LET'S STARVE THE POOR

I think I'm going to have a heart attack if the news continues in this vein. Every day is a fresh horror. When I read the latest sadistic method that Trump and his Nazis have devised to hurt the poor, sick, disabled, elderly and marginalized, my heart starts to race, and I seriously wonder if it is damaging my heart.

Donald Trump's new budget slashes food to the poor, ESPECIALLY to the unemployed. That's right, Donald, kick them while they are down.

Further cuts will be made by forcing people to eat what the government provides, in the form of canned food delivered in government boxes, paid for at cut rates, with no fresh fruits or vegetables. It may have calories, but anyone who has watched television for more than a few months in their life has surely absorbed enough information about a healthy diet to know that this diet would make people sick. Canned food has almost no nutrients whatsoever, and the older one gets, the less able one is to digest many things. Everyone seems to have their own special diet after age 50 or so.

I have no dog in this fight. My Social Security income is slightly too high to qualify for food stamps or any other assistance that our government is slashing right now, except perhaps for a small reduction in rent, if I were to sign up for HUD housing vouchers during the two weeks a year that they are available. I would then have to wait 3 to 5 years before getting a voucher and would have 30 days to use it or lose it.

No, I am one of those older disabled people who fall through the cracks. My illnesses create a lot of (expensive) needs, but my income falls just over the cutoff line because I worked for more than 30 years to support myself, and my Social Security is about the same as the income of someone living on minimum wage. If I was WORKING, I would qualify for food stamps and Medicaid and other programs, but because my income is (supposedly) "unearned," I don't get anything. Thank God for kind Catholic friends who help me, otherwise my survival would be in question.

Anyway, I am not hysterical with grief over Trump's hatred of the poor because he is cutting programs upon which I rely, because I don't. No. I cry every day for the poor people who are being smashed into the dirt. I cry every day at the gross, disgusting prejudice and hatred for the poor that is being cultivated by the well fed. I cry every day that these well fed people consider themselves Christian but they will surely go to Hell for participating in making the lives of the poor an abject misery.

On some level, these people must know that when they blame the poor for their conditions that they are lying and giving false witness. I have to believe that one day they will wake up and realize how cruel they have been, repent and change their ways.

In addition to prayers for the poor, which are needed now more than ever, I ask you to pray for the hard hearted, well fed, hateful Americans who take the bread out of the mouths of the poor while impugning their character at the same time.

Silver Rose Parnell
(c) copyright 2018
All rights reserved.

A MURDER OF CROWS

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, celebrated author of  David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol, among more than a dozen other published novels, specialized in exposing the rank and heartless class consciousness in Victorian England. His own father was consigned to debtor's prison for some time. He would have felt right at home here in the United States of America in 2018.

"If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity,

I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

13:1

We pretend that we are different than the English from whom we battled to free ourselves because we do not have a system of nobility, with the attendant inherited wealth and status. No kings and queens for us! No counts, dukes or duchesses. We are egalitarian. In OUR system, anyone can (supposedly) rise through the socio-economic classes and arrive at a place where they too can thumb their noses at the poor and accuse them of every character defect under the sun - just like the English of Dickens' time!

"And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and

all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could

remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."

First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

13:2

Many Americans behave as if poverty is the result of sin. If you are poor, in the minds of a large segment of our population, it means that you persist in doing something wrong. You are lazy or criminal or crazy, and privileged Americans are happy to tell you so!

"Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not

commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not

bear false witness."
Matthew 19:18

Making these claims accomplishes two things for those with greater means. First, it makes them feel superior to a LOT of people, and who doesn't like that, right? [As of 2015, there were more than 43 million Americans whose income fell below the official poverty line, as set by our government, which is really too low to accurately reflect the number of people struggling with basic survival needs.] Secondly, it gives the "upper classes" the perfect excuse to justify lack of charity, thus enabling them to cater to their own greed and avarice.

"Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, 

dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; 

is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, 

is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;

First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

13:4-5

Nowhere is this more evident than on Facebook, where bragging about your blessings appears to be a national past time, but woe be to you if your life is not sun-kissed and full of roses. What if your news isn't that you just built a pool in the back yard? What if, instead, your news is that you ran out of food before you ran out of month? Or what if you simply don't have the discretionary income to purchase FUN things that the woman who married well can purchase (and brags about.) What if THAT is your news?

"Jesus saith to him: if thou wilt be perfect, go sell 

what thou hast, 

and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 

in heaven: 

and come follow me."

Matthew 19:21

Recently, I joined an inkle weaving group on Facebook. I plan to make crocheted tapestry-style handbags that use inkle woven bands as the strap.[I am always trying to improve my circumstances with whatever art project I can produce at home.]  If I can fast track my skill building, I hope to sell the bags in a little Etsy shop or something similar. I'd hoped to learn as much as possible while waiting for the time when I could squeeze out the money for an inkle loom. Joining the inkle weaving group was the first step.

One of the members posted a brilliant photograph of a beautiful inkle loom, wonderfully polished wood accoutrements, and a gorgeous inkle strap in progress, on the loom. I made the mistake of using a euphemism when I posted a short comment praising the beauty of the product and mentioning that I don't have the "resources." Immediately, someone posted elaborate instructions about how to purchase one of the looms, so I erased my comment and wrote a comment that made it more clear that I didn't have the finances to purchase one at this time.

All hell broke loose.

Crows - Greg Fallis

I felt as if a murder of crows had descended on my head, as a group of women swooped in to slap me around. One woman claimed that I wasn't too poor to purchase a loom because my Facebook profile looked too good. Another claimed that I wasn't too poor to buy an inkle loom because I don't live like people in third world countries. Another accused me of "fishing" for one of these strangers on this random page to buy me a loom! Another said she was sad that someone like me was a member of their group, which is the bottom line, of course. These women banded together to shame me and punish me so that I would leave, which i did.

"A false witness shall not be unpunished; and he that speaketh lies shall not escape."

Proverbs 19:9

Women in these fetid little pockets of privilege do whatever they can to push out anyone who doesn't "belong." It has nothing to do with creative vision or talent. It is ALL about how much money you have. Period. This has been going on for thousands of years, evidently.

Ironically, it is usually women who have not earned their own income who are the worst perpetrators of this kind of exclusionary classism. Women who married well and/or inherited money (or stole it from the inheritance of the children of the man's first wife) are the first to spread rumors about you and impugn your character. Many of these people claim to be very religious and make an effort to display this overt religiosity prominently in their lives. It is a cover, and they are wolves in sheep's clothing.

