It's time to come to grips with reality ...

It's OK To Vote For Trump Now ...

 (INFUSNY-160/ELDER ORDONEZ/INFPHOTO.COM)

Trump leaving Cardinal's residence at St. Patrick's NYC.

[I bet he went to confession and maybe even had his third marriage blessed.]

What?

Feast of St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila on an easy way to acquire the prayer of recollection ...

Delight to remain with Him; do not lose such an excellent time for talking with Him as the hour after Communion. Remember that this is a very profitable hour for the soul; if you spend it in the company of the good Jesus, you are doing Him a great service. Be very careful, then, daughters, not to lose it. If you are compelled by obedience to do something else, try to leave your soul with the Lord. For He is your Master, and, though it be in a way you may not understand, He will not fail to teach you. But if you take your thoughts elsewhere, and pay no more attention to Him than if you had not received Him, and care nothing for His being within you, how can He make Himself known to you?

When you have received the Lord, and are in His very presence, try to shut the bodily eyes and to open the eyes of the soul and to look into your own hearts. I tell you, and tell you again, for I should like to repeat it often, that if you practise this habit of staying with Him, not just once or twice, but whenever you communicate, and strive to keep your conscience clear so that you can often rejoice in this your Good, He will not, as I have said, come so much disguised as to be unable to make His presence known to you in many ways, according to the desire which you have of seeing Him. So great, indeed, may be your longing for Him that He will reveal Himself to you wholly.

But if we pay no heed to Him when we have received Him, and go away from Him in search of other and baser things, what can He do? Will He have to drag us by force to look at Him and be with Him because He desires to reveal Himself to us? No; for when He revealed Himself to all men plainly, and told them clearly who He was, they did not treat Him at all well—very few of them, indeed, even believed Him. So He grants us an exceeding great favour when He is pleased to show us that it is He Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament. - Way of Perfection, Chapter 34

Stay a long time after Communion  ... and make frequent Spiritual Communions throughout the day to practice the presence of God. 

This just in ... Developing ... Trump defeated!

Breaking News!

I just returned from getting my hair cut - 'bend and snap!' - and Trump was the talk of the shop.  No one is voting for Trump!  No one!  Not one!  Nope!

Hillary wins by a landslide!

Grinding teeth.

Best Actor In An Ad - Kevin Linehan

This guy deserves more roles.

He reminds me of Gig Young.

Archbishop Chaput quotes a friend of his.

The choice facing voters.

In the meantime, a friend describes the choice facing voters in November this way: A vulgar, boorish lout and disrespecter of women, with a serious impulse control problem; or a scheming, robotic liar with a lifelong appetite for power and an entourage riddled with anti-Catholic bigots. - Chaput, Weekly Column

That pretty much sums it up alright.

I couldn't have said it better.

Congratulations Bob Dylan ... And you say, "What does this mean?"

"Who is that man?"

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, 

one of the world’s most influential musicians, 

was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday 

for “having created new poetic expressions 

within the great American song tradition,” 

in the words of the Swedish Academy. - NYT

YES!

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones? - Ballad of a Thin Man

Highway 61 Revisited - here.


All my dreams have come true.  Who would ever thought this could happen back then?

You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts
When someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations
You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known

But something is happening here
And you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

In my own weird way ... random thoughts after Yom Kippur

Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, 

to consecrate the people by his own blood.
Let us then go to him outside the camp, 

bearing the reproach that he bore. - Hebrews 13:13

I stayed offline yesterday for Yom Kippur.

I observe Yom Kippur in my own weird way.  It's is a great feast day - or Day of Atonement ... I liken it to Holy Thursday night and Good Friday.  Christ is at once the sacrificial lamb and the scapegoat, sent outside the camp, carrying our shame - our sin.  I like to fast as we do for Good Friday, to pray, and so on.  In union with the Jewish people.

Speaking of scapegoats ...


The Wikileaks reveal.

The Podesta emails reveal a 'plot' against faithful Catholics to foment revolution in the Church - faithful Catholics singled out for repression and destruction ... more or less.  If true, the only thing Wikileaks did is to confirm the worst fears of Catholic against Hillary.  If true, faithful Catholics might have figured out this anti-Catholic bigotry without Wikileaks, a long, long time ago.  Hillary Clinton was never shy about revealing what she thought about changing religious beliefs to recognize there can be 'no progress without abortion':

“There is one lesson from the past, in particular, that we cannot afford to ignore: You cannot make progress on gender equality or broader human development, without safeguarding women’s reproductive health and rights,” Clinton said near the end of a speech marking International Women's Day. “That is a bedrock truth.” - Hilary Clinton, CNN

“Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper,” Clinton said.

“Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will,” she explained. “And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century and not just for women but for everyone — and not just in far away countries but right here in the United States.” - Hilary Clinton, The DC

“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church.” - Wikileaks 

Connect the dots.

“We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good 

to organize for a moment like this. 

But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. 

Likewise Catholics United. 

Like most Spring movements, 

I think this one will have to be bottom up,” Podesta

The conspiracy is no longer just a theory.

As if the Obama administration was any more friendly to Catholics, causing the Little Sisters of the Poor to go to court to defend their religious freedom.  Go back through American politics - anti-Catholicism has been a thread running through it.  The Wikileaks news pretty much reveals what every trad-Catholic always claimed anyway.  Don't forget the Communist infiltration as exposed by Bella Dodd - true or false - the Communist infiltration has endured as the number one conspiracy theory.  Then we have the Masonic-Illuminati influence - and control ... depending on who you read.

What is it - 40 - 50 years since abortion on demand has been legal?  And no one has been successful in keeping their campaign promises to make it stop or to stack the Supreme Court with pro-life judges?  Not even 'the vast right wing conspiracy' out to get Mrs. Clinton have been successful?  Now, while Wikileaks stories are breaking, it looks as if the rumors may indeed be real conspiracies, and not just crack-pot theories.

Nevertheless, all of the conspiracy theories pretty much work for all the enemies of religion - specifically the anti-Catholics, who hate the Church - be they liberal-dissenting Catholic or ultra-conservative traditionalist Catholic.  The political rancor on both sides has poisoned Catholic culture, split Catholicism in the U.S. between conservative and liberal, traditional and novus ordo, secular and religious ... it isn't new - it's simply festering right now.

I suspect that the anti-Francis Catholics are in full manipulation mode right now by MSM, social media, politicians like Podesta, and even the Wikileaks propaganda, just as much as doubt and second guessing is sown among faithful Catholics - even priests - over what is going on, who is telling the truth, and so on.  When I say 'faithful Catholics', I'm talking about Catholics faithful to the Pope and the bishops in communion with him.

Why all this intrigue and rumor-mongering?  It's a great means to destabilize, to create division, to conquer.  Silly liberal-dissenting Catholics ... they should know, if the purpose is to destroy the Church, first 'they' will come for the religious right, then, if there is any faith left, they'll come for the religious left.

Social media, email, the Internet is probably the real Trojan Horse in the city of God and the city of man ...

Just guessing.

Final thoughts ...

Miracle at Fatima, October 13, 1917

People must amend their lives 

and ask pardon for their sins. 

They must not offend our Lord any more, 

for He is already too much offended!

- Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady didn't get into politics, except to warn that if people did not amend their lives:

"Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated."

Russian hacking and Wikileaks.  causing wars, persecutions, martyrs, the Holy Father suffering much ... various nations ... annihilated.

Yom Kippur

St. John XXIII

Pray for us.

On Trump's performance at the debate ...

I knew I had either seen it before, or read about it someplace.

He seemed so rigid.  At times like an automaton speaking a recorded script - repeating the same thing over and over.  At times hovering over his opponent, pretending to assert 'his' party platform while repeatedly throwing out barbs to 'vilify critics and shut down debate' - by intimidation.  Yet Trump simply repeated what had been scripted for him, feigning sorrow for vulgar speech and immorality, yet blaming others and interjecting lampoons, such as, 'you'd be in jail' - in a craven effort to convince his supporters that he is THE man to save the country and make America great again.  I didn't really consider his 'style' until reading a comment on another post.  It's Orwellian "manipulative phraseology, full of euphemisms and doublespeak" - at it's worst, I might say.

Tax-avoiding billionaires become “job-creators.”

“When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases — bestial, atrocities, iron heel, bloodstained tyranny, free peoples of the world, stand shoulder to shoulder — one often has the curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker’s spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them. And this is not altogether fanciful. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance towards turning himself into a machine.” - George Orwell, Salon

That's from an old Salon article.  It fits.

I was also reading what Andrew Sullivan had to say on the Trump ascension/power-grab.  I may be wrong, ill informed, even off-base in my assessment of Trump - but only to the extent of identifying which ideological compartment he fits into.  Sullivan sees a tyrant in the making - I do too.  He also connects it to neo-Fascism - I do too.

Trump launched his campaign by calling undocumented Mexican immigrants a population largely of rapists and murderers. He moved on to Muslims, both at home and abroad. He has now added to these enemies — with sly brilliance — the Republican Establishment itself. And what makes Trump uniquely dangerous in the history of American politics — with far broader national appeal than, say, Huey Long or George Wallace — is his response to all three enemies. It’s the threat of blunt coercion and dominance.

