TBR News December 12, 2019

The Voice of the White House
Washington, D.C. December 12, 2019:“Working in the White House as a junior staffer is an interesting experience.
When I was younger, I worked as a summer-time job in a clinic for people who had moderate to severe mental problems and the current work closely, at times, echos the earlier one.
I am not an intimate of the President but I have encountered him from time to time and I daily see manifestations of his growing psychological problems.
He insults people, uses foul language, is frantic to see his name mentioned on main-line television and pays absolutely no attention to any advice from his staff that runs counter to his strange ideas.
He lies like a rug to everyone, eats like a hog, makes lewd remarks to female staffers and flies into rages if anyone dares to contradict him.
It is becoming more and more evident to even the least intelligent American voter that Trump is vicious, corrupt and amoral. He has stated often that even if he loses the election in 2020, he will not leave the White House. I have news for Donald but this is not the place to discuss it.
Commentary for December 12: “American defence contractors are developing a laser weapon for fighter aircraft that may be powerful enough to blind people on the ground, even if they are relatively far from the target
The 100-kilowatt infrared laser, which is being developed for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter by defence companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, is far more powerful than any laser ever used in war. But because it is designed to attack targets such as other fighter aircraft, ground vehicles and anti-aircraft batteries, it is exempt from the Geneva Convention’s ban on blinding weapons.
If fired into the cockpit of a fighter jet, for instance, the infrared beam would pass through the canopy and strike the plane’s electronics – reflecting random beams at the crew. And if accidentally aimed at a person on the ground, the beam could fall onto a spot just 30 centimetres across, which would be intense enough to burn skin, corneas and retina.
The trouble is that the human eye is far more vulnerable to laser damage than virtually all military targets, because the eye focuses laser light onto a tiny spot on the retina, rapidly burning it.
Safety guidelines warn against staring into beams of only a few milliwatts, and even brief exposure to lasers approaching one watt is dangerous. The unpredictable reflections scattered from a 100-kilowatt laser blast could be devastating.”

The Table of Contents
• Germans in favor of ‘reducing reliance’ on US
• Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline faces sanctions under US defense bill
• Poll: 42% of Germans want US troops out of country
• I won’t be able to have healthy food’: millions of Americans to lose lifeline as Trump cuts food stamps
• Opium and the CIA
• The New Christian National Socialist Manifesto
• The Doves Were Right. I Was Wrong.
• The Season of Evil

Germans in favor of ‘reducing reliance’ on US
A new YouGov poll has found that a majority of Germans are in favor of reducing reliance on the US and increasing ties with Russia. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany cannot defend itself alone.
December 3, 2019
by Davis VanOpdorp
DW
A majority of Germans are in favor of reducing Germany’s reliance on the United States militarily, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the German news agency DPA.
According to the poll, 55% of Germans believe that European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should protect themselves from an attack without US help. In addition, a majority of poll participants believe the US should partially (23%) or completely (26%) withdraw its 30,000 troops stationed in Germany.
Conversely, 54% said NATO should work more closely with Russia rather than relying on deterrence. Meanwhile, 37% are for lifting sanctions against Russia relating to its conflict with Ukraine on the Crimean Peninsula, while 34% are against lifting such sanctions.
NATO members are currently gathered in London for a tense two-day summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to hold talks with US President Donald Trump, who has criticized Germany and other NATO countries for not spending enough on defense.
Merkel said last week that Germany is not in a position to defend itself alone. She also vowed to increase Germany’s defense spending to the NATO target of 2% of its gross domestic product “by the 2030s.”
However, 42% of Germans disagree with increasing the defense budget, currently 1.4% of GDP, while 36% agree. Nonetheless, 54% believe that NATO, which is set to celebrate its 70th birthday, is still a necessary organization.
Germany’s defense department underwent a leadership change in July, with Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the leader of Merkel’s center-right CDU party, replacing current European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Kramp-Karrenbauer has also advocated for more military spending and has promised the US greater military involvement.
DPA said 2,049 people took part in the survey, which took place between November 29 and December 2.

Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline faces sanctions under US defense bill
Washington pushes ahead with sanctions against the gas pipeline, claiming it strengthens Russia’s grip on EU energy markets. In Germany the move is condemned as an “unfriendly act” to promote US commercial interests.
December 12, 2019
by Uwe Hessler
DW
Under efforts to halt the construction of the $10.5-billion (€9.6-billion) Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, US lawmakers have imposed sanctions targeted primarily at companies providing pipelaying services to the project. The provisions were adopted on Wednesday as part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which is an annual Department of Defense policy bill aimed at covering measures unrelated to defense.
The legislation gives the Trump administration 60 days to identify those companies and individuals providing such services, and allows for the revocation of US visas and the blocking of property of these individuals. It also gives 30 days to those targeted by the sanctions to wind down their operations.
Nord Stream 2 is close to completion and largely follows the route of the existing Nord Stream conduit which already delivers gas from Russia to Germany for distribution across Europe. The new pipeline is expected to double the capacity for gas to 110 billion cubic meters annually. Proponents argue the gas will substitute for coal in Europe’s energy mix and provide a back-up for renewable sources such as wind and solar power
US lawmakers have repeatedly criticized the project, saying it would allow Moscow to sidestep gas transit via Ukraine and give Russia’s energy giant Gazprom an export monopoly to European energy markets.
Republican senator Ted Cruz said in a statement that the bill, if signed into law, would safeguard Europe’s energy security and prevent Moscow from obtaining billions of dollars “that could be used to fuel Russian aggression.”
After approval by the House, the US Senate will now have to vote on the bill, which will then go to US President Donald Trump for signing.
Race against time
According to the US State Department the requested report could be delivered to Congress in less than a week, allowing sanctions to take hold in a compressed time frame. “We’re going to move quickly,” an official said Wednesday.
Some 627 companies are involved in building Nord Stream 2 — among them only two pipelaying specialist firms — Allseas Group from Switzerland and Italy’s Saipem. Allseas has deployed the world’s largest pipelaying vessel, the Pioneering Spirit, to complete the tube’s final offshore stretch.
Gazprom has said it needs about five weeks to complete the offshore section of the pipeline. The company is confident it can finish the work itself should Allseas be forced to leave the project, saying it would retrofit its own ships as well as ships belonging to Russian contractors.
“We will complete the pipeline one way or another,” a Gazprom official said Thursday. “The sanctions, if they come, will only delay the construction and make it more expensive. But they are not going to kill it.”
But Mikhail Krutichin, a partner in Russian consultancy RusEnergy, is skeptical about Gazprom’s claim. “There are no replacements [to the pipelayer vessels],” he told DW, because a likely alternative vessel, Russia’s MRTS Defender, can only lay pipes in depths of up to 150 meters (164 yards).
Sanctions against the members of the consortium financing Nord Stream 2 are less harmful, the experts agree. That is because the Russian state, or even Gazprom itself, has sufficient funds to continue building.
On collision course
The German government has long prepared for sanctions and says it “rejects extraterritorial sanctions that affect German and European businesses.”
Matthias Schepp, managing director of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, has been terser in its rebuttal, rejecting Washington’s claim of a Russian stranglehold on the European gas market as a “fallacious argument.”
“A sober look at the facts clearly shows that we are less dependent on Russian gas than the Russians are dependent on hard currency from its gas exports to Europe,” he said in a statement Thursday, adding that America would only seek to sell its more expensive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Europe.
Schepp called on the government in Berlin to prepare countermeasures against Washington, which should also include imposing European sanctions.
The German Eastern Business Association (OAOEV), a trade and commerce body, spoke in a similar vein, saying US interference in the pipeline project should be regarded as “more than an unfriendly act.”
“America wants to sell its liquefied gas in Europe, for which Germany is building terminals. Should we arrive at the conclusion that US sanctions are intended to push competitors out of the European market, our enthusiasm for bilateral projects with the US will significantly cool,” OAOEV said in a statement Thursday.