PORTRAIT OF A NOBELWOMAN

by

Bartolome Gonzalez y Serrano

"The things that are sacrificed to them, their priests sell and abuse: in like manner

also their wives take part of them, but give nothing of it either to the sick,

or to the poor."

Baruch 6:27

Being attacked by strangers on Facebook, simply because I dared to mention that I could not afford a weaving loom, is the final piece of my education in human nature which began when I became disabled. 

After I became disabled, I was written out of my father's will (when he was suffering from dementia.) I didn't even know he had died until after his body was cremated, his death certificate signed by a crooked doctor who was sent to prison for writing prescriptions for people he had never seen.

After I became disabled, a sibling contacted me after 12 years of silence, begged my forgiveness for her many sins against me over the years (in a calculated ploy to engage my religious sensibilities), and conned me into a lawsuit against the will, then refused to join it as promised, intentionally leaving me dangling without essential proofs for my case - just so I could be eliminated, leaving the field clear for the sibling. She had paid for the attorney, and there was a conflict of interest in that. She had thought of everything! She plotted against me, pretending to be doing everything FOR me. During the lawsuit, she called me three times a day. As soon as she got what she wanted, she stopped returning calls.

After I became disabled, long term friends who had taken advantage of my friendship dropped me like a hot potato and proceeded to spread lies about me among mutual "friends." 

After I became disabled, the Electroal College placed a misogynistic, lying, racist kleptocrat in the oval office, from whence he has systematically done everything he can to take the food out of the mouths of the poor.

The whole world feels like it is pressing in on me, with the exception of a handful of good Christian women, without whom I would be in terrible condition.

Jesus Christ - the only king I recognize

The words of Jesus have taken on a depth of meaning for me in my old age. He predicted that people would call his name and that He would turn them away, saying that he does not know them. He knew that people would claim to be Christian but do the exact opposite of what He commanded. He knew I would be in this position, and the ball is now in my court.

Now I must forgive everyone who hurts me and pray for everyone who attacks me. I must fight the natural impulse to retaliate and, instead, wish the best for everyone;, including the petty little women who push me out of artistic groups. Of course, "the best" entails that these people will be accepted into heaven and, in order for that to happen, they must obey the commandments of Jesus. One could say that praying for them is enlightened self interest, and I think Jesus is probably OK with that.

I ask that you pray for them also.

 Silver Rose Parnell

(c) Copyright 2018

All rights reserved.

LYING LIPS

Pinocchio from Stantonbury Theatre website

http://www.stantonburytheatre.co.uk/whats-on/all-shows/pinocchio/12240/

Sunday found me waiting, in vain, again, for the U.S. post office to deliver my 2-day Amazon package. I couldn't take a shower or leave the apartment grounds, for fear of missing the shipment. The cupboards were bare, except for some tuna fish and a loaf of bread that a friend had given me earlier in the week, and I was keen to have something else to eat, and to wash my hair with the special shampoo I'd also ordered.

I rely upon Amazon for most of my groceries, cleaning supplies, paper goods and even my clothing! Being mobility challenged requires it.

The package never arrived, and the computer reported that the carrier could not get access to my apartment, which is poppycock, as every unit is open to the street and we don't have gates or buzzers or ANYTHING that could be perceived as an impediment to access.

Once again, the carrier had lied. Even though U.S. Postal Service has the Amazon contract for Sunday deliveries (and the resultant income), they REFUSE to deliver to anyone who lives in an apartment, basically. They're too lazy to find the individual apartment. None of the apartment offices are open on Sunday. The carrier just takes the packages back to the warehouse. THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME because the carriers who they've hired to work on Sundays are not familiar with the route. My customary U.S.P.S. delivery person knows where I am and is completely reliable, but she doesn't work on Sundays.

"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,

but those who act faithfully are His delight."

~Proverbs 12:22~

The system is set up so that Sunday deliveries simply do not get to me - ever.

One could well ask why don't I just avoid Sunday deliveries, and it's a fair question, except that I get paid once a month and, by the time the 4th week rolls around, the cupboards are empty, likewise the refrigerator is bare, and I am sorely needing many items. I don't have enough income to keep a large stock of anything on hand. As soon as the check hits the bank, I am ordering food and other necessaries. This month, payday was on Friday.

I have reported this problem to my state representative, Michelle Lujan Grisham. Her office is very good about stepping in to help me, as much as they are able. Each time this happens, the Post Office officials say that they will instruct their people, and that it won't happen again, but I strongly suspect that they're laughing at me while they say this because the situation has not changed.

I will literally have to make a federal case out of this and SUE them to get them to do what they are contractually obligated to do. All these years that they have been refusing to provide services, they have been collecting money from Amazon.

Aside from the difficulties that arise with the groceries, I worry about people who lie their way through life. The Lord hates lying lips, Satan is the father of all lies, and I feel bad that so many seem bound for Hell.

Painting of Hell by Heironymous Bosch

"Do not lie to one another,

seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices."

~Colossians 3:9~

I am tired of suffering at the hands of liars. This whole episode makes me rerun in my mind the many times I have been damaged by the lies of other people - people one would never suspect of lying so boldly and outrageously.

Nuns, ministers, priests, government officials, relatives, co-workers and bosses have ALL lied to me and/or about me, usually for filthy lucre, but sometimes to protect themselves from a crime being revealed to the public. 

BURNING IN HELL

by Anthony Renardo Flake

"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue

but deceives his heart,

this person's religion is worthless."

~James 1:26~

I was once even fired by an attorney, for whom I worked as a litigation secretary, because I refused to lie on a document swearing that I had mailed it several days previously. Then he tried to cheat me out of my accrued vacation pay, and I had to go to the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement to get it.

Now we have a president who lies constantly, and does so in a way that is EASILY found out! He says things on camera one day and contradicts them shortly thereafter. People who are trying to work with him say that it is like talking to Jello.

From the top of the food chain to the bottom, in every walk of life, human beings are lying their way through life. I can't imagine how disappointed our dear Lord must be. I pray for them all the time, and I hope that you will also - provided that you yourself are not one of these serial liars, in which case you need to pray for yourself and change your ways. Don't think that lies don't matter! Satan will welcome you in Hell if you use his methods to get your needs met in this world.

"No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house,

no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes."

