January 6, 2025 and the power to ask the question

True power comes from within. No one can give it to you, to wit: the power to ask a question. To do something, anything, you have to first ask yourself if you have the power to do that thing. If you do not ask the question, you have no power to act. If you say or believe that you cannot ask the question, than you deliberately surrender your power.

Has anyone ever said that before? Let me know. If not, quote me.

The question is, are the people of the United States, through their elected representatives, satisfied with the process by which the Republican Party chose the President Elect? 

Remember, the founders feared factions. It is why (aside from slavery - which by the way they thought would end because the cotton gin did not make it profitable) they created the Electoral College and the Senate. Political parties are oligarchic. They always represent the propertied people within their ranks. Constitutional systems are a check on that power.

If the Democrats can convince enough Republicans in each house that they can, in fact, ask the question as to whether the President-Elect's ability to serve under the 14th Amendment is open, then those new majorities have the power under the 20th Amendment to force the question into the open.

Invoking the 14th and 20th Amendments is a political question. Congress does not need Trump to have been convicted of the actual crime in court. All it needs is to temerity to ask. After asking, they can create a process to see - perhaps by a joint ethics panel. After consideration, they can then, by a two-third's majority, decide that the process that has transpired until now should be trusted, giving him permission to hold office - which, if given, ends all question of his legitimacy to serve.

Those in Congress (or in the media) who think this question cannot be raised have, in fact, answered that question - i.e., that they are fine with how things turned out. 

The logic of the question also dictates why capitalism is still with us when there are alternatives. The workers must believe they have the inherent right to ask the question of whether they are fine with the status quo. Maybe they would simply like the company to offer direct housing or mortgage finance, which by the way, they do with employee sponsored credit unions and similarly by having employee child care and medical personnel - or even hospitals. Indeed, the U.S. military is the ultimate socialistic organization. The hierarchy may coordinate decisions, but the members make sure that they control commissaries, credit unions, hospitals and the like. Workers can ask for the same level of service, and vote with their feet if other companies do and their company does not. That is how the free market works.

The key is to empower themselves with the right to ask the question as to whether they have the power to ask. The answer is always yes.

Keep SMU in the playoffs

Leaving Alabama out is easy. If you need an additional SEC body in the playoffs (don't touch Tennessee, they beat Bama), take a B1G team out. Ohio State lost to Michigan and got ugly at the end. Punish them. Or take out Indiana.

Why Trump won (and Harris lost) - the real math.

Yes, there was racism and misogyny and yes the Democrats need to talk about the working class more. (When did they not do so? Just asking). The reason is that moderate Catholic men in swing districts could not sign up for being the voting bloc that has Harris sign a bill to restore Roe v Wade (which they think of as abortion on demand). The Midwestern bishops say that is aiding abortion. It is not. If you tell an individual to get one, or pay for it, or do it, canon law says you are excommunicated. This does not apply to what the law should be. Catholic bishops tell pro-choice politicians to not take communion because they believe they are entitled to obedience by being the one voice on this issue. That the issue is abortion is an afterthought.

BTW, I don’t believe that mortal sin is a thing, but don’t tell that to the voters.

Barack barely mentioned abortion. I made sure by calling Alice Germond in 2008 during the convention (who had been my boss at NARAL) - hopefully others did too - and it was not mentioned. Indeed, Obama said he did not like the idea of any form of late term abortion and wanted to talk with the pro-life movement about it.

They responded after the election with the lie that a Freedom of Choice Act was in the cards - which was a lie. Not so much now - and Kamala essentially promised to sign it this time rather than telling the truth - which was that both sides are promising a federal law and no one has the votes to pass it. Instead, moderate Catholic men (and women) saw themselves being excommunicated by voting for it. 

Democratic women (and progressive men) don’t need a promise from the party nominee to protect abortion, including signing a Freedom of Choice Act (which has as much chance of passing as a 15 week ban). The sweet spot is still fetal hospice and no intrusive measures to kill the child in the wound after the point where it looks human.

Democratic candidates should not use the economy as an election issue. They need to call for change and compromise to get change at every possible moment - especially when not in power. They need to get Trump to say he agrees that the minimum wage should go up and then organize a movement to do it among TRUMP voters. Do the right thing - don’t make it a campaign promise.

Spinoza, the Universe and Fundamentalists

If Spinoza and Bill W. are correct, with the God of Spinoza being the God of Einstein, then God is Pantheistic - meaning the Father is Being itself - which is what Moses is told at the Burning bush (I am who am). John, the Orthodox Counsels  and Aquinas make Jesus the Son the Word by which the Universe was made - or rather how we know existence. This also make the Son a daughter - as Wisdom or Sophia (or Alita). This terms of Physics, the Son is the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

Free will does not necessarily exist in Pantheism, at least as regards to what happens and the lack of blame for these things - that we design our life events with God before this incarnation and judge ourselves by how we make people feel. The knowledge of good and evil is really a human thing, not a divine thing. God is love, not judgement. We face both the Good and Evil we do to others in our life review. No indulgence or sacrament lets us off the hook for this process, although it is not torture because we do so in a Spirit filled way - with Her love to support us.

This brings up the topic of cheap grace. Maybe that is what was planned for the life course of those Fundamentalists, so we cannot blame them for who they are - it is ordained. Of course, they (and Catholic Traditionalists) are obsessed with sin, particularly the sins of others. Humankind cannot advance until we give up our obsession for the evil that others do. Until we get to that point, we are not housebroken enough to join a galactic society. Warp travel is not the yardstick, giving up Original Sin - the practice of hating others for their conduct - is how we are measured.

The Gospels

This is a riff off of James Tabor’s videos on the synoptic Gospels. He has previously stated that Mark was written with Paul, who took the narrative and applied what prophesy (from the Septuagint perspective) in Alexandria - where Mark was Patriarch. James may have controlled the Didache at first, which includes the Sayings of Jesus called Q. Or Matthew could have condensed Luke - which was Tabor’s hypothesis. Where would Luke have gotten the extra material - especially what was not in Q? Obviously, from Peter, James and John in Antioch. The Acts have a Petrine element and those three were with Jesus on Mt. Tabor - they may have taught these things, but their authority is personal experience. This puts Luke in Antioch, where the scriptures put Peter (not in Rome). 

Fixing Cultural Theory

Today is the last day of classes. This semester, I took sociology and focussed on modifications of Grid Group Theory as explained by Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky. They put drop outs in what is called the Fatalist way of life. In Sociology, these people are non-conforming individualists - which is also where we find the sales, CEO and small business class - but not the working class. Both Individualists and the Working Class (who want stuff, not Revolution or a place in the Management hierarchy or the obligation to sell stuff).

This is the topic I addressed in my class on Inquiry - which produces a dissertation grant proposal on MAGA as a Sectarian Way of Life - along with Egalitarians. Sectarianism is where they bump heads - or in sociological social psychology terms - battle with people of equal status. - the Democrats and Republicans. Wildavsky ignores MAGA because it did not exist in his lifetime. Now that the Tea Party and MAGA have become science deniers (evolution, the need for gun control, wearing masks and getting the jab - not to mention storming the capital, the only place to put them is the radical class, in an intuitional group acting based on feelings rather than thinking, authenticity rather than compliance, attitude rather than competence. Michael Thompson has already written the book on science denial. My task is to prove his point for our fellow cultural theorists - using the January 6th riot as the example to be researched.