what do you get...

When you mix senility with stupidity?

A Republican highball.

Donald Trump's administration has been described as incompetent, disorganized, ineffective, and an uncoordinated failure.

I say: "Picky, picky, picky, picky."

What do you get when you mix Trump's "Red Wave..."

with his evangelical base?

The Red Tide.

What do you get when you cross FAUX Snews with a character generater?

Does Damages?

but F*ck!

Bishops and others in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over 70 years, according to a report issued by a grand jury on Tuesday.

Six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses shepherded 1,000 identifiable victims.

The report said there are likely thousands more victims whose records were lost.

A priest raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion – all in the service of the virgin mother.

The sex abuse scandals have shaken the Roman Church for more than 15 years, ever since the Spotlight story emerged in Boston. But even after paying billions of dollars in settlements, the church has been dogged by scandals that are now reaching its highest ranks.

The Pennsylvania report comes soon after the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who is accused of sexually abusing young priests and seminarians, as well as minors.

“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury wrote. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

One bishop named in the report as vouching for an abusive priest was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington. “Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal,” the jury wrote.

The report is unlikely to lead to new criminal charges because the statute of limitations has expired.

In statements released on Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops called for prayers for victims and for the church.

Church officials followed a “playbook for concealing the truth,” the grand jury said, minimizing the abuse by using words like “inappropriate contact” instead of “rape”; assigning priests untrained in sexual abuse cases to investigate their colleagues; and not informing the community.

“Tell his parishioners that he is on ‘sick leave,’ or suffering from ‘nervous exhaustion.’ Or say nothing at all,” the report said.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a news conference, “They protected their institution at all costs. As the grand jury found, the church showed a complete disdain for victims.”

He said that the cover-up by senior church officials “stretched in some cases all the way up to the Vatican.”

Pennsylvania, where about one of every four residents is Catholic, has been particularly responsive to victims. Previous grand juries examined the dioceses of Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown; the new report covers the rest of the state.

Some victims said in interviews that they were relieved to finally be heard and to have their perpetrators publicly named.

Frances Samber, whose brother Michael was abused by a priest in Pittsburgh and committed suicide in 2010, said, “It’s good that the public sees this, but where is the justice? What do you do about it? Why aren’t these [perverts] in prison?”

There has been no comprehensive measurement of the full scope of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church (and other denominations) in the United States. American abuse survivors have pushed for the government to undertake a nationwide inquiry similar to the one conducted in Australia, where a royal commission spent four years examining the sexual abuse of children by a variety of religious and civic institutions, including the Roman Church.

Omarosa

If you only get your news from FAUX-TV, this is brutal.

Omarosa Manigault-Newman mentioned the Trump administration isn’t going great. In fact, “like, it’s bad,”

Impeachment!

Unfortunately, Omarosa explained that could actually make things worse.

“As bad as y’all think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence,” she said. “So everybody that’s wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider…” “…Pence became president. He’s extreme. I’m Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things.”

O.K. Donald. What would your grandmother (Elizabeth) say?

zu früh alt zu spät schlau

zu früh alt zu spät schlau translates out to ‘Too Soon, Old. Too Late, Smart’

For most older Americans, life in retirement is being upended by bankruptcy - and sometimes homelessness.

Vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings, stagnant incomes have been accumulating the inevitable outcome years.

The rate of people over 65 filing for bankruptcy has tripled since 1990. And Trump/Ryan etc. are hurting oldsters the most of any recent leadership!

Driving the surge is a three-decade shift of financial risk from employers to individuals, who bear ultimate responsibility for their own financial well-being. "Trickle Down" has "Trickled Up" wealth to the top .5%

The transfer has come in the form of the "shell game" replacement of employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and disappearing health care. The average retiree outlives their 401k!

The study, from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, shows older people with precarious finances having fewer places to turn. “When the costs of aging are off-loaded onto a population that does not have access to resources, something has to give,” the study says. “Older Americans turn to bankruptcy court.”



Deborah Thorne, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho and an author of the study said: “It doesn’t even take a big thing.”



These forces affect most Americans, but older people are less able to weather them, according to Professor Thorne and her colleagues. Finding and keeping a job is hard enough for an older person. Taking on a second job to pay unexpected bills is almost unfathomable.



Bankruptcy can offer a fresh start for corporations, but for older Americans it “is too little too late.” In order to file, one’s wealth, and home equity, has to be exhausted and oldsters do not have enough time remaining to ever recover.

Ring Cycle

If someone looks an though they have been "put through the ringer," then there must be a ringer somewhere.

100 years ago, washing machines sometimes had a ringer.

These "ringer-washers" cost MORE than a week's wages!

Which is fine. But that is not the "ring cycle" I am talking about.

I never knew the Rhine had much gold, but apparently it had enough to make a ring!

"It is little known that Richard Wagner was among the very first Westerners to appreciate Buddhism and that he was the first major European artist to be inspired by this religion. In 1856, in the prime of his creativity, the 33-year-old artist read his first book about Buddhism. He conceived two deeply connected opera projects: Tristan und Isolde which he went on to compose and stage, and Die Sieger (The Victors), an opera scenario based on an Indian Buddha legend translated from Sanskrit.

This Buddhist opera project occupied Wagner’s mind for decades until his death in 1883. Indeed, the composer’s last words were about the Buddha...

So... Richard Wagner: Ritt der Walkuren (Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim)



Basicly, we start with a little rhinegold and, after 4 nights of opera, arrive where we started.

Ever watch the movie K-PAX?

Here is Anna Russell's comedic summary of Wagner's Ring Cycle:





Hope that helps you see the ring cycle as an allusion to Buddhism.

TURN UP YOUR SOUND!



more?