~Psalm 101:7~

Satan devouring souls of the damned in Hell

by Fra Angelico

SLICE OF LIFE - TODAY IN THE NEWS

SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON OVER NORWAY

picture by Heiko Junge / EPA

Recently, I watched the amazing super blue blood moon, as it was eclipsed over Albuquerque. It was the first in more than 100 years, so it was a special event.

Today, there is an article in the Washington Post that Donald Trump has ordered that the U.S. plant boots on the moon again. No one knows why this is important at this time in history. It will cost billions, maybe trillions of dollars, but perhaps he was inspired by the super blue blood moon and got carried away.

The picture, above, was taken in Norway. Donald Trump likes Norway and has said that he would prefer that we get immigrants from Norway instead of "shit hole countries" like predominately black or brown places - like Haiti.

40 million poor people in the U.S. often go without food or have to eat cheap but unhealthy substitutes. 1 out of every 4 children in the United States goes to bed hungry.

On television, I watched a special report on NBC about how Hostess, among other companies, is giving their employees a bonus and a year's supply of Twinkies and other manufactured treats.

Poor people are not getting bonuses or Twinkies.

Those with 401Ks are getting a little something in their accounts also.

Poor people do not have 401Ks.

During Trump's brief tenure, many services to the poor have been cut and/or eliminated.

There is a lot of celebration on Facebook among the middle class who are getting a smidgen of a raise, a modest bonus, or a little money in their 401K. "Trump is doing a good job for America!" they've written.

When these people say that Trump is doing a good job for America, which America is it, exactly? At least 40 million people are not included in their vision of America - in Trump's version of America, which is all white and rich.

The tax package that Trump pushed through gave great benefits to the wealthy, a few benefits to the middle class, and nothing to the millions of poor Americans that are struggling to survive. Under Donald Trump's administration, the more wealth you have, the more benefits you are getting from the tax plan and his removal of protections for the environment and the health of human beings around the world. Rich people benefit mightily from the removal of regulations. It isn't a benign benefit. Everyone else must SUFFER in order to push more wealth to the wealthy.

Even the benefits to the middle class are actually booby trapped. They're engineered to expire after a short time, after which there will be a balloon payment that the middle class are stuck with paying. They don't realize that the bonus or the little raise they see today are being given to them ON CREDIT. They've kept the blinders on, but in a year or two they'll be screaming about it and will find a way to blame Democrats tomorrow for the booby trap that the Trump administration laid for them today.

What is YOUR vision of America? Is it a small cadre of rich white folk, with thousands of wan, hungry servants servicing all their needs and desires?

I am praying for the intercession of Saint Francis during these difficult times, when Americans' worst instincts are being triggered. I am talking to Jesus CONSTANTLY throughout the day, asking for him to do something to enlighten these people who call themselves Christian but believe in Satan's values.

What is your vision of a supposedly Christian America? Please think about it.

God save us all

Silver Rose Parnell

Copyright (c) 2018, All rights reserved.

TRUMP IS ARCHIE BUNKER IN A BETTER SUIT

This week, President Trump characterized dozens of countries on the African continent, as well as Haiti, "shit hole countries" and wondered aloud why we take immigrants from those countries. Then he expressed a preference for immigrants from Norway. These comments were reported by at least two people who were present and heard the President say them.

A picture of Trump's German father, wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, shimmered before my mind's eye when I read about this. (There is some evidence that Trump Sr. was arrested during a KKK rally in the U.S., but facts are sparse and mysterious. We do not know for sure that he was a member of the KKK or if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up in a large arrest of KKK members. Being from Germany during a time of extreme bigotry, it appears suspicious.)

When the understandable public outcry erupted, Trump denied having made these comments, another lie in a long, disgusting stream of lies that have issued from his lips since taking office.

When I was growing up, we all laughed at Archie Bunker. It was safe to laugh at the ill-informed,  racist, misogynistic father of a New York family in a popular and ground breaking television comedy. He was a clownish character who was harmless, because he wasn't an actual person, and he represented a type of person that was on the way out, a dinosaur, or so we thought.

Put Archie Bunker in an expensive suit, and sit him in front of a television set in the White House, with a cheese burger in his hand, and you have Donald Trump. Unlike Archie Bunker, who remained married to the mother of his children, twice divorced Trump's third wife is young enough to be his daughter. He is not the family man Archie Bunker was.

There is a veneer of glamour laid over Trump and his spawn which, if it was not present, would leave us with an image of a stereotypical crime family.

In no way does Trump personify even a moderately virtuous Christian man. Vulgar, misogynistic, racist and corrupt, his every utterance, in the form of a continual stream of tweets, is an assault on our cherished values. The fact that a portion of our population adores him and holds him up as a savior for the Christian right, is a sad comment on a virulent strain of hate that passes for Christianity among a portion of the American people. These are the racist, bigoted minority that have remained underground, muttering racial slurs about non-whites to one another since the days of integration in the 1960's. They've waited for someone like Trump, whose dog whistles have made them perk up their ears.

The erroneous belief that Trump will somehow make abortion vanish from our landscape has blinded another block of people who do not appreciate how Trump's association with their pro-life cause, though tenuous and thin, is a damaging one. Outsiders look at him and are so appalled that any cause associated with him is dirtied. Evangelization under these conditions is impossible.

Unlike Archie Bunker, Trump is not harmless. He has already damaged our reputation around the world for many years to come. Whatever benefit derived from the installation of Trump's jurists in the Supreme Court pales in comparison with the damage he is doing. Electing him, in spite of his history of sexual assaults, lies, shady business dealings, and racism, has proven to be a huge mistake for our country.

I can only hope and pray that Trump's show, unlike Archie's, has a very short run.

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2018
All rights reserved.

P.S. It has taken hours to write this on this ridiculous little kindle. Please donate through my PayPal button on this page, so I can get my computer fixed. I need a new hard drive, installation, and transfer of data. The whole thing will cost between $200 and $400 - that's my guess.

VOTE THE GOP OUT OF OFFICE IN 2018

I will be brief, as I am writing this on an Amazon Kindle Fire. My computer is broken again.

The first thing I pray for this New Year is that the GOP be completely  eliminated from the House and the Senate. The GOP, in its current form, has proven itself to be hostile toward every vulnerable group in America. Women, children, the poor, the minority, have all experienced government actions against them during the last awful year since Trump rose to power.

Speaking of Trump: I pray daily for him to be impeached. He has proven himself to be completely disinterested in the welfare of anyone but himself and his rich white cronies, some of whom he installed in office for the express purpose of destroying all the agencies that exist to protect the vulnerable.

