, his star will be removed from their sky. 

As a consolation, there will be other trials and Ethics Committee actions to cover. We will see who pleads out first and whether there are any trials at all. Josh Hawley may just be stupid enough to go to Court. Maybe Stone and Bannon too. Idiots.

What's next for Jan 6?

Trump

Trump lawyers in talks with DOJ

FBI raids - get documents on personal dealings with Russia and on insurrection? Show of force?

Trump's fate: House arrest, mental healthcare

Misc rioters trials and investigations

Flippers

Statute of limitations

Serious jeopardy

Willard hotel crew warriors

Team Crazy

Press contacts

Links to Russia/Ukraine (intercepts?)

What was Putin watching Jan 6? Phone call?

R Congressmen/Senators - ethics & 14th & espionage

Media role in Trump thinking he had presidential immunity

Video: https://youtu.be/k9Dwz07fxhw

Existentialist morality

On Wednesday, Michael Sean Winters wrote Pope Francis is right. The Catholic Church can't go backwards. 

I posted with the comment that  the cynical proof of the existence of God is that people find grace and joy in the Church regardless of the errors of its bishops and theologians; especially those who wish to preserve tradition and their traditional prerogative. Reform is not having any more success in ruining the Church than the bishops and cardinals have had in the prior 1930 years since the first Pentecost (but not for lack of trying).

Modern habits of mind may even help bring the Church into the 21st Century (or at least the 19th), shedding the toxic asexual bias and related misogyny which has bothered it from St. Paul to St. Augustine to St. John Paul. The truth is that, for the most part, the Church has reformed itself when it had no other choice. It can be trusted to do so in the future.

The Church has seen the Cross in a variety of ways. Seeing it transactionally caused much of the harm in both Catholicism and Protestantism. The Trinity is One. In Christ, They encountered human suffering in a way that we can now relate to God.

Such debates usually attract those with a grudge about how Francis is now dealing with the Extraordinary (Tridentine) Rite.

TLM is a symbol for the past rejection of all things rational in the life of the Church - the 1/3rd of the Council, led by Wojtila. We are, just now, getting away from that opposition.

In general, due to mobility, people no longer show up at Mass to be seen by their family members and neighbors. Such attendance was obligation, not worship. As Dennett calls it, it was the belief in the belief in God - not actual faith.

People prefer worship that is familiar. For instance, going to an Anglican Church, whose sacraments really are valid, is still off putting because the music is different. Truly, it's all about the tunes.

I got into a Twitter debate friday with anti-modernists. Such dialogues cause you to think at some point, rather than to simply repeat the same beliefs you have previously stated. Here is the gist from my end.

Modernism is a specific thing named by Pius X that has nothing to do with St. John's Council, St. John Paul's attempt at counter-revolution and Francis finally bringing it to life.

Technically, what is called Modernism was a heresy that did not exist from the fevered mind of Pius X and his Curia. They essentially described Protestantism, not a movement in a Church at any time. Modernization, the seeing of the world as it is, is no heresy.

The reaction to it was a vain exercise in scholasticism and nostalgia in reaction to Darwin, biblical and moral scholarship by other than clergy and to democracy and the existence of individual rights in general. It failed, as it had to, because it was false.

God as concept is theodicy.  It develops as we do. Every doctrine is recreated as society evolves. That is simply clear eyed epistemology. Our minds think using language, which changes from one generation to the next. Even with Latin, meanings of what is translated evolve. 

This is not gnosticism, which was a label, not a movement (like modernism). Gnostics did not self identify as such. True belief is about group dynamics. It is not important. 

Sociology includes the study of religion, the humans who believe. Theology is about God. You confuse the two at your own peril. The goats at the last judgement are the true believers.

You are collapsing faith in God with loyalty to the hierarchy. If you wish to be among the goats on the last day, that is your privilege. That version of God is needy. God is not codependent. His commandment was love and not judging. You are digging a deeper hole.

Salvation as transactional is what diminishes God. Jesus called for perfect love, which is of the Father. Nothing secret (gnostic) about that.

They also stated that "I think therefore I am seems to be your Gospel." 

They are conflating epistemology with theology. Indeed, that little bit of Cartesian wisdom has been overturned by neuroscience. Our brains think first, then our consciousness notices. In this life, the mind, body and soul are one.

We know scientifically that we have a materialistic soul which starts at gastrulation and ends with the permanent end of brain function (when we start to rot). This bit is electrochemical. What is spiritual is beyond the realm of science. We cannot know, except by common faith, in the Resurrection that there is anything else. NDE's may provide hints, but they cannot be measured. Grace cannot be either. Both, however, can be reported.

My interlocutor stated that progressive Catholics are simply Protestants.

They asked, why don't I just leave? 

That would be Protestant. My baptism is as valid as yours or as anyone with holy orders.

Protestants are sectarian. They leave. Existentialism is interesting in a religious context. It requires authentic faith rather than obedience and certainty. It is the narrow door.

The people are the Church, not just the hierarchy. You are turning faith into an intellectual exercise rather than dependence on God. His eyes are on the sparrow, as the spiritual goes.

Ezekiel says it best. If my brother sins and I do not warn him, then I bear his guilt. - die (suspend disbelief on how this jibes with what I say on mortality). If I warn him (bishops) then they bear the consequences of their errors. Protestants walk out. I am not going. Why would I give them the satisfaction? I will not accept what amounts to ecclesiastical bullying.

They equated what I was saying with existentialism, which is what they thought Pius meant as Modernism.

Pius needed to worry about existentialism and its concept of inauthentic (and unquestioned) "bad faith." Simply obeying is the essence of bad faith.

What we do is more important than true belief. That is the whole point of the Gospel. Acting in love is the eternal message.

Dwell in the concept of God as perfectly humble rather than perfectly just and you just might be useful to those who must be seen as the anima Christi. The least the world despises. 

Religion and spirituality exist together, because Loyola and Assisi. Morality is made up for man's sake, not God's and free will concerns not just individual acts but in deciding what is right and wrong. Even in formalist systems, it is up to  individuals to accept teachings.

Morality does not exist to appease God. Neither does salvation. Nor deeds. Read 1 Cor 13. We encounter God by loving others, especially the unworthy. Compassion is good for its own sake. The extent to which the Church teaches that is a measure of its closeness to Christ.

BTW, this is not the easy way out. Morality is a social phenomenon. It includes the individual's belief on the morals of others. To base those expectations on love of others rather than simply labeling them as wrong is an impossible exercise without the awareness and assistance of God. Not for direction but the will to love. Relying on others to make those choices for us is the cowards way out. It takes no responsibility or love to rely on obedience. 

Considering that the clergy has an unconscious asexual bias - meaning their assumption that what is natural for them is natural for all is simply foolish. They need to become aware that they are the A in LGBTQIA. It can mean asexual, accepting or both/and. 

Each person is responsible for their moral expectations of others and the harm that may result if those expectations are not based in love. For example, every gay teen suicide is the responsibility of those who would condemn rather than empathize. Blaming God for such a lack of empathy is moral cowardice. It is cheap faith, which is as bad as cheap grace.

A major element of existentialism is authenticity, which requires responsibility for what one believes. Not doing so is called Bad Faith. The description is apt.

YouTube Videos:

 https://youtu.be/cyrCH5wbn1Y

 https://youtu.be/ItxUtGShjZc