And so after demonizing most undocumented Mexican immigrants, he then vowed to round up and deport all 11 million of them by force. “They have to go” was the typically blunt phrase he used — and somehow people didn’t immediately recognize the monstrous historical echoes. The sheer scale of the police and military operation that this policy would entail boggles the mind.

To call this fascism doesn’t do justice to fascism. Fascism had, in some measure, an ideology and occasional coherence that Trump utterly lacks. But his movement is clearly fascistic in its demonization of foreigners, its hyping of a threat by a domestic minority (Muslims and Mexicans are the new Jews), its focus on a single supreme leader of what can only be called a cult, and its deep belief in violence and coercion in a democracy that has heretofore relied on debate and persuasion. This is the Weimar aspect of our current moment. Just as the English Civil War ended with a dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell, and the French Revolution gave us Napoleon Bonaparte, and the unstable chaos of Russian democracy yielded to Vladimir Putin, and the most recent burst of Egyptian democracy set the conditions for General el-Sisi’s coup, so our paralyzed, emotional hyperdemocracy leads the stumbling, frustrated, angry voter toward the chimerical panacea of Trump. - Read it all here.

These are things to consider - to really examine.  I make no claims here - but it makes sense to me.

I was surprised to learn that older Americans are among the biggest supporters of Trump.  I suppose I should have known that.

Some people have already cast their vote by absentee ballot - and may be regretting it.  Those who haven't voted yet, before you go to the polls or submit your absentee ballot, please do as Pope Francis advised: "Study the proposals well, pray, and choose in conscience."

What?

Let the dead bury their dead ...

“Detail - Narcissus” - Terry Nelson

Last Night's Debate Was Embarrassing

Early Halloween: Trump as Daryl Van Horne and Hillary Clinton as Felicia Alden

Some are calling it 'disgraceful'.

It was.  Trump was like the Hulk at one point - hovering over Hillary while she was sincerely trying to answer an audience member's question.  It was less a Town Hall Meeting and more a vaudeville performance - Trump heckling and harassing Mrs. Clinton who tried to maintain dignity.  Then Trump tried to take the focus off his personal immorality by assembling Bill's former litigants in the audience.  I'm not sure how penitent or convincing Trump's apology for being a womanizer could be when he starts pointing out the sins of Hillary's husband.  (One might imagine that the fact a wife worked out these betrayals and infidelities - with the help of her daughter - and chose to remain with her husband would be viewed as virtuous in an 'adulterous' age when divorce on demand is the norm.  But I digress.)

The other characters playing Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie.

Some Catholics are now calling for Catholic groups and individuals to dump Trump.  Yet there are priests who are pretty much telling Catholics it is a mortal sin not to vote for him.

Pope Francis said to pray and discern and vote your conscience ...

The only decent man in the race.

Seriously.

Mass Chat: Church ladies can use bad language too ... I guess I was mistaken about Trump then.

Serial Mom was a nice suburban housewife who recycled and kept a lovely house, and she was a wonderful Republican.  She went to church every Sunday ... but watch out on Monday.  She had a filthy mouth and used the 'F' word, the 'M-F' word, and the 'P' word - just for fun of course, but always in secret, anonymously, just like people online do today.  So anyway, I'm guessing Mrs. Sutphin (and those like her) wouldn't think Trump said anything wrong, vulgar or 'obscene' - because he/she uses the exact same language he does?


Oh!  I think she was probably pro-life as well - although she believed strongly in the death penalty ...

Voting as a Catholic ... You must vote for the most Pro-Life Candidate/Platform ...

Looks like the ONLY way to stop abortion now:

[Edit note: My apologies for posting the gif with the offensive quote. 

Not a few Catholics online appear to think

the term Trump used was 'not that bad', 'locker-room banter',

that it was funny, and so on.  Some of these Catholics

also have condemned other Catholic bloggers for bad language

in their columns and urged their publishers to fire them

for inappropriate language.  Some of these same people continue

to support Trump and make excuses for him.]

Remember: "ALL Catholics have a grave moral obligation to vote against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party in November. The ONLY effective way to do this is to vote for Donald Trump as he is her only viable opposition and his position are the opposite of hers."  - Catholics4Trump

"The health of our nation depends on a deep respect for human life from the moment of conception until natural death, and the future of our society depends on how we protect that right. If we don’t, eventually we will go the way of Rome and Greece and other great civilizations that have risen and fallen.

The Republican party platform is supportive of the Hyde Amendment and just this year strengthened its support for life by calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, banning dismemberment abortion and opposing assisted suicide." - How Should A Catholic Vote

Oh!  What a relief!  

We can still vote for Trump then!

Nota Bonus:

Fashion note:  Short skirts are lovely, and 

they make it easy for men to ... be more pro-life.

I read somewhere that Trump's great grandfather was a pimp ...

Runs in the family.