The "Woodshed Meeting" That Didn't Happen

The bishops from Region XIII, an area covering Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming recently completed their ad limina visit to the vatican. The visit included a conversation with Pope Francis.
According to this article from NCR,
"On their return, Catholic News Agency announced to the world that "several" bishops, who remain anonymous, told them that the pope was quite upset, even angry, with Jesuit Fr. James Martin, who has a noted ministry to the Catholic LGBT community. The object of the pope's concern, said the anonymous several bishops, was the way Martin was characterizing his celebrated meeting with the pope last September. They also said that his Jesuit superiors had called him to task about his ministry and that the pope had actually given him a "talking to."'
It should be noted that CNA, an affiliate of EWTN, is distinct from CNS, Catholic News Service, the official news service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Does your bishop know about this?

 My words can't begin to describe the greedy goose who now heads the White House Office of Faith and Opportunity, or the different "reverend" whom the President credentialed to go to Davos with him. Fortunately, Frank Cerebino, a columnist for my last home, has the words to do it.
 You have to read it to believe it.
 Here is a sample of the rants that took a Rev. Trump Worshiper to Davos:

.

“This impeach-Trump movement is a Jew coup.”
He urged his viewers and listeners “to wake up really fast.”
“This is a coup led by Jews to overthrow the Constitutionally-elected president of the United States, and it’s beyond removing Donald Trump, it’s about removing you and me ...
“The Church of Jesus Christ, you’re next! They’re coming for you,” he continued. “There will be a purge. That’s the next thing that happens when Jews take over a country.
“They kill millions of Christians.”
Yikes. I imagine this sounded even creepier in its original German.

The last sentence is Frank's. This is the faith of "the most pro-life president in history."

Front-runner or front ambler?

The fogs of Iowa and Nevada have raised cries to do away with the caucuses. But maybe it's time to ask about primaries in general. What if the cigar-smoke rooms came back but over-hung with the sweet odor of marijuana. Could that work? In the meantime....

The caucus fumble came to mind this AM reading Karl Rove's analysis (WSJ)  of the Democrat's current dilemma. Sanders is the front runner insofar as he's collected more delegates (45), than Buttigieg (24), Biden (15), Warren (8), Klobuchar (7). But as math whizzes have pointed out (at least in our house) that means the moderates have 46 among them. Rove adds to the calculus that Sanders won so far with low shares of the vote--compared to previous primary seasons. A candidate needs 1990 pledged delegates to get the nomination in July. So everyone, including Sanders, is a long way from the crown. Yet he has been designated the front-runner, in some headlines the sure nominee. Is the media calling a false finish?

Still in play, South Carolina and Bloomberg, as well as Super Tuesday after which some of the candidates will have run out of money, if not steam. That doesn't mean they'll drop out. The bottom line: It's premature to call Sanders the nominee. Rove believes Trump is very likely to beat him (even if he is now seen as electable and ahead of Trump in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania).

That brings me to Bloomberg's town hall performance on CNN last night (Wednesday). What you see is what you get: a technocrat who has his facts and money lined up and has been working on climate change, gun control, education, and every other Dem favorite for several years. He sounds more realistically connected to the challenges than any of the others (including my favorites Biden, Pete, and Amy). We could do worse than a President Bloomberg. Will we?

But Lamont, I still don't understand...

 From the Gospel for Ash Wednesday:

 “When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

 Then we put ashes on our foreheads and go to work or shopping so all can see our unwashed faces.
 Today I got a smudgy cross from the EMHC doing our side, but the priests were etching Gothic crosses and shadow boxes on the lucky ones whose ashes could be worn on the red carpet of any occasion having such a carpet.
 

One minute and fifteen seconds

That was the time limit for Dem candidates in Nevada with 45 seconds, that is, two-thirds of a minute for a rejoinder.
Is that the rule for tonight?
How much time do the journalists get to ask their question and then to interrupt a candidate for going over the time?
Can we really learn anything about the candidates? or the issues?