Poll: 42% of Germans want US troops out of country
by John Vadiver
Stars and Stripes
BRUSSELS — Many Germans want U.S. troops to withdraw from their country, where nearly 35,000 American servicemembers are stationed, according to a new poll.
The YouGov survey, commissioned by the German Press Agency DPA, found 42 percent of respondents want U.S. troops out, while 37 percent want them to stay and 21 percent are undecided or didn’t answer. The margin of error was plus or minus five percent.
The poll, taken a few days before this week’s two-day NATO summit in Brussels, also found that 75 percent are opposed to a benchmark that calls for each alliance member to hike defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product – a shortfall which President Donald Trump has cited as evidence of allies being too dependent on U.S. protection.
Additionally, 35 percent of respondents are opposed to Germany increasing its defense spending levels to 1.5 percent of GDP, which it plans to do by 2025 as part of an 80 percent spending hike. Another 25 percent were undecided or did not answer.
Trump blasted Germany on Wednesday at the summit as a security free-rider that doesn’t invest enough in defense and relies on the U.S. military.
“They have to step it up immediately,” Trump said. “Germany is a rich country. We are not going to put up with it.”
For months, Trump has ripped allies, and particularly Germany, for not doing enough on defense matters. But as Trump has ratcheted up his criticisms, the YouGov poll suggests that the hectoring is doing little to motivate German voters to meet Trump’s demands.
When respondents were asked if they felt more sympathy for Trump or Russian President Vladimir Putin, 6 percent said Trump, 36 percent said Putin and 58 percent said they did not know or didn’t answer.
In an earlier Pew Research Center poll, 11 percent of Germans expressed confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing in world affairs in 2017, down from 86 percent in 2016.
The lack of public support could mean that Chancellor Angela Merkel and other conservatives who favor boosting defense spending levels will struggle to win political support to meet the 2 percent NATO benchmark in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the support for an end to the post-World War II American military presence in their country comes as the Pentagon is conducting a review of its force structure in Europe.
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that Trump expressed interest in a large-scale pullout from Germany and possibly returning them to the U.S. or repositioning some elements in Poland. The Pentagon has said there are no plans to yank troops from Germany, where U.S. bases provide staging and transportation hubs for operations in Africa and the Middle East.
Germany is home to the second-largest number of U.S. troops overseas after Japan. During the Cold War, Germany hosted the majority of the 300,000 troops deployed to Europe, but the numbers declined sharply after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Nick Witney, a former head of the European Union’s European Defense Agency, predicted that Trump’s continuous badgering of America’s NATO allies will spark efforts within the EU to boost the bloc’s own nascent military capabilities rather than relying exclusively on NATO for defense. He said that in that case, U.S. weapons sales in Europe would likely be the first to feel the backlash.
“If this doesn’t cause the EU to get deadly serious about ‘strategic autonomy’, nothing will,” said Witney, now a senior fellow at European Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-European think tank.
Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report.

I won’t be able to have healthy food’: millions of Americans to lose lifeline as Trump cuts food stamps
The Trump administration is rolling out new rules that will reduce Snap benefits, and make millions of Americans ineligible to receive them
December 12, 2019
by Michael Sainato
The Guardian
When James Fauntleroy lost his sales job in the summer he quickly found his social security disability benefits did not provide enough to live on. So he turned to a vital lifeline relied upon by many Americans on hard times – food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap).
Fauntleroy, 35, initially received an approval letter, which noted he would receive $197 a month starting immediately. That was enough to help him put food on his table.
But then the bad news came.
“In the beginning of September, I received another letter from the Florida department of children and families stating that my approved amount would change from $197 to $16,” said Fauntleroy, who lives in Orlando, Florida.
Fauntleroy is one of about 40 million low-income Americans who receive at least some Snap benefits every year, a program for which the Trump administration is currently rolling out new rules that will reduce these benefits even further, and make millions of Americans ineligible to receive them. Some people, especially those with disabilities, were already finding it hard to get by on current benefits or falling through the cracks of the system. Now they fear the strict new requirements will make their situations even worse.
For Fauntleroy – who suffers from a kidney disorder – the food stamp cuts are a disaster. “I currently have a gofundme set up to help with living expenses until I can get another part-time job. In the meantime, food is expensive and I also have to choose certain foods as a kidney dialysis patient. So it’s very difficult and weighs on me mentally and emotionally,” he said.
He currently relies on a paratransit service to travel to a kidney dialysis center three times a week, and still has to cover $65 monthly co-pays and the $135 a month medicare deductible taken from his disability benefits. He’s currently searching for another part-time job, because his disability benefits will be suspended entirely if he makes anything over the income limits of about $1,200 a month.
But the Trump administration is determined to target food stamps for cuts.
On 5 December, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the finalization of a new rule that will limit state waivers of federal work requirements for “able-bodied” individuals between the ages of 18 through 49 without dependants.
Currently without a waiver, these individuals cannot receive Snap benefits longer than three months in a three-year period. States have been able to grant waivers to these requirements in regions with high unemployment or insufficient available jobs. The rule is estimated to revoke Snap benefits from 668,000 individuals in the US.
The term “able-bodied” is vague, subject to interpretation of who fits into the requirements as determined by state agencies.
The rule is one of three being pushed by the Trump administration, which is also looking to enact capped income levels for Snap benefits eligibility to twice the poverty level, about $50,000 a year for a family of four. The rule would also prevent households with more than $2,250 in assets, or $3,500 for a household with a disabled adult, from receiving food assistance benefits. Nearly 3 million Americans are expected to lose Snap benefits as a result of this rule.
A third rule would cut $4.5bn from the Snap program over five years, affecting one in five families receiving benefits.
The rules have faced scrutiny for revoking or reducing benefits for millions of Americans struggling with poverty, including eliminating access to free or reduced school lunch meals to 500,000 children.
But many disabled or sick Americans already struggle with obtaining Snap benefits or maintaining them under current requirements. Their situation, already tough, is now going to get worse.
They are people like Virgil Garwood, 37, of Woodville, Ohio, who was only receiving $50 a month in Snap benefits while fighting thyroid cancer. He receives social security disability insurance and is unable to work due to seizures, bone degradation, and the frequent surgeries his treatment requires.
But under the Trump administration, his benefits were reduced to just $15 a month, though his financial situation had not changed at all.
“My state requires Snap recipients to attend a class for proper nutrition, another class for budgeting, and a class that explained the program and how to apply for jobs. The entire time you were a recipient you were expected to be looking for employment and be able to provide proof,” said Garwood. “I let the program lapse because driving out to the classes to maintain benefits would cost way more than the $15 it’s bringing in.”
Jennifer Pracht of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has relied on Snap benefits to provider for herself and her 14-year-old daughter since she became disabled and unable to work due to spinal issues in 2012.
“For some reason this year, my amount was cut by $105 a month. Nothing has changed on my end for them to cut the amount. But, they did,” said Pracht. She’s concerned more unannounced cuts to her benefits are coming.
“I have no idea how I’m going to put food on the table for a whole month, let alone have that food be healthy. I won’t be able to have healthy food in this house because it’s so much more expensive.”
Several individuals who spoke to the Guardian about their experience with Snap benefits requested to remain anonymous or only go by their first name.
Lisa, 47, in Michigan began receiving Snap benefits in April 2018 while waiting on her social security disability insurance filing to be approved. In October 2018, she lost her Snap benefits due to work requirements.
“Food insecurity was a constant. I kept a running tally in my head of what food was in the kitchen and how many meals I had left, compared to how long before I might get money again.” said Lisa. “This isn’t a huge amount of money. This isn’t about people going out and living high on the hog on the taxpayer’s dime. This is about people scraping to get by, and that little bit of money a month is a godsend.”
A 40-year-old woman in South Berwick, Maine, currently receives $130 a month in Snap benefits and social security disability insurance as she suffers from Ehler’s Danlos syndrome, a vascular genetic condition, and several other disabilities.
Much of her disability payment goes toward rent, as she only recently moved into stable housing after struggling with homelessness for several years. She has no reliable transportation to a grocery store, and has dietary restrictions associated with her disability.
“I always have to set aside a food and transportation budget from my social security disability, which is $760 a month,” she said. “I don’t think $130 a month is enough for anyone to survive on and I get the maximum benefit, especially when they have multiple disabilities and can’t find work.