(How TELLING that Trump issued orders to the CDC that they were prohibited from using the word "vulnerable" in any report! Good bye, First Amendment!)

He doesn't believe in global warming or in the need for protecting the planet.  He has eliminated many crucial protections.

He has bragged about assaulting women and we have seen him disparage women continually, with vulgar, sexist language. He supported pedophile Roy Moore in Alabama. More than a dozen women have come forward against Trump for sexual assault, and he, the king of liars, just says they're lying. Some of the women he deemed too unattractive to be worthy of being assaulted by him.

He castigates the poor, throws paper towels at starving people whose entire island has been destroyed. He is sympathetic to Neo Nazis  and white supremacists, saying they are good people.

He lies continually and I find it remarkable that, even after he broke all his promises to his supporters, they don't care! He's thrown everyone under the bus, except for the rich, and his sycophants swoon and ask for more abuse! Still, they lionize him.

Please notice that Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land and NOTHING has been said about it. I mention this for all the people who mistakenly voted for him in the belief that Trump is pro life and would do something toward making abortion illegal. Nothing could be further from the truth! He is pro RICH BASTARDS. That's it! His supporters have been duped.

Why does a religious person write a blatantly political post? Because Jesus said to feed people. He did not say to take the food out of their mouths. He did not say we should pray for them and walk away. Jesus advocated for DOING things for the vulnerable. Trump and his rich cronies are invested in convincing everyone that the vulnerable are either faking it or are lazy. They think that they can convince everyone that we don't actually have any "legitimately" poor, disabled or elderly people.

Now that the GOP have passed a tax bill that permanently helps the rich Get richer, they're gunning for Social Security and Medicare. As someone who paid into Social Security and Medicare for more than 30 years, and who now lives on my benefits, I am frightened for the future, because I am disabled and senior: at the mercy of a rapacious government run entirely by rich bastards, almost all of whom inherited their wealth.

I've always known that there were selfish, greedy bastards in our country, but, until now, I had faith in the moral compass of our government, and the dignity of the office of the president, as well as the protections of the Constitution. Well, THAT'S all been blown to hell!

We must vote the GOP out of office, and impeach Trump because the aims of Trump and his cronies are satanic. God save us all.

EDUCATION IN AMERICA

I have been wondering why the alt right have gotten hysterical about American colleges and why they've been hollering about "snowflakes" and "crybabies." I could not understand what was fueling this animus toward the educated, nor why Donald Trump would appoint someone to run the Department of Education who had no education in education...and no experience either. In fact, Betsy deVos has spent many years and a lot of money trying to dismantle the Department of Education. Why her, I wondered?

After reading the Washington Post this morning, I am beginning to get a clue.

The alt right, represented in this article by Frank Antenori, "a former Green Beret who served in the Arizona state legislature" believes that public colleges and universities should only be funded if they teach courses of study that result in a degree with which a person can make an appreciable income. An art degree, for instance, is a "junk degree." Culture means nothing to them.

According to Antenori, the current situation is that students go to major universities to "get brainwashed and learn how to become activists and basically go out in the world and cause trouble."

The hammer headed "solution" for this alleged problem, according to Republicans, is to cut funding for education, which they have done. Nearly every state has had to cut funding to public colleges and universities since the 2008 financial crisis, according to this article. Exactly how this is supposed to fix the problem is a mystery to me, since all it does is prevent poor and middle class kids from having access to a college education.

I should have intuited the "problem" about education before this. You just have to "follow the money" when trying to understand overblown right wing anger.

For those on the extreme right, the solution to any alleged problem is to cut funding to everything that helps poor and middle class Americans, while giving tax breaks to the wealthy. If they can gin up anger toward some aspect of a public program, no matter how small, that is what they do. They spread lies about "massive fraud" in the welfare system, then cut funding to programs that feed children. In a bid to cut Social Security benefits, Republicans would also have you believe that a large number of disabled people are liars and cheats, when there is no factual basis for this complaint whatsoever.

The inconvenient fact (for the "alt right") is that there are liars and cheats in every walk of life. The percentage is about the same, whether you're a 60 year old disabled veteran in a wheelchair or a billionaire. The only difference is that the billionaire steals more money from the public pocket and is therefore a more successful criminal.

The process of disinformation begins like this. Take a minority of a minority of a minority. For instance, students who are also activists. It is a small number, but in order to whip up the Republican base, you have to turn something into a problem, then exaggerate both the number of miscreants involved and the cost to Americans of whatever behavior is being inflated.

Instead of actually addressing the wisdom of that one class on "climbing trees" Republicans want to dismantle the government agency that regulates educational institutions while at the same time cutting funding. Once again, they are taking a giant hammer to a gnat, and missing the gnat.  They never cared about the gnat to begin with. That is why they miss it...again.

If Republicans really cared about the state of our educational system, they would do something that actually fixes the imagined "problem." That would be the role of the Department of Education.

There are many reasons why an art degree or an English literature degree is not "junk" and why funding the educations of our poor children is crucial to the continued success of the American way of life. It should be obvious that institutions of higher education do not exist for the sole purpose of turning out human machines that produce consumable products, especially since those type of degrees are not EXCLUDED from courses of study.

There is room for every type of person in America, and there is no reason why our educational system should not teach everything on the spectrum, from the artist who makes towers out of tin cans, to the corporately inclined student of business administration.

I do not care for art made from tin cans or cow carcasses. My tastes run to the traditional, but I do not presume to tell other people that their taste has to conform to mine. The sign of a real "nanny state" would be one in which only the left-brained, commerce-inclined children would be fed, while all others are starved.

As a final note, I would remind the reader that the rest of the civilized world provides free education to all its children.

Silver Rose Parnell
(c) copyright 2017
All rights reserved.

TRUMP IS THE ANTI-CHRIST

I tried to talk to someone about our immigration policies yesterday, and she immediately began talking about the tiny minority of that minority who are criminal. Why was it her first thought? Why is it always her first thought when the topic arises? This happens continually, in real life, on the internet, on Facebook. Why are "Christians" obsessed with the criminal minorities among the poor, the disabled, the ill, the elderly and the stranger among us?

NOTHING in Christian theology or tradition, the Bible or the words of Jesus suggests that Christians ought to focus on the tiny percentage of people who are criminals. NOTHING.