For extra credit: Were televised political debates ever any better? more informative? ended with a clearer understanding of candidate differences?

Stopping Sanders [Updated]

Update Feb 27 8:17 am CST: In his daily e-newsletter this morning, David Leonhardt of the New York Times sharpens the too-many-candidates-fracturing-the-Sanders-opposition-vote analysis by pointing specifically to Michael Bloomberg (and his unlimited advertising budget) as the third-candidate spoiler.  In Leonhardt's telling, the candidate whose chances Bloomberg is spoiling the most is Joe Biden.  He refers to this Texas polling data presented by John McCormack in National Review:

With Bloomberg in the race, Biden and Sanders are exactly tied in Texas:  

Biden 24 Sanders 24 Bloomberg 17 Warren 14 Buttigieg 10 Klobuchar 4 

If Bloomberg were not in the race, the poll shows Biden holding a six-point lead over Sanders:  

Biden 31 Sanders 25 Warren 17 Buttigieg 11 Klobuchar 7 

Leonhardt goes on to note:

This situation highlights one of the problems with a late-entering candidate, as Bloomberg is. He is on a different timetable from the rest of the field. Maybe he has a real chance to win the nomination, and voters who are attracted by his candidacy should vote for him. Or maybe he has little chance to win and has arrived just in time to be a spoiler who helps the candidate who’s most different from him.

I continue to believe that party leadership could exert more control than it has.  Just because Bloomberg wants to be a candidate doesn't mean that the Democratic Party leadership needs to accept him.  Bloomberg's elective-office history has been as a Republican and an independent.  Democratic Party leaders could argue credibly that billionaires with virtually no party history can't buy their way into the process.  Of course, similar stewardship and gatekeeping should have been exercised by GOP leadership in 2015 and 2016.  And Sanders himself wouldn't be exempt from this calculus if it were to be applied indiscriminately.

-----

The political cycles for major-party presidential nominations are two years long, or even longer, and very expensive - but once the actual primaries and caucuses get underway, the outcome can become clear relatively quickly.  Whether it is possible to rewrite the foreseeable ending to the story, is very much an open question.

Who are your enemies?

“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ... (Matthew 5:43-44)

This snippet from the Sermon on the Mount was part of the Gospel reading from yesterday (Sunday, February 23, 2020, the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A).  

Does this passage speak to you?  Are you persecuted?  Do you have enemies who vex you, who cause you to suffer, who pose threats to you or those whom you love?  

I spoke recently with a friend about this.  He happens to be gay.  And he has enemies who have persecuted him.  His insight is that his enemies are people who formerly were friends or loved ones who became his enemies because they could not accept him as he is.

I consider that to be powerful witness, but I also have to admit that it doesn't resonate with my own personal experience.  I'm not persecuted.  I'm also not a person who is prone to conflict.   If I have enemies, they are not top of mind.

Do you have any enemies? 

NOT ME, US (Updated!)

After the decision Nevada caucus in which Bernie got widespread support (the Hispanic vote, the culinary workers even though their union has opposed Medicare for all) AND no one else really ended up in second place ahead of the rest of the field, the Next Debate could be decisive.

The rest of the candidates are obviously going to attack Bernie just as much, even more than Bloomberg in the last debate.

But his theme for uniting his supporters has always been NOT ME, US.  If he can extend that message to include the whole party (and ultimately the whole American people) he has a very good chance of winning the nomination early, and the election decisively.

TRUMP IS ALL ABOUT HIMSELF,  no one, not even Trump disputes that.

"Let me first thank the people of Nevada for their support. We put together a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition across the state that will win not only in Nevada, but all across this country.

No other campaign has a grassroots movement like we do, which is a large reason why we're gonna win this election."

Sander's e-mail this morning 

Most Voters Expect Trump to Win Re-election, HOWEVER

Whether or not they're voting for him, 65% of registered voters nationwide think President Trump will definitely or probably be reelected, including more than a third of Democrats who think so.

HOWEVER responding to actual matchups, likely voters

Et tu, Jean Vanier?