Opium and the CIA
December 12, 2019
by Aaron L. Johnson

It ought to be recognized that part of the so-called Afghan opium pipeline runs through the United Arab Emirates on its way to Kosovo where it is refined into heroin and shipped up into Europe.
Opium crops located in Afghanistan, over 95% of the world’s opium production, is protected by US CIA people and elements of the American military who have made themselves responsible for the bulk of the illegal heroin markets worldwide.
There is a deliberate effort to convince the bulk of the public that opium in Afghanistan is a Taliban operation but in fact it is not
An ‘Afghanistan Opium Survey’ details the ongoing and steady rise of Afghan opium production. In stated: “In 2016, opium production had increased by approximately 25 times in relation to its 2001 levels, from 185 tons in 2001 to 4800 tons in 2016.”
In 2011 a US MI report had stated, very clearly, that US military convoys operating from Pakistani ports were specifically used to ship both raw opium and refined heroin out of that country and to South American ports.
And then there are the origins, and development of the CIA’s modus operandi.
In what is called the Golden Triangle area, during the Vietnam war, when the CIA imposed a food-for-opium scheme on Hmong tribesmen from Laos — complete with a heroin refinery at the CIA headquarters in northern Laos and the set-up of nefarious Air America to export the raw gum opium by CIA-owned aircraft, to Columbia where it was, and is, being refined into heroin.
During its involvement with the war in SEA, the CIA used the Hmong groups to counter the activities of the Pathet Lao groups. The Hmongs used the profits from their opium productions to live on. The CIA protected the opium trade and very soon, realizing the profits to be made from it, expanded their control over the opium-growing business. The Hmong were very important to CIA operations and the CIA was very concerned with their well-being. The CIA began to export raw opium from the north and east of the Plain of Jars to Long Tieng and later, during the height of the Vietnam wars, began to take a great interest in the very large and successful Afghanistani opium fields.
A Pakistani intelligence report based on Pashtun sources, most specifically indicates that the controlling factor in the opium production is not Muslim but American.
According to Pakistani government intelligence, the CIA is heavily involved with al-Quaeda and IS and introduced them into Afghanistan for guerrilla actions so as to be able to convince Washington to increase the number of American troops into that country to protect the highly profitable opium fields.
If one looks at a map showing the locations of the known opium fields in Afghanistan and then looks at another map showing US military units in place, the two are nearly identical.
Russian intelligence is well aware that the US CIA and the Pentagon are secretly supporting the Saudi-raised Sunni IS, a branch of which is now very active in Afghanistan.
It is very well known that a major portion of Afghanistani gum opium is taken over by CIA people and most of it is shipped to Columbia.
A portion of this opium goes to Kosovo where it is also refined and then shipped up through Germany to Russia. This annoys the Russians who have made a strong effort to put a halt to something that killed over 50,000 Russians last year from heroin overdoses.
Here we have an interesting situation.
Russia, with good reason, objects to having heroin smuggled into her country and attempts to put a stop to it.
The United States, a country that, via its agencies, is heavily involved in the international drug trade, objects to this attitude.
Therefore, in addition to all Russia’s oil and gas which America badly needs, the US has an excellent motive for making Russia a handy enemy.
Enemies are necessary to stimulate public support for more profitable (to some at least) small wars.

