... well that is the first thing. Mar-a-Lago is described by the national press as "his" private club in Palm Beach. It could be more accurately described as his tax break. He gave a "conservation easement" on the former Marjorie Merriwether Post mansion to the National Trust. That allows him to deduct on his taxes whatever he has lost by not being able to convert the mansion into condos or to sell off the land. How much he deducts is a state secret. We'd need to see his tax returns to know. And they are state secrets. But he did issue a list of his charitable contributions between 20010 and 2015, and conservation easements accounted for almost 65 percent of what he "gave."
So you might say he comes to the his National Trust tax break. Except, we don't know how many mortgages he has on Mar-a-Lago, and who is holding them. Maybe he visits his tax break at The First Bank of Vlad's Mar-a-Lago. As Comrade Trump would say, who knows?
But that is routine; it is not the hate-fog he unleashed for Easter...
... That had to do with what he saw when he rose on a bright Easter morning and, instead of enjoying the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean, turned on Fox, which was catching up with a Buzzfeed story.
Buzzfeed reported -- first, before it came to the presidential attention -- that about a thousand people from Central America, mostly Honduras, are walking, and hoping to ride a train, through Mexico with the intent of reaching the U.S. boarder to ask for asylum. Trump tweeted:
"These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!"There are no big flows, plural. There is one large group organized by a bunch of young Central Americans calling themselves Pueblos Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders). Comrade Trump wants Mexico to stop it forthwith. Morally, and probably legally, if these people are asking from asylum (and the new regime in Honduras is reason to) we are obliged to give them a hearing. The President of the United States cannot order the Mexican government to stop asylum seekers. And, by the way, he can't order Mexico to build his wall either...
... But, anyway, keeping asylum seekers away is not his major premise. His major premise is that they are seeking DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status -- that is that they wanted to be treated like people who were brought here illegally as children and grew up as Americans. And who were -- oh by the way -- here in 2012. As is plain, the folks with Pueblos Sin Fronteras were not brought here as children and were not here in 2012, and are not seeking deferred action but, mostly, asylum. And since ICE is getting ready to deport those who are eligible, DACA status isn't something to go a thousand miles for.
So Comrade Trump is all wrong about that, and everything else.
"Happy Easter" he tweeted, and then began his twitterstorm that was interrupted when he went to church. Church was Bethesda-by-the-Sea, a faux Gothic structure that is so well done I was tempted to swim across the Tiber to Canterbury when I saw it. The phones there had been ringing nonstop since Good Friday as those of wealth and quality attempted to assure themselves of pew space for the most solemn day of Christianity. At the end, when he rose (I am talking about Comrade Trump, of course, not Jesus), they gave him a standing ovation (still talking about Comrade Trump).
He went outside and continued to be wrong about the "caravans" coming though Mexico and Democracic responsibility for them and DACA in an impromptu press holler. As they say on Palm Beach, Alleluia.
He is gone now, and last year he inflicted himself on New Jersey for the summer. For which we, on this side of the causeway say Alle...No: Good riddance.
UPDATE: Now he says he is coming back. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apparently wants to win back the money Comrade Trump no doubt won from last time they played the Trump-named gold course here. The one right next to the 13-story County Jail. So he'll be back April 17-18 with his two big airplanes and countless SUVs that cost taxpayers a bundle that Comrade Trump could ill afford to pay. They'll be staying at his tax dodge. Aaaaargh.
For reasons of mental health, I find it best to ignore him. I also suspect - to extend the metaphor of the four year old - that, if more of us simply ignored him, he'd stop acting out.
ReplyDeleteBut if we don't pay attention, who knows what this guy who lacks both the conscience and the decency genes would do.
During Cardinal George's lengthy reign in the Chicago Archdiocese, there was a fellow by the name of Matthew Kelly who hails from somewhere in the British Empire, who was much promoted by the archdiocesan powers that be as a Catholic guru/presenter/clinician. He presented at a deacon conference I attended, so I got a taste of his spiel. He actually gave all of us (several hundred of us) one of his books for free, although I confess that I didn't make it out of the first chapter. But having sat and listened to him for 90 minutes or so, I got some idea of what he is about.
ReplyDeleteOne of his signature sayings, which he used in that presentation, and which I've heard repeated a number of times in church meetings and homilies over the last few years, is that we need to strive to be "the best versions of ourselves". I really dislike that business-jargony approach to running our lives ("I need to do a cost/benefit analysis of my personal relationships"), and I question whether we are the agents of our best versions of ourselves. But I do think there is some sense to the idea that there are several versions of each of us, and some of them are more likable than others.
All of which is to note: Donald Trump personifies one of the worst versions of American culture. A cocky, proud, selfish ignoramus who sticks at nothing, hates everybody and finds reading a waste of time. That's a snapshot of we Americans at a particular moment in time. And I don't accept that's us all the time. There are better versions of us.
Kelly has been here at least once. I heard him. And someone in the diocese loves him because most of us have free copies of two(!) of his books.
DeleteHe struck me as too much "bring a message" and too little "speak calmly," and I got the impression that his biggest fans would like to see Old Glory flying gloriously right behind the crucifix above the altar.
For the past several Advents, some generous soul has bought one of Matthew Kelly's books for the whole parish. That person wishes to remain anonymous. However, like Jim, I have yet to finish one of the books. There just isn't enough "there" there to draw me in. I have given myself permission not to read self-improvement books; I think it's too late. Not that one can't work on spiritual progress. But I think Jim nailed it when he said, "I question whether we are the agents of our best versions of ourselves."
DeleteThis was off my radar, but I asked Raber about Kelly. He tells me that Kelly's books were distributed by the pastor at our sister parish. The only reading material he throws away are Jehovah Witness tracts--we have at least a decade of Commonweal back issues he won't part with, and the Book of Mormon is still on the shelf--but Kelly's book went in the can.
DeleteIf people don't get that the "caravan people" cannot take advantage of DACA, it's not for the media failing to explain it.
ReplyDeleteTrump, when called on it, will say, "I know they can't take advantage of DACA, I cancelled DACA, but they'll come in here with their children and start having babies, and it will be DACA all over again."
Because there is no lie a snake like that can't shimmy out of.
Sometimes ignorance is a choice.
DeleteThought for the day (actually, yesterday evening, in conversation with my wife): if the Kingdom of God surely is a kingdom of love. But Trump's platform, such as it is, is the opposite of love. Hatred of immigrants, indifference toward refugees, conflict with our trading partners.
ReplyDeleteArticles like this are a bit mystifying. They make Trump out to be just a regular Republican at heart. He hasn't driven the country off the cliff yet, so why push the panic button? I just read this and see Alfred E. Newman's smiling face, saying "What, me worry?"
ReplyDelete