Some time ago, our Pope made it clear that Donald Trump is not a Christian, based upon Trump's plan to build a wall along the border between Mexico and the United States and not building bridges.  There are many other positions that Trump has taken that are the antithesis of Christian principles, and his actions have certainly violated Christian ideals, yet people who call themselves Christian form a large part of his base, and they trumpet his crude and cruel ideas, as if he was the second coming!

"Love the stranger among you, for once

you were strangers in Egypt"

Deuteronomy 10:19

Trump is not known to have ever been a Church going man. Citizen Trump never demonstrated any interest in religion. Now that he is in the oval office, he has not changed in this regard. There is NO evidence of any sudden conversion to the faith. He is not keeping the Sabbath holy. He does not spend his Sundays in church. He spends them on the golf course, as he always has. His hate-filled rhetoric has not stopped. He still maligns the poor, the sick, the stranger,  and the disabled. He has become even more anti-Christian in his policies, no doubt due, in part, to pressure from the "Alt. Right" movement that is strong within the Republican Party these days.

He even supported American Nazis who marched through Charlottesville, chanting well rehearsed anti-Jewish slogans, saying that there were "good people" marching with the Nazis.

Despite all this, some Catholics continue to defend his indefensible positions and behavior. Instead of heeding the advice of our ultimate authority on faith and morals, i.e., the Pope, these Catholics are publicly saying demeaning and, at the least, dismissive things about our Holy Father. Then, they ride their Republican hobby horses roughshod over all our needy populations.

These people have traded in their religion for Republican ideology. When I saw this happening a few years ago, I coined the term RepubliCatholic.

By focusing attention on a tiny, questionably criminal minority of a minority, RepubliCatholics encourage a mean dialogue and support cruel policies.

As a Christian, one would expect that, when the subject of a vulnerable population comes up, the very first thing we would do is express a kind thought. When someone asks us what we should do about the poor, one would expect that a Christian would talk about how to improve their financial well being, but that isn't what happens these days. No. Instead, the RepubliCatholics talk about how to give LESS money to the poor, how to take food out of the mouths of their children and how the poor aren't really poor, that they are actually criminals who should be punished. The next thing you know, we will be opening poor houses again.

Donald Trump has labeled Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and "murderers" and says they "bring drugs." His speeches about the Mexicans are famous by now, but those of us who believe in the Christian message have become so overwhelmed by all the stupid, horrific things he has said and tweeted, that we cannot carry it all at once. Like a load of concrete that needs to be moved from one stinking pile to another, we can only carry bits of it at one time. He is so awful, so shocking, so extreme, that the burden on the psyches of those who adhere to Christian principles is huge. Every day, he dumps a new load of concrete on us. What do we do with the load we are carrying from 6 months ago, last week, yesterday?

RepubliCatholics are big supporters of Trump. To my everlasting shock, several of them have said that he's the best thing that has ever happened for the Christian Church. Considering that his policies are in direct opposition to the words of Jesus, I find it incomprehensible that they would say such a thing, but this is what happens when you subsume a religion into a political ideology. You begin to think that the political ideology IS your religion.

(To be accurate, I do know that Trump has claimed to be against abortion. He also wrote a 25 page memo pledging to bolster religious rights. It's all a bunch of hot air. Trump has pledged to do a lot of things that haven't materialized.  See relevant article HERE.)

RepubliCatholics have no dedicated space in their minds for the vast number of immigrants who come here to escape brutal regimes, the ones who come here to protect their daughters from the gangs that rape them, the immigrants who refused to work for the drug cartels and are targeted for death. They are entirely focused on all those "bad" immigrants. That tiny little minority of a minority has all of their attention when the subject of minorities comes up. I can't remember ever hearing any kind words of sympathy or love for the plight of the stranger among us, the poor, or the sick from these RepubliCatholics.

When I try to advocate for poor people, RepubliCatholics immediately talk about all those bad poor people who are "gaming the system." Again, if it is even true, it is a tiny minority of a minority, but RepubliCatholics are focused on that tiny minority of the minority with laser-like precision.

If I advocate for disabled people, RepubliCatholics shoot straight to the claim that there is "massive fraud" in the system and that, supposedly, millions of people are "faking" illness.  This is just a big fat lie. RepubliCatholics behave as if they have Superman's x-ray vision that can immediately diagnose whether or not a person is disabled, even if the disability is invisible to the rest of us.

I know, first hand, how very difficult it is to get any help as a disabled person. I, myself, was denied Social Security benefits the first time I applied, and I spent the next 10 years falling from one job into another because my illnesses kept me home for so many work days, I kept getting laid off. 15 jobs in a 10 year period that included at least 2 years of complete unemployment, before I finally got my Social Security. By that time, I was completely bankrupt and virtually friendless.

Long term need is enough to chase friends and relatives into the hills. Afraid that you'll ask them for help, they invent a reason to be mad at you and then dump your sorry ass. It is a humiliating, de-humanizing process, thanks to people like the RepubliCatholics who treat you like a criminal because you are sick and poor.

Once you DO obtain assistance, people who help you often treat you like an idiot that needs to be told what to do because, in their mind, if you are poor, even if as a result of inability to work, it means that you are doing something wrong and you need to be fixed.

Donald Trump reinforced the ridiculous idea that the poor are poor because they don't have the right kind of thinking when he recently justified creating the wealthiest cabinet in American history. He said "I just don't want a poor person" [to be in those positions] and he wants wealthy people "because that's the kind of thinking we want."

See video HERE

See article and video HERE

See another article HERE

History will record that Trump is the worst president we have ever had. In the meantime, those of us who haven't lost our minds or abandoned our faith to a political agenda, can only scream, cry, wring our hands and pray to the Lord that this anti-Christ is a short-lived blip in the historical narrative of American pseudo religiosity.

Those people who have aided and abetted Trump's hateful policies will have to find a way to live with themselves. Fortunately, our God is a loving God and, if the RepubliCatholics repent and recant their hatred of vulnerable populations, the Lord will probably forgive them. Judging from what I have seen so far, however, the RepubliCatholics will go down with Trump, loudly proclaiming him to be the best thing that's happened to Christianity EVER. That is why he is the anti-Christ.

Silver Rose Parnell
(c) Copyright 2017
All rights reserved.

THOSE STUPID AMERICANS

Europeans have called us "those stupid Americans" for years, and now we deserve the moniker.