The New Christian National Socialist Manifesto
by Oral Shockley, DD
The New Christian Journal
To Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Greetings!
It is with glowing pride that we contemplate the growing control and spiritual influence of True Christians in establishing strict control of the American political and educational realms. America was founded in 1620 by Religious Dissenters, True Christians, who fled from secular persecutions in England. They set up a religious community in Plymouth Bay and flourished greatly. But in subsequent years, America drifted away from her True Christian origins and became a nest of Secularism. Americans have turned away from the One True God to worship Mammon and materialism! Self-indulgence has replaced self-discipline and the cell phone has replaced Our Lord Jesus Christ in daily importance! But rejoice in your hearts because the True Disciples of Christ have organized to save America from Secular Humanism and hedonism and we are now at the very gates of the True Kingdom of Heaven on earth! The True Disciples have begun their Sacred Mission by gaining virtual control over the Republican Party in almost every state in the Union, have elected a President of our One True Faith, have filled the halls of Congress with Representatives of both the people and Christ the Lord! We are well on our way to reestablish the True Christian nation, under God Almighty, that was founded in 1620.
The Politics of God
Now, with the advent of a True Christian as President of the United States, we Christians stand closer now to establishing a truly Christian-based government in this country since 1620!
By faith and determination, we have placed many of our people into the ranks of the Republican Party; have organized local elections to put our members on vital school boards where they can, and have, successfully supplanted the false Darwinism with the Divinely Inspired Biblical Creationism. We have elected members to serve in Congress who are sensitive to our needs and wishes but we need far more in order to establish a firm majority.
Since 2016 dozens of True Christians, by Presidential order have been placed in key positions within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Drug Administration and on commissions and advisory committees where they have made serious progress. Three years later God-sent Bush Administration has established one of the most righteous sexual health agendas in the Western world.
As one example of the growing power of the Lord in American politics, the Texas Republican Party Platform for 2002, called for rescinding United States membership in the United Nations and removing the United Nations from US soil. Pat Robertson, in his book, “The Millennium”, depicts the United Nations as a Satanic plot to take control of the world. And in the LaHaye “Left Behind” books, we can see that the United Nations is firmly in the hands of the anti-Christ!
Herewith we present our Watchwords and our Credo to you for your guide and inspiration.
1.Rule the world for God!
2.Give the impression that you are there to work for the Republican party, not push an ideology.
3.Hide your strength.
4.Don’t flaunt your Christianity.
Our Credo is:
Jesus Christ is Lord in all aspects of life, including civil government.
Jesus Christ is, therefore, the Ruler of Nations, and should be explicitly confessed as such in any constitutional documents. The civil ruler is to be a servant of God, he derives his authority from God and he is duty-bound to govern according to the expressed will of God.
The civil government of our nation, its laws, institutions, and practices must therefore be conformed to the principles of Biblical law as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.
In confronting Secular Humanists and Satanists, we must realize that it is vital to stress the following Proclaimed Truths:
1. The unique divine inspiration of all the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as originally given, so that they are infallible and uniquely authoritative and free from error of any sort, in all matters with which they deal, scientific and historical as well as moral and theological.
2. Special creation of the existing space-time universe and all its basic systems and kinds of organisms in the six literal days of the creation week.
3. The full historicity and perspicuity of the biblical record of primeval history, including the literal existence of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people, the literal fall and resultant divine curse of the creation, and worldwide cataclysmic deluge and the origin of nations and languages at the Tower of Babel.
Brother Pat Robertson said in 1992,
“We want…as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians…”
Ralph Reed said in 2001,
“You’re no longer throwing rocks at the building; you’re in the building.”
Once dismissed as a small regional movement, Christian conservatives have become a staple of politics nearly everywhere. Christian conservatives now hold a majority of seats in 36% of all Republican Party state committees (or 18 of 50 states), plus large minorities in 81% of the rest, double their strength from a decade before.
Active Christian Conservatives who are obedient to Almighty God and his Commandments in the United States Senate are:
Mitch McConnell, KY, , KS, Sen. Lindsey Graham, SC
These True Christians deserve our heartfelt thanks and our continued support, both fiscal and personal.
The twin surges of Christians into GOP ranks in the early 1980s and early 1990s have begun to bear fruit, as naïve, idealistic recruits have transformed into highly proficient operatives and leaders, building organizations, winning leadership positions, fighting onto platform committees, and electing many of our own to public offices at all levels of American governance.
Christians need to take leadership positions. Since Republican Party officers control the membership and our legislative bodies, it is very important that mature Christians have a majority of leadership positions whenever possible, God willing.
One of our brilliantly successful tactics in gaining control of Republican organizations is to tie up the meetings for hours until people left. Then we appointed ourselves leaders and make key decisions. Once we took over the local leadership throughout our target State, we can then control the state party apparatus. Once we have a target state under Christian control, we can then use the same tactics in other states until we build a solid Christian foundation that can control any election, state or national.
The strategy of the coming Christian Based Republican Party is simple.
First, enact a permanent tax cut which will eliminate $6 trillion in revenue over the next 20 years. This will in effect starve the federal government so it will be unable to fund many liberal and essentially anti-Christian governmental functions instituted since the Communist-inspired New Deal.
Second, fill the liberal and secular federal judiciary with Christian advocates whose judicial philosophy will reverse the disastrous trends on civil rights, environmental protections, religious liberty, reproductive rights and privacy and so much more.
Third, mandate the teaching of Divine Creationism in all public and private schools and remove from all school curriculums the Secular Humanist false theories of Darwin and others.
Fourth, revise the Federal Constitution so that it better reflects Divine Will and strips away false secularism entirely.
A Constitution that conforms to Biblical Law will rely on the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament as its guiding source. Therefore, the Ten Commandments hold a special meaning. The New Christian lawmakers are going to pass legislation in various state legislatures that will mandate government posting of the Ten Commandments in all public buildings.
Rev. Joseph Morecraft is pastor of the Reconstructionist Chalcedon Presbyterian Church in Marietta, Georgia and he states his belief in the persecution of nonbelievers and those who are insufficiently orthodox is crystal clear. Reverend Morecraft describes democracy as “mob rule,” and states that the purpose of “civil government” is to “terrorize evil doers. . . to be an avenger!” and “To bring down the wrath of God to bear on all those who practice evil!”
“And how do you terrorize an evil doer?” he asks. “You enforce Biblical law!” The purpose of government is “to protect the church of Jesus Christ,” and, “Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than Jehovah. And therefore the state does not have the responsibility to defend anybody’s pseudo-right to worship an idol!” “There is no such thing” as religious pluralism, he declared. Further, “There has never been such a condition in the history of mankind. There is no such place now. There never will be.”
“When God brings Noah through the flood to a new earth, He re-establishes the Dominion Mandate but now delegates to man the responsibility for governing other men in order to protect human life. He does this by instituting capital punishment – the backbone of civil government.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Now let us begin with some realistic soul-searching. Let us define the purposes and directions of our ranks for, although we may see the same Enlightenment in different ways, in the end, we are all True Christians.
The implementation of Biblical Law is central to the mission of building the Kingdom of God on earth. The way to get to Biblical Law is through politics. Therefore, God’s law as manifested in the Bible should govern. References to the Ten Commandments are more than symbolic. It reflects a belief that the Bible, not the Constitution, represents the final legal authority.
1) The federal government should recede into the background through massive tax cuts. This concept, heartily embraced by President Bush, has more than one benefit. As money available for corrupting so-called “entitlements” dries up, there will not be funding for welfare leeches, birth control programs, support for the army of illegal aliens now flooding out country and the notorious Social Security give-aways.
2) Churches should be mandated to take over responsibility for welfare and education by Faith-based initiatives and school vouchers. By these means, True Christians can establish a firm control over the education of American youth. We can, and will, instill Christian Values in our youth and by this means insure a growing body of young Christians, ready, willing and able to assume leadership positions in a Christian United States.
