Of Popes And Blind Eyes

There ain't no Jesus gonna come from the sky. Now that I found out I know I can cry.
- John Lennon


The arrival of Pope Francis to the United States this month has caused the country to go absolutely ape shit. The major television networks might as well rebrand their initials thusly: American Broadcasting Catholics, National Broadcasting Catholics, Catholic Broadcasting System, Catholic News Network and Fatima Over Xenophobia.

Throughout it's history, the United States of America has routinely turned the blind eye, even if it means strained neck muscles. A classic example of turning the blind eye is the amazing number of our very own saintly Presidents who owned slaves! A history class blind eye. Yet, the Pope's visit may expose this blind eye as the festering puss hole it really is.

Leading the blind eye brigade (with more and more frequency as this century of horror continues) are people who otherwise identify themselves as progressives and/or free thinkers. Did the Catholic Church suddenly come out for abortion rights? Did the Pope marry a stadium full of same-sex couples? Well, one would think so as the country turns that blind eye to the obvious hatred of the Catholic Church toward gays and women in these cases alone. Hello? Even evangelical Republicans are pissing their pants because President Obama has invoked the names of Jesus, Lord and dammit, God, more times in the last 48 hours than the top ten Republican candidates have in the last four months combined. On top of that, John Boehner must be bawling his eyes out, chain smoking cigarettes and downing pints of booze because everyone has turned a blind eye to the fact that he was the one who invited the Pope to speak before Congress in the first place.

A couple of Pope Francis' more overt actions while in the United States include a canonizing and riding around in a Fiat. I guess Fiat needed some serious god-like intervention rebranding. Ever checked the history of Fiat? Do so, it is quite illuminating. The word fiat itself might also be something worth looking into, because, well, the Pope.

More egregious is the canonizing of Father Junipero Serra, or in Catholic Church parlance, the guy is now a Saint. Serra, working for the ever popular Inquisition, arrived in Mexico in 1749 and it wasn't long before he settled up north near present day Monterey, California. He established missions so he and his sadists could covert natives he said were guilty of, "...the most detestable and horrible crimes of sorcery, witchcraft and devil worship." Guilty of torture and murder is a saintly pursuit of course and defenders have actually used language to excuse the priest's savagery by claiming all the native peoples were voluntarily led to the word. To top it off, Serra has been rebranded as well, he now has been, in a Church/Orwellian revisionism, labeled "evangelizer of the West" by Pope Francis. Native Americans have used different and certainly more accurate descriptions such as "monster" and "for the pope to accord sainthood is such an obscene gesture on the part of the Catholic Church." It's all turning one big blind eye to old and new atrocities.

Lest we forget, Argentina's "Dirty War", propagated by a military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 1980s. Supported of course by the United States Government because of, well, communism! There's some question of then Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio's (now Pope Francis) involvement in helping the dictators round up "undesirables". But, where there is white smoke there's a Pope.

I implore the few remaining actual progressives and/or free thinkers to rise up and open their blind eyes. When some critical thought is applied, President Obama and Pope Francis are a perfect match, perhaps made in heaven as it were. Obama was ordained with the Nobel Peace Prize and has wage the Endless Wars which continue to kill thousands of civilians every year. He has openly bragged about extra-judicially murdering American citizens and kisses the asses of corporate America and the military/industrial complex. But, because he tosses out a few bromides about climate change, health care and the war on women he is drooled over by the blind eye left. Is it just too difficult to reconcile images of burned, crushed children with the peace president? Is it simply a road not traveled because once trod upon there is never going back to that misperceived comfort of constantly turning a blind eye?

One thing, beyond mindless Pope fawning and massive turning of the blind eye, is that there will be NO press coverage of dissenting viewpoints. No long interviews with agnostics or atheists will be condoned or allowed. I only hope that the constant turning of the blind eye has not led us so far down the slippery slope that we can not as a country ever climb back up.

(Obama meets the Pope at a military airport and they laugh and laugh how people still haven't figured out they're Bankster puppets. Image from Getty Images under Fair Use.)

 

WAKE UP And Realize This Is A Two Party Dictatorship

Nothing brings out the worst in Democratic voters than losing.

Nothing brings out the worst in Republican voters than losing.

And nothing brings out the scrawny, pointy finger of shame of both party's voters than the idea that some people have figured out the United States of America's political system is nothing more than a two party dictatorship and that's why some of those people don't vote. The owners' of these scrawny, pointy fingers don't realize that it is such a dictatorship and hence their 'tsk-tsk' and 'cluck-cluck' at those who do understand speaks volumes; or at least it should.

After an election such as the 2014 mid-terms, the 2000, the 2004 and so on, the spinners make a washing machine seem clunky and slow. Losing is winning!

Of course, since the Republicans won big in last night's mid-term we get wonderful examples of Democrats creating and distributing charming memes such as the one below.

Then, we get, from the so-called party of tolerance and inclusion a cargo ship or two full of the most prejudicial, stereotype and bigoted caricatures as one could imagine. All the while, they conveniently ignore how the Obama administration has continued and expanded upon the draconian path began with the Bush administration about, oh say, 10 minutes after 9/11.

BUT WAIT!

THERE'S MORE!

The Republicans do the exact same thing when they lose, too!

Yet, rarely, and boy do I mean rarely, does anyone pop their head out of the sand and admit that we live in a two party dictatorship. Wall Street and the Military/Industrial complex are the real party and those in national office are beholden to their owners. Some out there do understand this and act accordingly whether by not voting, at least admitting this has been a problem for decades, or actively seeking ways to overcome the dictatorship. But, that last part is difficult considering how entrenched the machine has become. It is easier to be a lemming, nay, a smug lemming, and follow the Limbaughs, the Savages, the Maddows or the Stewarts (who are all corporate shills by the way, get the picture yet?) and parrot their spewed garbage as if it were gospel.

One of the major activities of the two party dictatorship is sowing divisiveness with your favorite political footballs. Abortion! Illegal Immigrants! Racism! Guns! Health Care!

Look around two party adherents, nay, zealots, and tell me when was the last time any of the events listed below happened in the last 40 years.

- Abortion was outlawed
- Government storm troopers came and took away your guns
- You wanted to pick vegetables or fruits
- Government storm troopers came and ripped up your health card
- You must stop speaking English

Well, you get the picture. It hasn't happened because it isn't going to happen. Otherwise, we could no longer be divided. We might become like Toto and pull back the curtain to reveal to the others what is happening with that man. And to update for modern times, or that woman, too.

 

Random Thoughts Of A Random Guy...

I was alone in the desert. I was hot. I was sweaty. It was dry. The sun was beating down. I was beating down. There was no bush to beat around.

How did I get here? This was not typical. Normal, some would voice. Abnormal, I knew. Certainly against nature. Nevertheless, here I was and maybe it was Abby Normal after all.

But it was summer and it was cool. The sort of summer that drove me to write like this. Like Hemingway? But there was no white entry parlor. No white staircase. No shotgun in my hand, muzzle stuck in my mouth. And no reason to pull the trigger. There was no need. The image of brain matter slung like a bloody rice against the wall...no. Not for me.