Bernie Sanders the 2020 Front Runner!

Bernie Sanders is the Democrats’ real 2020 frontrunner. I could not resist the headline. It has nothing to do with the fact that some people think I look like Bernie Sanders. After all, we are about the same age.

Most of the political class is ignoring the elephant in the room. Bernie Sanders is, by some measures the most popular politician in America, by far Democrats’ most in-demand public speaker, and the most prolific grassroots fundraiser in American history.

Sanders is building his team, is quietly moderating, has a clear message is the point of the article.

His primary season demands to break up large banks, ban hydraulic fracturing nationwide, and impose a carbon tax are gone from the agenda. In the wake of the success of “Bernie Would Have Won” as a slogan, Sanders has deeply engaged his base using Medicare-for-all while reconfiguring other elements of his platform into something more moderate than the one he actually ran on and for which a much stronger electability argument can be made.

Is he too old? "Is Pope Francis too old?" would be my response.

If not him, who? NCR had an interesting article that might help us think about this

New Orleans Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down Under Mayor Landrieu. I was attracted to this article mainly because it was by Jason Berry.  You might call it a "profile in courage" article to borrow Kennedy's book title. Could Landrieu be another "take on the establishment" candidate?

July 4th

Still afternoon on the west coast, and Tuesday. I'm dreading the coming fireworks - I'd so rather listen to music. Here are the Moody Blues at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, Justin Hayward singing Tuesday Afternoon ...

Martin on Patriotic Songs at Mass

Over at America, Father James Martin comes out against patriotic songs at Mass.. His argument rests on the first commandment,  worship is due to God alone. Hard to quarrel with that. We cannot put anything else in the place of God, not money, our parents, or our country. That would be idolatry.

However Martin neglects that we do honor our parents, the saints, and a lot of other holy things. The real problem is that often our honor of Mary, the saints, the church, and our country looks far too much like the worship due to God alone

I liked Martin's quote from John Baldovin, S.J., professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College as a practical solution:

Frankly, I do not favor patriotic songs like ‘America the Beautiful’ at liturgy. My reason is that they are addressed to the nation and not to God. There are patriotic hymns, e.g., ‘God of Our Fathers,’ ‘Eternal Father, Strong to Save,’ ‘This is My Song’—all of these are addressed to God.

I like Baldovin’s solution. “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” paraphrases the ideas in the litany for protection for people who travel by land, sea, and air. I think it is an appropriate entrance or preparation hymn. “America the Beautiful” although it contains invocations to God, seems to address the nation more than God. I would give it a pass only for the recessional, and then only because the recessional is not technically a part of the Mass.

What are your thoughts?

Freedom of the Press Under Attack

I have noticed a pattern in three articles I have read in the past two days.  The first concerns Qatar:
Saudi Arabia has given Qatar 48 hours to meet a list of 13 demands.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/3/15914610/qatar-saudi-arabia-48-deadline-demands 
From the article:  "....there’s a whole lot of stuff in there that has nothing to do with terrorism — and everything to do with stomping out Qatar’s regional aspirations and forcing it to fall in line with Saudi Arabia’s preferred policies."  Of particular interest are demands 3 and 4:

" Shut down Al Jazeera and its affiliate stations. 
 Shut down news outlets that Qatar funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, and Middle East Eye."
And by now everyone has heard of Donald Trump's fake wrestling video targeting CNN:
http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2017/07/02/donald-trump-ups-ante-against-cnn-with-wrestling-video-which-cnn-dubs-juvenile/
Of course Trump spins it as a joke.

What it's like to be Muslim in Trump country

The Washington Post has a fascinating article about a Muslim doctor in rural Minnesota coming to terms with living in Trump country.

What's left out of the story that could shed light on our increasingly dysfunctional nation are the voices of the townspeople in Dawson, Minn., responding to Dr. Ayaz Virji.

God loves fidget spinners ...

Double down time for Donald

The day after many in his own party condemned President Trump's comments about the hosts of "Morning Joe," our president woke up this morning and shot off three more rounds at TV news media, including this gem:

Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!

This isn't just a continuing and misguided attempt at trying to sink "Morning Joe," the ratings of which are bound to jump after this debacle. Trump is telegraphing his own party that he's not going to rein it in. "Hell, no! You wanna see crazy? I'll give you crazy like you've never seen crazy!" (This is my fake news made-up quote to illustrate what might be going on in Mr. Trump's head.)

Trump also continued to gloat over CNN and to start rumors that Greta van Susteren was fired by her "out of control bosses" for refusing to hate on Trump.

Our president is also in high dudgeon over the fact that many states are refusing his request for voter info for his election integrity committee. "What have they got to hide?"

How long will Republicans put up with this man at the helm of their party? Raber says, "As long as he's got a pen."