3) Capitalism is the sole reason that America is now the greatest nation on earth and the Christian Community firmly believes that this engine of national success and power should be freed of current regulations that harmfully restrict America’s major corporations in achieving their maximum growth potential. We are therefore opposed to so-called “environmental” rules and regulations, restrictive and repressive work safety regulations, involvement by the Federal government in civil rights matters. We must first and foremost introduce and secure legislation to halt devastating personal injury lawsuits against Corporate America.
4) The U.S. Constitution should conform to Biblical Law.
The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004, introduced into both houses of Congress on February 11, 2004, included the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office. This is another firm and ascending step in the establishment of a true Christian society in America.
Among the sponsors of the bill were Rep. Robert Aderholt AL, Rep. Michael Pence IN, Sen. Richard Shelby, AL,Sen. Zell Miller, GA, Sen. Sam Brownback, KS, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, SC.
The Promulgation of the Faith by our President
Trump stated firmly and clearly that he believes God is involved in world events and that he and America have a “divinely guided mission.”
Donald Trump, to his eternal glory, has brought forth many concepts that advance our Holy Cause. He has nominated many Christian judges who will give the law a, pro-Christian bent. He has put forward, school-prayer guidelines issued by the Department of Education, faith-based initiatives and his personal directives to virtually every federal agency, has wonderfully increased both the presence and the potency of religion in American government.
The Council on National Policy:
The Council for National Policy, which was co-founded by former Moral Majority head LaHaye, has included: John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, Ralph Reed, the editor of The National Review, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Grover Norquist and Oliver North.
The CNP has rendered yeoman service in assisting Christian conservatives take control of the Republican state party organizations in Southern and Midwestern states. It has assisted in spreading the word about the infamous ‘Clinton Chronicles’ videotapes that linked the president to a host of crimes in Arkansas, and was a determinant factor in bringing about the impeachment of Clinton.
Speaking before the CNP, Donald Trump promised to appoint only anti-abortion-rights judges to the Supreme Court, or he stuck to his campaign ‘strict constructionist’ phrase and took a very firm stand against the proliferation of homosexuals and lesbians. The President, through the guidance of the CNP is fully supporting an amendment that can effectively severely limit public access to birth control, abortion, and any form of non-procreative sex.
Critics exist but we will silence them
The Republican National Committee is now very effectively securing the support of the Federal Election Commission to issue new rules that will effectively silence deviant groups that have dared to communicate with the public in ways critical of President Trump or Conservative and Christian members of Congress. Happily, these labors in the vineyard of the Lord are bearing fruit. Under the President’s firm guidance, the FEC has just proposed rules that would do exactly that. Any kind of non-profit — conservative, progressive, labor, religious, secular, social service, charitable, educational, civic participation, issue-oriented, large, and small — will be affected by these rules. No longer will secular humanists, so-called liberals, sexual perverts and non-Christians be able to confuse, obfuscate and confound our President and our Christian legislators in the prosecution of the establishment of a truly Christian Nation, under God.
Under the leadership of President Trump and a Republican and increasingly Christianized Congress, we are more than pleased to see that faith-based organizations will have new access to tax funds in excess of $40 billion dollars.
Roe V. Wade
In order to eliminate this gross aberration, the Trump Administration has named a fetus a human being, thus flouting Roe v. Wade and the authority of the courts.
Trump has chosen pro-Christian and anti-choice extremists for key positions such as Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services. His administration has named a fetus a ‘human being’ preparing the way to argue that abortion is murder. And Bush’s nominees to the federal courts are consistently anti-choice
The Conversion of the Muslims to Christianity.
With the active and even enthusiastic support of our President, Christians are now aiming at a great conversion of the Muslim population of Iraq. Once closed to our workers, now, Iraq lies at our feet and because we will be protected by the armed might of the United States, we can do the Lord’s work in safety.
Franklin Graham, founder of Samaritan’s Purse said in an interview with Beliefnet.com,
“I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about his Son….We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and as a Christian I do this in the name of Jesus Christ.”
About the International Mission Board, the missionary arm of the Southern Baptists:
Organizing in secrecy, and emphasizing their humanitarian aid work, Christian groups are pouring into conquered Iraq , which is 97 per cent Muslim, bearing Arabic Bibles, videos and religious tracts designed to “save” Muslims from their “false” religion. The International Mission Board, the missionary arm of the Southern Baptists, is one of those leading the charge. John Brady, the IMB’s head for the Middle East and North Africa, appealed to the 16 million members of his church, the largest Protestant denomination in America. “Southern Baptists have prayed for years that Iraq would somehow be opened to the gospel,” his appeal began. That “open door” for Christians may soon close. “Southern Baptists must understand that there is a war for souls under way in Iraq,” his bulletin added, listing Islamic leaders and “pseudo-Christian” groups also flooding Iraq as his chief rivals.
Although proselytizing is usually forbidden, most countries in the region are eager to have Western religious groups running hospitals and clinics, and working on economic development and education. Some long-established missionary groups in the Middle East have come to terms with this by focusing their work on serving the social needs of the local population, and hoping that they might draw Muslims to Christianity more indirectly, through example.
But other missionaries, including many evangelicals, say it is part of their faith as Christians to try to spread the gospel.
Sometimes, these efforts have led to friction not only with Muslims, but also with other Christian missionary groups, which fear that such efforts put them in danger and their work in jeopardy.
We view with anticipation the projected “Americanization” of the Middle East. Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries are slated for our “American Freedom” projects and if we are successful in Christianizing Iraq, soon enough we will have even wider horizons in which to plant the seeds of Christianity throughout an area that by rights is a Christian domain.
An Expanded Israel
Certain events have to occur for Falwell’s version of prophecy to be fulfilled. As quoted by a fellow Christian pilgrim in Prophecy and Politics, a book by Grace Halsell who participated in two Falwell-led pilgrimages to Israel in 1983 and 1985,
“The Jews must own all of the land promised by God before Christ can return. The Arabs have to leave this land because this land belongs only to the Jews. God gave all of this land to the Jews.” (p.87)
Ed MacAteer, one of the founders of the Moral Majority has spoken of his beliefs.
“I believe that we are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and, without exaggerating, makes me breathless. Every grain of sand between the Dead Sea, the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea belongs to the Jew. every bit of it.”
The Fate of the Jews
The Reverend Tim LaHaye describes the fate of the Jews in the book Left Behind.
“The final battle in the history of the future will be fought on this ancient battleground in Northern Israel called Armageddon. And the Jews? Well two-thirds of them will be wiped out by now and the survivors will accept Jesus at last.”
Settlements in West Bank and Gaza: Key to Fulfilling Prophecy
Falwell made his first trip to Israel in 1978 with an invitation from Prime Minister Menachim Begin. This began a strong relationship between the Likud Party, the hawkish party of Israel, and the Religious Right in the United States. Falwell has led many groups of Christian Zionists on pilgrimages to Israel, and the Religious Right has been subsidizing settlements ever since.
A Colorado-based group called Christian Friends of Israeli Communities – communities translates as settlements in the West Bank and Gaza – runs an adopt-a-settlement program. According to the director of its Jerusalem office, one-third of the 145 settlements receive funds from Christians.
The late Grace Halsell’s book, Prophecy and Politics, is no longer in print, but can be found in some libraries. It was published in 1986 by Lawrence Hill and Co. Halsell was an author and journalist who worked in the Johnson White House. She grew up in rural Texas in a fervently fundamentalist Christian culture. Halsell attended two pilgrimages organized by the Reverend Jerry Falwell — one in 1983 attended by 630 pilgrims, and a second in 1985 attended by 850 pilgrims. She also attended the First Christian Zionist Congress in 1985. One resolution at that Congress called for all Jews living outside Israel to move to Israel.
The Christians also urged Israel to annex that portion of occupied Palestine called the West Bank, with its near one million Palestinian inhabitants. An Israeli Jew, seated in the audience, rose to suggest that perhaps the language might be modified. He pointed out that an Israeli poll showed that one-third of the Israelis would be willing to trade territory seized in 1967 for peace with the Palestinians.
