Using his stage name Pope Leo, Robert Francis Prevost, gave his Easter message yesterday of superstitious gobbledegook to the millions across the world pretending to be Catholics in order to gain entry to supposedly better schools for their children. I have no time whatsoever for religion but Bob surely meant well with his words, a short section of which I post below:
“In the light of Easter, let us allow ourselves to be amazed by Christ! Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!”
I am more amazed that people still believe in the alleged Jesus of Nazareth, but for now let’s set my unbelief to one side. Who, in their right mind, could disagree with his desire for peace through dialogue? Well, how about the leader of the free world, Donald J. Trump, who gave a rather different message at the holiest time of the year:
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Pope Leo’s address concluded thus:
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil.”
As an alternative to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah”, you have to say that the Pope just shades it in the true message of Easter department. And once you see me defending, and even praising, a major religious figure, you know just how bad things have become.
Those words – Trump’s I mean, not the Pope’s – surely come from a man with major mental issues, specifically malignant narcissism and, I fear, advanced frontotemporal dementia. Long gone are the days when one looked at Trump has a bit of a joke figure during his first term as president when at least the guard rails were up in terms of the members of his government, some of whom actually knew what they were doing. Those guard rails are gone now, with Trump surrounding himself with sycophantic wing nuts and halfwits. And the world pays a heavy price.
Even his biggest supporters, including fascist far right figures like Nigel Farage, have kept a low profile after years of slobbering, fawning praise for Trump. Indeed, both Farage and Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch’s initial praise for Trump’s war on Iran and their heavy criticism of the UK government for refusing to get involved should never be forgotten. If Farage had been prime minister, our armed forces would be carrying out the orders of the USA and, crucially Israel who started this crazy war in the first place. So much for the sovereignty the Fagash Fuhrer demanded during the EU referendum all those years ago.
We will suffer the economic effect of Trump’s wars in the coming days, weeks, months and possibly years. We have seen the prices at the petrol pumps, soon we will see the effects on our grocery bills. And if fuel stocks run low, be very afraid that countries all over the world, including ours, will grind to a halt. Don’t worry too much about your summer holidays in the sun, which may end up being cancelled if things go on this way: think about how you get to work – if you still have a job to go to. This is the small beer, the economy. The carnage Trump has called in Iran has cost thousands of lives. Few wanted the islamist fascists of Iran to continue their tyrannical reign, least of all Iranians who are far more secular in their belief systems than you might imagine, but let’s be clear: they have been planning for a war like this for many years, maybe even decades. The more extreme elements of the regime may even welcome it. An unhinged madman in the White House launching into a war with no aims, no strategy and certainly no exit plan is not an ideal situation for anyone.
What will Trump do next? I doubt that even he knows. He is clearly and obviously in very poor health, likely both physically and mentally and who knows how long it will be until he shuffles off his mortal coil? In my case I make no apology for saying I hope it’s not that long at all.
I hope you enjoyed your Easter, whether yours involves God, Easter Eggs or in my case red wine. Donald J. Trump celebrated his by threatening hell upon those he has chosen to go to war with. I rather doubt that he even knew it was Easter, never mind what it means in Christian terms.
This can’t go on. American politicians need to some cojones and to stop this lunatic before he causes even more damage, a lunatic by the way who holds the keys to the nuclear codes. Our government was right to refuse to join the war. America, for now, is not our friend.
It all seems so far away on this beautiful, crisp Easter Monday morning, with just a few flecks of high cloud obscuring parts of the clear blue sky. Meanwhile, the demented president prepares for another round of golf at Mar-a-Lago, before ordering more strikes on the innocents of Iran. When I find myself nodding along with the Pope’s Easter message, I know something in the world is terribly wrong. And if I thought praying might help, then trust me I would.
As the great comedian Dave Allen said at the end of every show, “May your God go with you.” Like me, he was an atheist, but it was a nice, kind message. If you think your God might just be opposed to Trump’s madness, then maybe have a word? It might not do any good – spoiler alert: it won’t – but at least you might feel better having done so.
Happy what’s left of Easter, everyone.
