Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

 

Even a blind squirrel, it’s said, can find an acorn once in a while. Thus it is that Marjorie Taylor Greene, strong contender for Congress’s dumbest and most obnoxious member, yet privy to God’s thinking, came up with a worthy pronouncement. “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent,” said she. “Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”

Though total eclipses of the sun have been predictable for centuries, before dismissing her connecting the timing with a minor East Coast earthquake, not unlike recognizing the evil behind Joe Biden forcing Easter onto International Transgender Day of Visibility, let’s admit she’s onto something. The epicenter of the quake was, for practical purposes, Trump’s Bedminster golf-cemetery tax write-off.

God attends to the entire universe, a gazillion miles across, so we can excuse His missing by a mile or so. Failing to mention for what, our little Margie is right that America needs to repent. And the “what” is daylight clear. Bedminster? Not subtle. What God is saying, as MAGAgonizers proclaim Trump’s divine chosen-ness, is, “No. He’s not. Stop it.”

A disturbingly large umbra of America needs to repent for its commandment-breaking idolatry of Trump, whose latest ungodliness, after lying that Biden wants to “quadruple your taxes,” suborned criminality from his idolators, whining, “How many more corrupt judges do I have to endure before someone steps in?” Steps in. No wonder God is repulsed.

Differing from Ms. Greene, Rudy Giuliani hears from God that He quakes California and New York because they’re “communist states.” It’s certain that America’s Used-to-Mayor couldn’t define communism, which describes no US state. Fascism, though: Texas, Florida... Weirdly, neither he nor MTG had anything to say about catastrophic hurricanes in those states. Slippery things, empyreal omens.

Republicans could also use a little repenting for their curious capitulation to America’s enemy, Vladimir Putin. Defending her opposition to helping Ukraine, MTG said, as counterfactually as humanly possible, “This is a war on Christianity. The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians...Russia is not doing that. They are not attacking Christianity. As a matter of fact, they seem to be protecting it.” Just. Wow.

It’s that kind of traitorous untruth that has led a high-ranking Republican Representative to admit it’s “absolutely true” that members are repeating Russian propaganda on the floor of Congress; and another to say it has “infected a good chunk” of his party’s base, blaming it on rightwing media. “Trumpofoxification” is the word he’s looking for.

Holy Moses Mike Johnson, Speaker of lies of the House, should repent for his unending, Trumpophilic lies, like referring to “Biden's unprecedented assault on American oil production,” when the truth is the opposite. For better or worse, US production of oil (and all forms of energy) is at an all-time high. It’s only by lying that Trumpublicans have a chance of winning. If Trump is the fakest Christian, Mike is the real deal. He should be ashamed of such Biblical mendacity.

For further repentance, Americans on both sides need to renounce the scam that is RFK, Jr’s campaign. Unbagging the cat, his New York campaign manager removed any doubt that his goal is to put Trump back in office. Explicitly. A vote for him is one for Trump. The truth is out there; no longer can it be self-righteously rationalized away.

In a speech full of lies, Trump, whose blasphemy RFKers would return to office, tried to have it every which way on abortion. “Leave it to the states,” he obfuscated, which is exactly what SCOTUS did in ending Roe. After the ridiculous claim that “all legal scholars” wanted Roe overturned, he lipped the libelous lie that Democrats “are the radical ones on this position because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month.” Where’s an earthquake when you need one?

Finally, since we led with it, solar eclipses are magical. Our family’s first, of three, was in eastern Washington, in 1979. After all the media hype, I expected disappointment. I was totality wrong. It began with watching the moon’s shadow race, west to east, up the Columbia Gorge; amazing in itself. Then the drop of temperature, and cheers, as that unworldly ring of light appeared, centered in darkness, making one feel somehow connected to the Universe, yet also the tiniest, tiniest part of it. I’ll be one hundred for the next one.