“We don’t care what the Israelis vote!” declared van der Hoeven [spokesman for the International Christian Embassy]. We care what God says! And God gave that land to the Jews!” After his impassioned outburst, the Christians by a nearly unanimous show of hands passed the resolution. (p.133)
Halsell interviewed Charles Fischbein, executive director of the Jewish National Fund, who described his work with the American Christian Trust headed by Mrs. Bobi Hromas, wife of a top official with a West Coast defense contractor:
“The trust enjoys 501(c)(3) status and receives funds from private individuals, estates and large evangelical-fundamentalist organizations… The Trust in turn gives this money to Israel, expressly for Jewish settlements in the West Bank… Mrs Hromas told me the Trust planned to raise a hundred million dollars to purchase land for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the present target area being in the Palestinian town of Hebron… This I was told would help fulfill biblical prophesy. (p,170-171)
Gays and the Christian Community
The late Jerry Falwell:
“[T]hese perverted homosexuals…absolutely hate everything that you and I and most decent, God-fearing citizens stand for…Make no mistake. These deviants seek no less than total control and influence in society, politics, our schools and in our exercise of free speech and religious freedom….If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America!” 1999
Lou Sheldon, founder of the Traditional Values Coalition:
“Our little children are being targeted by the homosexuals and liberals who are pushing for this legislation,” wrote Sheldon. “They want our preschool children…. They want our kindergarten children….They want our grade school children….They want our middle school and high school children….To be brainwashed to think that homosexuality is the moral equivalent of heterosexuality. We can’t let that happen.”
Dr. James Kennedy, Senior Minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale and the president of Coral Ridge Ministries, calls for a constitutional “Firewall” to protect the nation from counterfeit marriage.
From the Baptist Press:
“I see this becoming probably the largest domestic issue that will be addressed in this election cycle — if the economy continues to improve,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Baptist Press. Conservatives are pushing for a constitutional amendment protecting the traditional definition of marriage, and one such effort — the Federal Marriage Amendment — already has some 100 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. If passed, it would trump the Massachusetts ruling as well as any other such ruling by a court. To become law it would require passage by two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-quarters of the states.”
From Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association:
“The sacred institution of marriage is under attack. There are those who want to redefine marriage to include two men, or two women, or a group of any size or mix of sexes: One man and four women, one woman and two men, etc. If they fail to secure legal protection classifying these arrangements as ‘marriage,’ they want to include all these mixtures under the definition of ‘civil union,’ giving them identical standing with the marriage of one man and one woman.
They have gained the support of the national media and many politicians. Their efforts are intended to force, by law, 97% of Americans to bow down to the desires of the approximately 3% who are homosexuals.”
From the Concerned Women for America’s Janet LaRue:
“These are the court jesters of the century. The Massachusetts Legislature should summon the moral courage to impeach the majority for their abuse of power and distortion of the state constitution.”
President of Family Research Council, Tony Perkins:
“This is THE wake-up call for both the American public and our elected officials. If we do not amend the Massachusetts State Constitution so that it explicitly protects marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and if we do not amend the U.S. Constitution with a federal marriage amendment that will protect marriage on the federal level, we will lose marriage in this nation.”
Anti-Gay Politics and the Religious Right
Dnald Trump has equated gays with alcoholics and kleptomaniacs, but it has long been a central tenet of True Christian Right groups that homosexuals are diseased, and can be cured with a combination of religious indoctrination and psychological counseling. Reparative therapy as practiced by a variety of ex-gay ministries includes a large dose of gender stereotyping: men are encouraged to play football or learn auto mechanics, women to wear dresses and makeup. John Paulk and his wife Anne are the current “poster children” of the “ex-gay” movement, appearing on the cover of Newsweek; in 1993 John Paulk told the Wall Street Journal that “To say that we’ve arrived at this place of total heterosexuality – that we’re totally healed – is misleading.”
Politically, Religious Right groups use the disease or addiction model to assert that civil rights protections should not be afforded to gays and lesbians. According to this “logic,” public policy that treats gays with equality and dignity actually inhibits individuals from seeking to be “cured.” In Maine earlier this year, “ex-gays” were featured in one of the television commercials run by Religious Right groups during the successful campaign to overturn a statewide anti-discrimination law.
The recent ads also attempt to equate homosexuality with AIDS and other diseases; one of the recent ads was titled, “From Innocence to AIDS,” cleverly alluding to Religious Right myths about gay recruitment of children and promoting Religious Right efforts to portray homosexuality as a “death-style.” Typical of such rhetoric was a recent Chuck Colson article about Billy, a doll being marketed in the gay community. Colson suggested that all Billy dolls should come with a plastic coffin, asserting that most gays are “men whose lives are tragically marked by disease, addition, misery, and early death.”
Misrepresenting ideology as science is a favored tactic. Paul Cameron is a virulently anti-gay “researcher” whose methods led to his being ousted from the American Psychological Association. Although Cameron has been thoroughly discredited, his “research” continues to be a favored source of ammunition for the Religious Right. William Bennett, Chuck Colson, and others continue to repeat Cameron’s conclusion that the life expectancy for gay men is 43 years, a statistic based on his reading of obituaries in gay newspapers. (Cameron’s statistic was effectively demolished in online magazine Slate) Bennett’s trumpeting of this statistic last year on ABC’s This Week and in the Weekly Standard was picked up by National Review and continues to circulate as the kind of “truth” that the Religious Right wants to tell America.
The Death Penalty for Homosexuality
Among those of us who embrace “reconstructionism,” which advocates imposing a radically fundamentalist interpretation of “Biblical law” onto American society are many outspoken advocates of the Christian America concept. On the September 4, 1998 Armstrong Williams talk show, Colorado talk-radio personality Bob Enyard called for the death penalty for gays and adulterers. Last year, a Christian radio talk-show host in Costa Mesa, California said, “Lesbian love, sodomy are viewed by God as being detestable and abominable. Civil magistrates are to put people to death who practice these things.” The announcer urged listeners to contact legislators and ask that they enact capital punishment for homosexuality. The station manager called the program “an honest dialogue concerning Christian beliefs.” Congressional candidate Randall Terry, former head of Operation Rescue, extends this view of “Biblical law” to include a removal of all homosexuals from positions of influence in American society with especial reference to the American education system at all levels. This even extends to suspected perverts as well as brazen practitioners of perversions
In addition, the battle cry against “special rights” was the centerpiece of opposition to a federal anti-discrimination bill, the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), which was defeated by one vote in the U.S. Senate in 1996. More recently “no special rights” was the core message of the Religious Right’s campaign to overturn President Clinton’s executive order banning discrimination against gays in the federal workplace. Carmen Pate of Concerned Women for America said the executive order was “not about equality under the law, but about special privileges.” In the last instance, the rhetoric was so plainly and patently untrue that a sufficient number of Republican members of Congress voted in favor of equality on the job and the executive order was allowed to stand.
Our Church has launched many attacks on corporations that offer domestic partner benefits and make it very clear that our leaders’ anti-gay ideology will not permit any special treatment or recognition of their gay employees. A few years ago, American Airlines was attacked for its gay-acceptance policy in hiring and for its support of gay community organizations. A host of Religious Right leaders, including D. James Kennedy, Gary Bauer, James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), and Richard Land (Southern Baptists) signed an open letter, printed as a newspaper ad, attacking American Airlines. American Airlines officials met with Christian Community leaders but rejected demands that they discontinue marketing to the gay community. This is a battle to which we will certainly return and we now plan to extend our efforts to other large American corporations. We are planning to promulgate a nation-wide boycott against any such corporation that either hires homosexuals or supports the so called “Special Interest” programs cleverly designed to introduce gays into normal society by making them acceptable to the gullible and uninformed.
A Prayer for our Members: Oh Lord, we beseech Thee to bless our God-Instructed President that he may smite the unbelievers of the Muslims, correct the errors of thought in our people and bring again the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon this earth!