Oy vey!  Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, spiritual writer and director is now under post mortem suspicion of having had sexual relations with six women.  These women were not disabled patients but supposedly troubled women who came for his spiritual guidance.  Does this invalidate his life's work like Maciel?  L'Arche is pretty universally praised even among liberals.  Or does this mean that, even among spiritually developed people, men, in particular, the sexual drive does not "go away" or even become tamed?  I never was a rock star or a living saint.  How would I behave if a constant stream of "opportunities" presented themselves?

Article in America:

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/02/22/internal-report-finds-larche-founder-jean-vanier-engaged-decades-sexual-misconduct

What's in a Brand?

We read a lot about "branding".  What is the significance of a brand? The Business Dictionary has this to say about it:  "The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers."
Which brings us to the image (above) of a moldy hamburger.  Believe it or not, this is Burger King's latest branding attempt.
"On Wednesday, the fast-food chain unveiled a new ad campaign featuring the transformation of the brand’s flagship sandwich over more than a month. But instead of showing a burger being built from the bottom up, it shows one growing moldy from the top down.
So why would Burger King let its beloved Whopper brave the elements to become something that isn’t even the least bit appetizing? To show what happens when a burger doesn’t use artificial ingredients, colors or flavors.
Fernando Machado, global chief marketing officer for Restaurant Brands International—Burger King’s parent company—told Forbes in an interview. “Right? Let’s show that because we don’t have preservatives from artificial sources, our product does decay. And let’s show that in a beautiful way. I think that is what works well here.” 
I am not a marketing officer, I know nothing about branding. But there are some things you can't unsee.  I predict that moldy whopper is not going to be the brand enhancer that Burger King is hoping for.
The Democratic Party is also attempting to "brand" itself.  This article from US News is from 2019. But it is still current in terms of laying out the challenges Democrats face in their efforts to define the face of their party.

The Stone in the National Shoe

 Forty months is OK; 400 months would not have been excessive. The Don is foaming and frothing about injustice and other things the terrible government does to his friends. In the end, he’ll pardon Roger Stone if Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh can’t find some other reason to let him go.
 But, as Judge Amy Berman Jackson said, “The truth still exists. The truth still matters.”  She apparently was unimpressed by Stone, his hot and cold running lawyers and his low-life friends. As am I.
 From Judge Jackson’s reputation, 40 months is probably about what she would have given him  even if The Don’s consigliere in the Justice Department had let stand the original prosecutors’ recommendation of seven to nine years. The whole pre-sentencing flap proved that Attorney General William Barr is not as smart as he is reputed to be, and their mutual buddy The Don has a bad attitude toward justice. It probably didn't change the sentence.
 (The Don, by the way is Air Force One jetting his way around the West Coast and staying in hotels with his name on them. There, as The Washington Post found, is where he can charge the taxpayers up to $600 a night for his Secret Service bodyguards he warrant office with the nuclear codes football and assorted presidential hangers on. Donald Jr. will kvell when he sees the billing records.)

Is Europe Falling Apart?

Margaret has an article at the Commonweal site that provides an excellent summary of the last 100 or so years of history in Europe, including America's assistance following WWII - the Marshall Plan.

  https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/europe-falling-apart

Circular Suicide Squad

Democrats at work: Nevada--2/19.

Grammatical question

I the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand shall save.
I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here is the question: Why "Whom" in that last line?  Why isn't it "Who"?  It's the subject of the sentence, it should be "who", yes? 

In fact, the previous line, another sentence with the word in question as the subject, uses "Who".

From a singing perspective, "who" is a more musically pleasing sound than "whom", which - to my ear, anyway - sort of swallows the vowel sound when it's closed off with the "m".

I can't think of a reason it should be "whom".  It has bugged me for years.

What was Dan Schutte, or his editor, thinking?

Not in control

Being a deacon for the mass is not very difficult.  Usually.

Bloomberg In Debate!

