Suddenly Single

 Text to Dave:  His book Ethics, was published after his death in 1677. Spinoza separated ethics and god from an anthropological God whose job it was to judge our behaviors as right and wrong and dole out reward and punishment accordingly. Of course god, not being here requires his representatives to do the work for him. Hence the hierarchy of the church, adopted by the Roman Empire whose Emperor and other monarchs, as luck would have it, are vested with the Devine Right of Kings. My point in raising any and all of this is the parallels I’m seeing with Trump and the Christian Right. This is not new and this is not by accident. This is calculated leverage administered by fear. People fear death, as Spinoza knew, but the inherent fear or trepidation of the unknown was greatly enhanced with the threat of eternal damnation. If you build your foundation on fear, the structural walls on dogma and your salvation based on belonging it makes a pretty strong argument for conformity. We ...

  One of the principal obstacles to an agreement, the senior regional diplomat said, is Washington’s reluctance to allow Tehran to emerge claiming victory. “The United States wants something it can  present as proof that it won the war,” the diplomat said. Trump is openly and aggressively destroying our American constitutional democracy while threatening to escalate a war, that he started, that could destroy the world. His own cousin said he was the most dangerous man in the world and he appears to be living up to it. I don’t believe he Loves America any further than it can serve his selfish needs. He has grown his personal wealth far beyond money while most Americans struggle to buy groceries. My personal life has never been better and yet I live in the shadow of shame for his inhumane ICE policies and fear. Fear that I might be punished for speaking the truth and fear that his unquenchable ego would rather destroy our world than admit he made a huge mistake. Iran issues warn...