The Doves Were Right. I Was Wrong.
Americans like me ignored—or scorned—protesters who warned of an endless quagmire in Afghanistan. Next time, we should listen to the critics.
December 10, 2019
by Conor Friedersdorf
The Atlantic
The 80 percent of Americans who supported the war in Afghanistan back in 2001 were wrong. And the tiny anti-war faction that opposed the conflict was correct in warning that an invasion and occupation would turn into a bloody quagmire.
That was my thought as I read the long-suppressed war documents that The Washington Post published yesterday after a three-year fight to make them public. Officials under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump “failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign,” the Post showed, “making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”
Observers will differ on whether U.S. officials could have been more effective or honest, or whether their failures were foreordained by perverse incentives and hard choices. A shorter war that struck al-Qaeda members but eschewed occupation can be imagined.
But there’s no disputing what actually followed the decision to go to war:
• 2,300 American troops killed;
• 20,589 Americans wounded in action;
• more than $1 trillion in expenses;
• war crimes perpetrated by U.S. troops;
• and a propaganda effort that hid truths about the war from a self-governing people, corroding American democracy.
What might each of those 2,300 killed have done with another 60 years on Earth? Could homelessness in America have been ended for a generation if $1 trillion were invested in that effort? Which public and private tasks could have been accomplished domestically by the more than 775,000 humans deployed to Afghanistan during the conflict?
Despite everything, Afghanistan has not secured a stable democracy, assured women’s rights, protected the lives of Afghan civilians, strengthened America’s hand against regional rivals, defeated the Taliban, or established a central government or security force that can survive U.S. departure. Given how the war turned out, America would have been better off not going at all, especially given that anti-war options never precluded hunting Osama bin Laden, as U.S. Special Forces did later even as he hid in Pakistan outside a war zone.
Americans ought to be upset at the officials responsible for this historic debacle and everyone complicit in hiding the truth about it from the citizenry. As John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told the Post, “The American people have constantly been lied to.” All who lied deserve public censure.
But those responsible for the war in Afghanistan aren’t just the U.S. officials who presided over the war effort or the Congress that approved it by overwhelming margins. Most Americans favored war in an unfamiliar country, knowing that the authorization to use force was expansive, that what victory entailed was never defined, that the U.S. government has lied to the public frequently during past conflicts, and that the Vietnam War lasted years longer than most anticipated when the fighting there began.
It is tempting to blame Washington elites, or the deep state, or the military-industrial complex for America’s misbegotten Afghanistan policy. And I, among others, have been critical of all those forces. But as a 21-year-old who favored the Afghan War when it began, I was among the majority who believed that the anti-war leftists of 2001 were wrong in their dire warnings of quagmire. So I am painfully aware that the American masses, almost the entire populist right, the center-left, and Bush-era elites joined forces in supporting the war in Afghanistan, while a tiny faction of anti-capitalists, paleoconservatives, and libertarians opposed it.
Some anti-war signs held aloft at small protests included unhelpful comparisons of George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler and mistaken assertions that racism had motivated the intervention.
But the dismissive response to those anti-war protesters extended to more reasonable claims, some of which proved prescient. An illustrative example, published at The American Prospect on October 2, 2001, took aim at a sarcastic protest sign that declared Rush In, Think Later.
The journalist Chris Mooney commented:
This is precisely what the Bush administration has not done, though it’s hard to say the same of certain peaceniks … I think about its holder, and try to imagine what was running through his or her mind. Protests themselves may take weeks to organize, but protest signs take just minutes to draw up. There must have been something instinctive and deep-seated behind that slogan, for its creator to be able to twist reality so starkly, rushing in to protest U.S. haste long after our government showed caution. Dare one suggest––without cramming stars and stripes down anyone’s throat––that it is the blindly held creed of anti-Americanism?
But two years later, in a September 8, 2003, memo, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted, “I have no visibility into who the bad guys are. We are woefully deficient in human intelligence.”
While reeling from a catastrophic terrorist attack in 2001, America made a decision that turned out badly. These past 18 years should cause Americans to heed the warnings of anti-war protesters when next they raise the alarm about a war of choice. Almost inevitably, wars have a momentum of their own. They come with powerful propaganda efforts that hide the extent of what’s going wrong from the public.
And all wars have the potential to be long, hard slogs. As Winston Churchill warned in 1930:
Never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy … The Statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations all take their seat at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you can easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
According to the Post, “Last year, 3,804 Afghan civilians were killed in the war, according to the United Nations. That is the most in one year since the United Nations began tracking casualties a decade ago.” As of last month, more than 10,000 U.S. troops remained in the country.
There’s still no telling when America will withdraw for good.