Bloomberg Surges In Poll; Qualifies For Vegas Debate

Latest Poll:  Sanders 31%; Bloomberg 19%;  Biden 15%

Warren 12%; Klobuchar 9%; Buttigieg 8%

New York Times National Polling Average as of February 14th

Sanders 24%: Biden 23% (-)

Warren 14%: Bloomberg 10% (+); Buttigieg (+)9% ;Klobuchar 5% 

minus indicts falling, plus indicates rising

With the fading of Biden as the centrist candidate, and Warren as the progressive alternative, and rather lackluster challenges by Buttigieg and Klobuchar, will it become Bernie vs. Mike?

Bernie might not only have to defeat the money of the billionaires but also two of them personally to become president. 

Many have maintained that we have rule by an oligarchy. Are we experiencing the transition from indirect rule by oligarchical interests to direct rule by an oligarch?  Maybe we just get to choose which one we like the most?  the entertainer Trump?  the technocrat Bloomberg?

Bloomberg: Another Trump!

Well like Trump he is a billionaire.
Like Trump he is engaged in the process of taking over a party on the way to the presidency.
Like Trump his history with political parties is inconsistent.
Like Trump his history with regard to cultural war issues is all over the place
Like Trump he is dogged with charges of racism and sexual abuse.
Like Trump he has been closely involved and very familiar with the media
He has more of his own money to spend on this project than Trump
and a lot more employees with a lot more skills relevant  to political campaigns,
He is hiring many talented people with salaries twice what otherr candidates can offer
and he is hiring them through the election even if he does not win the nomination,
which says he is interested in controlling the Democratic party

The New York Time has a lot of articles about him, but Ross Douthat sums up the question:

The Bloomberg Temptation

Will the Democrats try to replace Donald Trump with a power-hungry plutocrat?

On Tyranny--a peek around the corner

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century was a best-seller at the beginning of the Trump regime and a favorite of my book group. Recent events sent me searching for Timothy Snyder's thin volume of warnings from which I extract the following (with commentary by me):

1. Do not obey in advance. (For you, Republican Senators.)
2. Defend institutions. (Lawyers, Prosecutors, Judges--pay close attention.)
3. Beware the one-party state. (DNC get your shit together!)
5. Remember professional ethics. (Law schools, law firms, judiciary committees, and
the  ABA--hold officials responsible or you will be held responsible. [AND appending journalism per the discussion in comments below.])

Timothy Snyder is a historian specializing in Soviet policy in the Ukraine (1930s) and in post-WW2 developments and detritus in Eastern Europe. He knows whereof he speaks.

The Bernie wing and the everybody-else wing [Updated]

This New Yorker piece from the New Hampshire primary by Benjamin Wallace-Wells is worth a read. The headline refers to the Democratic race as "jumbled".  Among the interesting observations:

• Last night, Sanders captured only a fraction of his 2016 NH vote, but it was enough to win
• Since 2016, Sanders' coalition seems to have coalesced into a young-and-urban identity
• Wallace-Wells paints NH voters as careening, if not wildly, at least moderately between candidates, as they search for the knight in shining armor who can deliver them from Trump.  'I can beat Trump' is Klobuchar's sales pitch, and it may well account for her climb into third place
• Biden may already be on life support, and Warren may be, if not quite in hospice, seeking admittance to intensive care.  
• This one is worth quoting: "the time for the moderate Democrats to unite may be ending. Bloomberg, with his hundreds of millions to spend, is already up to third place in some national polls, so the coming contest for the soul of the Democratic Party may be between two figures who, until very recently, were not Democrats at all."

For a precedent of a candidate who didn't have long tenure in the party yet managed to wrest the nomination with the a support of something like 1/3 of the voters,  while the rest of the party was unwilling or unable to coalesce around an alternative, cf the saga of the GOP in 2016.  And while it would give me a certain amount of satisfaction to add, "... and then he was shellacked in the general election", we all know how that worked out. 

Update 2/12/2020, 4:17 pm CST: Josh Kraushaar at National Journal, in a column echoing much of Wallace-Wells' analysis, makes a crucial point regarding the divided field:

All of the Democratic contests allocate delegates proportionally, while Republicans [in 2016] allowed many states to allocate all of the delegates to the statewide winner. Those Republican rules allowed Trump to build an insurmountable lead, a luxury Sanders won’t have. The most likely long-term outcome is a muddle, with Sanders slowly racking up more delegates than his rivals but well short of the majority necessary to win the nomination.

The Psalmist Speaketh

Sin speaks to the sinner
in the depths of his heart,
There is no fear of God
before his eyes.

He so flatters himself in his mind
that he knows not his guilt.
In his mouth are mischief and deceit.
All wisdom is gone.

He plot the defeat of goodness
as he lies on his bed.
He has set his foot on evil ways,
he cling to what is evil.

To wit: Why Bill Barr's DOJ replaced Catholic Charities with Hookers for Jesus.
Plus much, much more.......

I do not mean to single out only AG Barr; there are others!

Shaw's Joan, My Joan and Ours

 Since the rough beast’s hour has come round at last, I am  finding consolation and distraction in old enthusiasms. When I found that Holly Hill’s Playing Joan survived the Great Purge, I reread it, which led inevitably to G. B. Shaw’s play and, of course, its preface.
 One thing I concluded this time around is that the old self-proclaimed atheist was more than a little smitten with the Fifteenth Century saint. Shaw’s characters generally are projections of Shaw, but in writing the Maid’s role he yielded to his subject. He let her speak for herself; some of her best lines, worthy of Shaw, are straight out of the transcript of Joan’s heresy trial in 1431.

Light, halos and auras

This is my homily for yesterday, the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.  The readings for Sunday are here.

Quarantine (updated)

Our state is host to 57 Americans who had been traveling in China at the time of the Corona virus outbreak.  They flew into Eppley Air Field a couple of days ago. These are people who have no sign of illness at present, but are required to be quarantined for 14 days because of concerns about the virus spreading. The Nebraska location was chosen because of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit, which previously treated some Ebola victims.

FiveThirtyEight Democat Primary Forecast

Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Primary?

Now that the Iowa results are in FiveThirtyEight has changed from predicting Biden will win to predicting that Bernie is the most likely winner.

Sanders  1 in 2  45%   Actually I am surprised, if you look down at the individual state  projections. It is amazing that he is likely to win most of them even if by only a plurality not a majority

No One  1 in 4  24%    Really, Tom, they may have to settle it at the convention

Biden 1 in 5  20%   Well Biden is certainly in deep trouble but I am surprised it is this bad.

Warren 1 in 20  5%   I saw a lot of enthusiasm for her here in Lake County Ohio at the caucuses for choosing delegates. Would not count her out  yet. I would really like to see a Sanders-Warren or a Warren-Sanders ticket.

Buttigieg  1 in 20   I don.t know what to make of his candidacy. The wine cellar scares me. Otherwise maybe O.K. 

All others (that includes all you billionaires with your money, think you have any chance with all us Bernie people against the billionaires, the Democratic party may be unwise to put Bernie on the ballot but it will surely be suicidal if it puts a billionaire on the ballot)  1 in 100 

I am going to watch the debate tonight but my mind shuts off at 9pm so I may not comment until tomorrow.  I will be interested to see how the moderators handle this.   Will they put Bernie in the center?  with Buttigieg? where will Biden be?  Maybe they will cast lots for positions?  Will the other candidates go after Sanders?  Buttigieg?  How could anyone pick on Biden now?  Looks like it is the last chance for all the others to make a good enough impression to change this around in New Hampshire. 

Reading the Tea Leaves

Tonight is the Iowa caucuses. There are polls galore, attempting to predict who will be the front runner.  According to columnist Susan Estrich, the winner of the Iowa caucus is very rarely the next president. It is more important in determining who will be the losers.  From her article:

Sunday of the Word of God

Rita Ferrone has written a pair of articles about this past Sunday's initial celebration of Sunday of the Word of God.  Rita shows a laudatory willingness to try something new.  We should hope that church leadership can exhibit that same willingness.