A large number of people no longer believe anything an expert will say. If you're a prominent climatologist with a lot of degrees, awards, and job experience, stupid Americans won't grant you any credibility at all. They'd rather get their scientific facts about global warming from some political know-nothing talking head who has an economic agenda that will benefit the wealthy, the oil companies and big businesses that pollute the world.

If you are a professional economist with multiple degrees in the field, many years of experience in the profession, and a slew of awards, The Stupid Americans will dismiss you as "left wing," which, to them, means everything you say and do is wrong and that you have no facts and nothing to offer. Instead of listening to your expert advice, The Stupid Americans prefer to get their economic advice from know-nothings who have no relevant degrees, experience or recognition in the field.

Donald Trump has consistently demonstrated this by appointing people to his cabinet who are completely unqualified. Take the Department of Education, for one. He appointed a woman who has no education and no experience in the field. What she HAS done is spend a lot of money trying to ELIMINATE the Department of Education. The fox is in charge of the hen house, and The Stupid Americans love it.

Facts don't seem to matter in this culture because our egos have become so inflated that each of us considers ourselves the arbiter of everything that happens around us. Uninformed opinions get the most air time on Fox & Friends, wacky conspiracy theorists are quoted in debates, and your crazy uncle George, whose only platform used to be the once-a-year Thanksgiving Day dinner table, suddenly has a blog and is spewing a daily load of garbage into the world.

Humility, once touted as a positive virtue and something to which the religious once aspired, is now trampled under people's feet as they hurry to jump onto the nearest soap box to loudly belch their opinions.

Catholics are even criticizing our Pope, the leader of the faith. They're behaving as if the Pope is required to answer to THEM, rather than the other way around. These people refuse to be lead by their betters because they are oblivious to the fact that they HAVE any!

Instead of electing a president with experience, dignity, gravitas and good character, we have been saddled with a sex pervert with multiple assaults in his background who brags that he grabs women "by the pussy" and kisses them without asking. He insults every minority group, women in general, and basically everyone except his rich white male cronies, whose benefit he has in mind with every proposal that he trots out. With health care, he pushed a bill that would be more expensive for the poor, the elderly and the ill. With the tax "reform," he cuts 1.5 TRILLION dollars from Medicaid and Medicare (once again hurting the poor, the elderly and the disabled) while giving immense tax breaks to his wealthy cronies. He even criticizes war heroes who had the bad taste to have been captured and tortured for years by our enemies. "Winners" don't get captured, and Trump likes winners.

The Stupid Americans, meanwhile, are so thrilled to have someone in office who doesn't know what he is doing that they defend his every move, his support of the Nazi march in Charlottesville, his every criticism of the poor, minorities, and victims of sexual assault, as well as his constant twitter storm of lies. The gathering evidence of his campaign's treasonous relationship with Russia, though well substantiated, is dismissed by The Stupid Americans as "fake news" because the legitimate, credible prosecutor has a good reputation going back decades and he has a "professional relationship" with someone that Trump fired. Only people who have NO experience or who have a BAD reputation or who don't know anyone in government are given any credibility in the dim brains of The Stupid Americans.

Senate candidate Roy Moore may STILL win Alabama because he refuses to step down after SUBSTANTIAL allegations of pedophilia have cropped up with 4 women he molested when they were barely into their teen years. Substantial proof exists to prove that Roy Moore did, actually, molests these young girls, but the stupid Americans refuse to believe it. Roy Moore, himself, is painting himself as a victim of "political" motives and vows to never give up! Styling himself as some kind of crusader who has been wrongly maligned, he has whipped up his buddies into calling for the PROSECUTION of the girls that he molested! This is why girls are so hesitant to come forward and report their rapists - because society rapes them over and over again in the process.

This is what you get when you reject professionals, when you reject experts, when you reject truth itself.

The stupid Americans are so gullible, that all you have to do is label something "left wing" and, no matter how factual the information from that source, The Stupid Americans will dismiss it entirely. Apparently, they believe that all the employees of all the news outlets and all the top universities and all the experts are "in on" a great left-wing conspiracy to report nothing but false stories. Yep. Millions of people have called and spoken with one another in order to hide "the truth" from the rest of the American people. The only "truth" that The Stupid Americans will believe is that which is illogical, far-fetched, ridiculous, completely devoid of proof, and advocated by someone with no education or experience in the field.

The whole world is watching our system of government disintegrate like a sand castle at high tide. When The Stupid Americans have managed to completely dismantle our government, Russia or China or some other power can step in and take over. Both of those countries are skilled at propaganda.

It would be easy to enslave The Stupid Americans by whispering lies in their ears, like a smooth talking pimp. All the Russians would have to do is tell them how SPECIAL they are, how only THEY know the real truth of life. It worked on Trump. It will certainly work with his devotees!

After they pump up the egos of The Stupid Americans, the foreign power will get The Stupid Americans to put the chains on their OWN wrists and ankles, and then chase down all the other Americans and force them to do the same!

In America, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, this is true. That does not mean, however, that your opinion is worth anything.

Don't take my word for it, though. Get advice from the EXPERTS. I would be happy with that.

Silver Rose Parnell
(c) Copyright 2017
All rights reserved.

DONALD TRUMP, HARVEY WEINSTEIN, AND MY FATHER - Tales of my Life in the Entertainment Industry

My son and me

about 1977

The recent uproar about the assaults and rapes of women by powerful Hollywood characters and prestigious men in government is giving me flashbacks to what I experienced as a young woman working in Los Angeles in the 1970's. In fact, my whole life has been shadowed by sexual assaults of one variety or another, and I know that I am not alone. The world is not a safe place for women and girls to live.

Like many women in the American work force, I had to fend off the advances of men who felt that, since they were attracted to me, I therefore owed them my body.

I had been fighting off the unwelcome advances of employers, landlords and random guys in elevators since I was a kid. I'd gotten my first office job at age 16, shortly after I moved out of the house, and it was remarkably easy to get hired.  I endured a constant barrage of indecent proposals, lewd jokes and offers of "a ride home" on a daily basis. I had actually been chased around the house of a famous actor after he'd ordered up a secretary from a temp agency. Despite assurances that it was a "real job," I quickly learned that everyone was star struck and complicit in the trading of young flesh for the pleasure of the famous.

The entertainment industry is not the only one in which women are objectified. When I worked at E.F. Hutton, the entire department watched porno films during Friday lunches in the conference room. It was an all-male department. They hooted and hollered at me over the vulgar moans and groans blaring from the raunchy film they were watching. The traders yelled at me to come in and join them. I immediately started looking for another job. I couldn't quit. I had no money and no one to whom I could run for help.

Shortly after going to work in that commodities department, my boss, the head of the department, propositioned me to go to Las Vegas with him over a long weekend. I refused and reminded him that I wasn't old enough to enter a casino, being only 20 at the time. He fired me and blackballed me in the industry, telling prospective employers that I was "lazy." Yes, I was too lazy to have sex with him, so he lied about me.

Lying about their victims is typical for predators. Just read the news. Every woman that has come forward and told the public about their assaults has had their reputations sullied - in some cases beyond repair.

A few years later, I learned that my own father was one of those creepy guys who demanded sex in exchange for employment. He was the line producer for a popular television series, after a successful career as a writer on such early television shows such as Combat!, Mod Squad, the Rockford Files, and many others.  I had been helping out in his office at the television studio while his secretary was on vacation when I stumbled into his office one day and discovered that he actually used the couch in his office as the cliche'd "casting couch," I was dumbfounded. He was PROUD of it. He crowed about how he deliberately left the door unlocked because the possibility of discovery was all the more exciting for him. It was horrifying.

He had a woman living with him at the time who had appeared in some bit roles in the series my father produced. Is that how she got the job? Is that how she got him?

The use of the casting couch as a method of choosing which actress would be given a role is a blatant and concrete example of the misogynist's theme, i.e., that women are interchangeable and that talent, skill and experience are irrelevant to the work at hand. If an actress were to make a fuss about the status quo, she could easily be replaced, because one woman is the same as any other in the mind of the predator. Nothing is relevant except obedience. Spread your legs, or you don't get that television role.

Apparently, I was the last to learn about this casting couch. EVERYONE seemed to know about it when I queried them.  His was not the only casting couch on the lot, of course. Having a couch in your office was the hallmark of a powerful man. It was a status symbol - something akin to the corner office in the corporate world. I was revolted.

I let him know how I felt in no uncertain terms. Being a classic narcissist, the slightest hint of disagreement or disapproval of anything he did or said was enough to send him into a paroxysm of rage, and this topic was no different. He didn't even have the sense to be embarrassed or ashamed.

A few days after our confrontation about his casting couch, he stole a screenplay assignment from me in retaliation.

These assignments weren't given in writing at the time. You took a meeting, pitched a story, got the assignment for the story treatment. If the story treatment met with approval, you got the go ahead to write a first draft of the script. I'd gotten the go ahead, and had started work when we had our tiff about the casting couch.  The Writer's Guild couldn't help me because I had not used an agent in my negotiations and I had no proof. I didn't figure I needed one, for obvious reasons, but I was innocent and unprepared.

I was so overwhelmed by it all, I decided to abandon my writing entirely. I turned my back on the industry and never wrote another screenplay or teleplay or tried to do anything in that business ever again. My entire being revolted against what I had experienced.

Although we'd had a fight about his abuse of women, I could not make myself stop loving my father. It was a terrible interior conflict that tore me up inside. I ran away from it. I had to remove myself from the ringside seats. I fell into a deep depression. I couldn't find work. I ran out of money. My car got repossessed. I got a beat up old wreck of a car and moved to Arizona for a year, to take some college classes and clear my head.

Meanwhile, my father began telling lies about me to other family members in order to mask what had actually happened. He had to reframe the events to favor himself and hide his adultery from his wife. He had to destroy my reputation so that no one would believe me.

I was not able to resurrect my reputation in the family, becoming the scapegoat for his sins. No one questioned his version of events because people who live in the reflected light of the glamour of stardom  suspend disbelief of anything that the star has to say. Otherwise, they may lose their access to all that yummy glamour - and money. The religion of celebrity is a vile aspect of American culture. We're seeing it now with Donald Trump. His starry-eyed worshippers attribute God-like status to him and resolutely deny his very public moral and ethical bankruptcy.

I suffered a lot for walking away from my writing career, but I could not face the horror of what that industry deems commonplace. In a business where even one's father would steal from you, who could be happy? Then there was the fact that my father was a sexual predator.  From an emotional standpoint, I could not live with the reality of my father's involvement in a sexist system that had always abused me.

I understand completely why all these women who are now bringing suit against Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer and Donald Trump did not come forward sooner. I know what it is like to be immersed in a culture that protects the powerful men and sneers at women who complain of being sexually abused. 

When I heard the Access Hollywood conversation between Donald Trump and Billy Bush, I became nauseous. Long buried memories came rushing back.

Donald Trump was bragging about grabbing women. "Grab 'em by the pussy," he said. Billy Bush egged him on in a smarmy, sycophantic manner so typical of the hordes of people I'd seen worshiping at the church of celebrity. Trump suggested that, when they saw the actress they'd come there to see, that he might just start kissing her. "I can't help myself," he said. "I just start kissing them." Bush cheered him on, like a frat boy encouraging a more senior member of the tribe.

As I watched Trump pillory the women who came forward to confirm that yes, he IS the sexual predator he bragged about being on that video-tape, I grew furious. I have seen this constantly during my many years  in the entertainment industry. Their stories rang true. Trump's assassination of their character was exactly what I had experienced, first hand. I had seen all sides of it.

During Trump's campaign, I was stunned by his obvious, overt bigotry and racism. His reduction of women to their physical parts was consistent, base and vulgar. His dog whistles were easy to hear. He put rich white males on a pedestal and urged his devotees to venerate that image and hate every other. The comprehensive nature of the hate takes my breath away.

I was struck dumb when Donald Trump was elected president. 40 years after I bailed out of the culture of celebrity, thinking that I had escaped that environment, I find that it has spread! Even women voted against their own best interests and EXCUSE Donald Trump's behavior. They have bought into the supremacy of the RICH WHITE AMERICAN MALE. This dark and evil soup of malevolent white male dominance and aggression, has spread, widened and deepened.

In the United States, women still make only 70 cents for every dollar a man makes, the glass ceiling is still very firmly in place, and we have never had a female president, despite the fact that many countries have had female leaders for quite some time. We have a serious problem in our country. While we have this arrogant, boasting nationalism that claims an exceptionalism we do not possess, at the same time, we have backward, primitive ideas about women, minorities, the aged and the infirm.

Donald Trump's naked display of the very worst aspects of our culture has caused my PTSD to kick into overdrive. His vision of an America that is hostile toward everyone but the rich white male, is frightening and evil. His childish, virulent twitter storms are a drumbeat that incites the primitive drive of angry white men who dream of  power and the subjugation of inferiors. He even defended NAZIs who marched in Charlottesville, chanting slogans against Jews!

I ask "conservatives" how they would feel if one of the women now suing Donald Trump were one of their daughters, or their wife, or their sister. They get mad at me because they've convinced themselves that the 16 women who came forward against him are all liars. The ease with which they skewer the characters of more than a dozen unrelated women they've never met and know NOTHING about infuriates me.

It has always been thus. Women are sexually assaulted on a daily basis and, if the rapist is a star or a favorite candidate, the sycophants conspire to ruin their reputations. They attack the victims with a cold vengeance. It makes me ill.

I find it ironic that in "liberal" Hollywood, the tide is now turning against sexist monsters who have used their fame and money as a weapon against women and girls, while in so-called "Christians," circles, people are excusing the sins of Donald Trump.

Harvey Weinstein has had some bad press and has lost his position. Louis C.K. has lost a lot of jobs as a result of his exhibitionistic masturbation scandal. Kevin Spacey has lost his job on the hugely successful HOUSE OF CARDS. Billy Bush lost his job on Access Hollywood as a result of that video with Trump, but I THINK he got in trouble because it leaked, not because it happened. Matt Lauer has recently been fired from his award winning, hit television news program on NBC.

Yet nothing happened to Donald Trump as a result of the release of that Access Hollywood video in which he brags about assaulting women. People voted for him anyway. They don't care that he is a serial assaulter of women, a bigot, a vulgar liar and a misogynist.  The women he assaulted are called liars and whores by his followers, who say they have "forgiven" the Donald for his crude behavior and they're SURE he's no longer using that "locker room talk." Some of them say the equivalent of "boys will be boys." A lot of people on Facebook say that he's the best thing that's happened to the Christian Church in years.

The fact that conservative Christians are defending the sex perverts in government while going after their victims is what keeps my PTSD fully engaged. America is a dangerous place to live for women and girls.

I have a granddaughter who is now the same age I was when my boss fired me for refusing to have sex with him. I pray that she is never exposed to the kind of pressure I experienced, but considering the support that Donald Trump enjoys from the very people I would expect to defend the innocent, I am not confident that she is safe, and I pray for her constantly because the only time the "trickle down" theory seems to work is when it involves the subjugation of the innocent.

It is worth noting that one of the reasons predators are not made to answer for their crimes is that there a small number of women who betray other women by taking advantage of this sick arrangement. There ARE some who deliberately trade sexual favors for jobs, and this muddies the waters for the rest of us who do not want this type of commerce in our working lives. There are also women on the Christian right, oddly enough, who follow their men blindly and participate in the savaging of the reputations of the women who HAVE come forward.

God save us all.


Silver Rose Parnell
(c) Copyright 2017
All rights reserved

PUT ON YOUR CATHOLIC GLASSES

Morning Walk

November 5, 2017

A fair number of Catholics have put down their Catholic glasses and put on their Republican glasses instead, trading in their faith for a political ideology that they've confused as an appropriate substitute. Many appear willing to do or say anything in support of their political candidate, even if it is dishonest, uncharitable, and slanderous.

Instead of examining what is happening in the White House today, for instance, these RepubliCatholics are fixated on Hilary Clinton, who is not in any public office, is not running for office, and has not been in office for years. Social media continues to be flooded with ridiculous conspiracy theories about her. Clearly, she's not even yesterday's news. She hasn't been in any political office for at least 5 years. Why beat the dead horse?

At the same time, Robert Mueller,  a man of sterling character and reputation, is being slandered by the RepubliCatholics, who are calling for him to be fired, supposedly because of Mueller's "professional relationship" with Comey, the former head of the FBI whom Trump fired after Comey initiated the investigation into Trump Campaign ties to Russia. If one is going to have an FBI investigation, it is obvious that the FBI employees are certainly going to know one another. Are we to surmise, then, that no FBI agent can head an FBI investigation because one of them was fired by the person being investigated? That would be convenient to the person being investigated, certainly.

Read about the motion to remove Mueller HERE

These RepubliCatholics are also mad that the FBI didn't find any wrongdoing with a Uranium deal with Russia, a deal on which 7 government agencies signed off and which was not engineered by then-secretary of state, Hilary Clinton. CLEARLY, Trump devotees are clutching at straws.


Who is Bob Mueller, anyway?

As Special Counsel for the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the campaign of 2016, Robert Mueller's mandate is to investigate "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." [Rod Rosenstein's letter appointing Mueller as Special Counsel.]

Mueller is a war hero. He received the bronze star for combat for his service as a Marine during the Vietnam War. He was the director of the FBI for 12 years (originally appointed by President Bush.) He has served as a U.S. Attorney, an Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, and as Acting Attorney General.

He was one of the "key players" in making America safer after the 9/11 terror attack on the twin towers. [See: "Robert Mueller, Known for His Integrity, Leads Historic Investigation as it Heats up." HERE]

Mueller has a solid reputation for equanimity and nonpartisan action. Mueller's reputation is such that, if he isn't fit to lead this investigation, then no one would be. (Read the articles through the links I provided.)

This investigation isn't partisan. Mueller, like Trump, is a Republican. The investigation has found quite a few Trump Campaign officials have strong ties to Russia. This isn't "business as usual." It's bizarre for an American politician to be surrounded by people who have so many ties to Russia, an enemy state, as I detail in the next paragraph. The timing of the Republican push to oust Mueller is suspicious, to say the least.

Charges may soon be filed against Mike Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor, having to do with Flynn's connections to Russia. [See: "Mueller Has Enough Evidence to Charge Flynn in Russia Investigation." HERE]

Mike Flynn

George Papadopoulos has already pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his work with Russia while a member of the Trump campaign. [Read his plea agreement and underlying confession of guilt HERE.]

George Papadopoulos

Former Foreign Policy Advisor to Donald Trump

Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, charged with tax fraud and money laundering, has Russian connections and is currently under house arrest, as is his long time associate, Rick Gates, who was also on Trump's team. [Read about them: HERE]

Paul Manafort

Trump's former campaign chairman

Rick Gates

Assistant to Manafort

As Catholics, our devotion to truth should be far stronger than our attachment to any public figure, otherwise, we are in service to Satan, the father of lies. If you find yourself in the position of fighting AGAINST the truth coming out about your favorite public figure, it may be time to rethink why he is your favorite to begin with.

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2017 - All rights reserved.