The Season of Evil
by Gregory Douglas

Preface
This is in essence a work of fiction, but the usual disclaimers notwithstanding, many of the horrific incidents related herein are based entirely on factual occurrences.
None of the characters or the events in this telling are invented and at the same time, none are real. And certainly, none of the participants could be considered by any stretch of the imagination to be either noble, self-sacrificing, honest, pure of motive or in any way socially acceptable to anything other than a hungry crocodile, a professional politician or a tax collector.
In fact, the main characters are complex, very often unpleasant, destructive and occasionally, very entertaining.
To those who would say that the majority of humanity has nothing in common with the characters depicted herein, the response is that mirrors only depict the ugly, evil and deformed things that peer into them
There are no heroes here, only different shapes and degrees of villains and if there is a moral to this tale it might well be found in a sentence by Jonathan Swift, a brilliant and misanthropic Irish cleric who wrote in his ‘Gulliver’s Travels,”
“I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most odious race of little pernicious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”
Swift was often unkind in his observations but certainly not inaccurate.

Frienze, Italy
July 2018-August 2019

Chapter 25

Outside on the porch, the detective wrote down notes on the joke and Chuck went down the hall to inform the household of the good news.
“Hey kids! You can all kiss me now if you want. The police were here and they absolutely know that Connie and scrotum head died accidentally!”
Lars said,
“I am not going to kiss you, Chuck but Gwen can if she wants to.”
And she did, several times.
Chuck disengaged himself and looked at his watch.
“We can take off any time we like. I think the sooner the better but after it gets dark. Any problems?”
There were none and he went on.
“Lars, if you pack your bags and have them ready by the back door, I am going to take Gwen here out to buy some clothes for the trip. You can come along if you want to but I don’t think you’d enjoy it.”
Lars was not interested in watching older women buying clothes. He still had some tapes he had not seen and that was a much better prospect for him.
“No, I have things to do here, Chuck. How long will you be gone?”
“If it was just myself, only an hour or so but women do like to shop, don’t they Gwen?”
“I think Lars is right, Chuck. You can be very nasty without even hardly trying.”
And they went out into the carport after Chuck looked around for lurking detectives. The pool was closed again and there was a yellow police strip of plastic across the gate. He saw someone in a wheelchair moving slowly along a path but no one who even remotely resembled the law.
He opened the side door of the large van.
“Get inside if you will and down on the floor.”
“Chuck! Shall I take my clothes off too?”
“Good God, shut up and get into the car. I don’t want anyone seeing you when I drive out.”
“Oh,” Gwen said as she lay down on the back seat, “you ruined my day. It would be so much fun to get screwed in a hot car.”
They drove out past the guard at the gate and headed for the freeway.
“Is it OK to get up now?” came from the back as Chuck accelerated into the fast lane.
“Sure, come on up in the front and look at all the nice cars, Gwen. It’s really an exciting and rewarding experience.”
She smacked him across the back of his head and sat down in the passenger seat in front.
“Is this real leather?” She patted the wide, comfortable seat.
“Yes, and put on your seat belt. If one of these drooling creeps decides to stop quickly and I have to brake, I don’t want you to end up through the windshield. It wouldn’t do your complexion any good at all.”
An olive-hued alien was going ten miles an hour in the fast lane and traffic was frantically changing lanes to avoid crushing him.
“Where are we going, Chuck? The hospital?”
“Am I driving too fast?”
“No, that jerk is driving too slow.”
“I’m taking you to Saks Fifth Avenue up at Stanford. I looked it up in the telephone book and I guess it will do. Ever shop there?”
“I’ve never even heard of it. It’s a store I guess.”
“Actually, it’s an outlet for mortuary clothes. You know, coats with Velcro on the back so you don’t have to break Uncle Willy’s arms getting him into it. No, seriously, Saks is a good store. I think you’ll like it better than the Goodwill where you obviously got that dress you have on.”
“If you don’t like it, Chuck, I can take it off, right here in the car.”
“Jesus, don’t do that! Driving around with a naked underage girl is not my idea of fun right now. I’m sorry about the dress remark.”
Gwen did like the store and Chuck noticed that she seemed to be instinctively drawn to the more expensive items. Still, he had to admit, she wore clothes well and had good enough taste.
It took both of them to carry the boxed and bagged loot out to the car. Considering what he had spent, he wished he had kept some of the Canadian money.
The next step was finding a place that did hair and they found one across the parking lot from the store.
Chuck waited, impatiently, for nearly another hour but was pleasantly surprised when Gwen came out into the front waiting room.
In a new dress and with her auburn hair carefully styled, she looked five years older than the timid waif he had met in his living room a week before. Five years older and much more attractive. He kept staring at her.
“How does it look?”
She turned in a circle.
“It does look very good. I…yes very good. Do you want something to eat before we go back?”
“I have no money.”
“Yes, you do, love. You still have the five hundred I gave you. I can remind you that your wardrobe and the hair did not come out of that. I’ll find the restaurant and you can pay the bill.”
“Sure. You probably stole it from poor aunt Connie after you broke her neck.”
“Oh my God, I’m going to have to watch you.”
“That might be fun but we can eat first and then I can take off all my clothes just for you.”
A woman awaiting a blue rinse heard the last remark and glared at both of them as they left the establishment and wandered out into the shopping mall.
The restaurant was French and catered to pseudo-sophisticates from neighboring Palo Alto, of whom there were a large number. The wine list was impressive and Chuck ordered a bottle of excellent Moselle and Gwen, who couldn’t read a word of the menu, noted the prices in the right hand column. She had hoped to keep as much of the money Chuck gave her as possible but the cheapest luncheon entree was sixty dollars.
Chuck reached across the table and gently pulled down the menu.
“Never mind, I’ll order. A good salad and a nice salmon in parchment with a Mousseline sauce ought to do you fine. If you don’t like salmon, we could think of something else.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” she said. The only salmon Gwen had ever eaten came from a can.
And when the waiter came to take the order Chuck ordered two salads, Dover sole for himself, the salmon and an appetizer of Beluga caviar.
Gwen looked at the round, translucent eggs in the crystal dish embedded in shaved ice.
“What’s this, Chuck?”
“Sturgeon roe, dear. Fish eggs. It’s an acquired taste.”
She started to spoon up the caviar but he stopped her.
“Use the small spoon and put it onto the little crackers.”
From time to time as they were eating, Chuck would lean across the table, put his hand beside his mouth and whisper,
“No, the small fork on the end. Use that.”
Or,
“Break the rolls in half before you butter them.”
At a neighboring table, a fat, balding man was talking into a cell phone, complaining about a stock issue that was not doing well. His pinch-faced wife was slowly munching on a salad with all the vacuity of a cow.
A few minutes later, she complained, first to her husband who was now making an appointment with his therapist, and then to the waiter, that the watercress was not crisp enough. Also, she added, the wine was too warm and the butter was too salty.
The waiter was properly solicitous and when he went back into the kitchen with the half-finished salad, he and the chef took turns urinating on the fresh watercress.
In general, it is never a good idea to return food to the kitchen after insulting either the chef or the waiter.
Chuck’s lunch, complete with etiquette lessons, lasted for nearly an hour and ended with peaches in chartreuse jelly.
“Chuck? Are you Catholic? I noticed that all we had was fish and today is Friday.”
“I’m catholic in taste but not in faith. And besides, the Pope says it’s OK to snap at mackerels on Friday now. That dictum went the way of Mr. Christopher and a lot of other familiar and entertaining saints. I’m Episcopalian if it means anything. That’s being a Catholic without the guilt. How was the lunch?”
She shrugged.
“I’ve never had anything so good or so expensive. Do I really have to pay for it?”
“Of course. I suppose you want to hang on to the money I obtained from your aunt but don’t worry, there’s more. A lot more. Shall we talk about the trip?”
And they did, at great length. Chuck explained that he had promised Lars they might possibly buy a farm in Minnesota although in actual fact, Chuck did not really want to live in Minnesota.
“Why don’t we just fly back there?” Gwen asked as she toyed with her empty wine glass.
“Dear, I never fly. When you check in at airports, you have to show some genuine photo ID. This is put into their computers and within a minute, the FBI knows all about you. And some ex-convict working for TSA gropes you while their crime partners steal things from your bags. No, you either take a car or a bus. Maybe even a private plane but never a commercial airline unless you don’t value your privacy. And if you take a car, do not use a credit card to pay for the gas or the hotel room. All of those records are also made available to the FBI so they can trace every move you make without leaving the comfort of their office and the donut boxes.”
“How long will it take?”
“Three or four days if we drive on. If we don’t stop at night, we can cut the time down but I don’t see any need to push it. What do you think?”
“Does it matter?”
“No but I like to be polite.”
“It would be nice to sleep at night and eat something once in a while.”
“Fine. Then it will take four nights and five days. I have it all worked out.”
“I can believe that. Lars says you plan everything right down to the last detail. I think he’s right.”
“Someone has to.”
“Even sex?”
“No, sex is always interesting. I plan to have it but I don’t make maps.”
“We can take pictures sometime if you want.”
“That might be interesting. Maybe a video tape would make things interesting. Instead of weddings and graduations, we can keep a file of fuck films for any children you might have.”
“It takes two to make a kid, Chuck.”
“Yes, but only one to raise it, love. Be careful.”

(Continued)

This is also an e-book, available from Amazon: