He is Antichrist like !

I also had an aunt who was a Jehova Witness I used to love her until she started sounding crazy and she left her estate to the church and screwed over her two children.

...most selfless persons I ever knew.

One of the happiest memories I have is taking her and my cousin to lunch when my cousin was dying of cancer, and letting her know how much I appreciated what she did for me.

She denied that she'd ever done anything for me, but at that lunch I corrected her.

This, of course, not about her closing the deal on my atheism, but rather the help she gave me when my mother was dying. I might not have lived through it myself without her help and that of my other aunts.

I have less of a problem with religious people who live the positives of their theology than those for whom it's just lip service. She and my cousin lived the positives of their faith, and I am grateful for their memory.

Told me they didn’t want anything to do with me or “ my offspring”. I’m a much better person since leaving it all behind and don’t regret anything.

Rather than any of the death and destruction.

My brain is settling down after having been thoroughly scrambled.

A lot of the time I am annoyed at any further wait time before surreptitiously getting back to work in a way that isn’t so repellant it would turn people like me off from science work were it seen.

Or similarly understated community that again doesn’t turn people like me off from the concept.

And distance from jerks. There aren’t many humans who are mostly jerks, but there are some.

I am cavalier only with pushy, manipulative self-serving jerks, sleazebags and creeps. Carlin was pretty cool wasn’t he. But I can do without “Dudesy”.

For the rest with these damn many people it strains most tempers at times and at other times one’s innate humanism in its non-diseased form salvages one’s brain.

I might be an absurdist philosophically. Why oh why....

At least the obnoxious type A or the scheming jerks are no better off than me by now..ha ha suckers.

I have been trying to untangle a skein of thoughts I have on religion, conservativism, politics (real, sports teams adjacent, disingenuous), gender, personality, context, machines, humans, how much I hate Zuckerberg etc’s minions, emotions, the sensitivity ranges of one’s various dars, politicians and public figures).

It is a work in progress.

The point is that what is bothering me is probably tied to “constitutional law”.

I have to parse this, as I rather like Aziz Huq:

https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-dead-end-of-checks-and-balances/aziz-huq-responds/

https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-dead-end-of-checks-and-balances/

Lina Khan works in anti-trust law, which is probably applicable as well, but not as directly. I saw another legal scholar Nina Farhany, but she seems like a very nice person so I stopped following her.
Society is dealing with some very malicious forces..man Lina Khan was so awesome.
Lina Khan will be remembered by history. I am rarely a fan or an enthusiast as a rule. She was an exception.
I suppose people felt that way about FDR. The one time an actual, real supporter of sanity got into the system. As opposed to the usual- “okay that’s the best on offer..I suppose one has no other options.”

Anyway that debate is more akin to honest disagreements one sees in science or other areas where people just have different opinions without acrimony or malice.

I often don’t have strong opinions absent malice or deceit or stupidity or where ott stuff is not peddled like denying obvious errors or insisting that limits to growth do not exist; racial IQ (that one is too stupid to bother with); that the planet is not overpopulated and that Koch style migration is the fix.

After Trump and what I have been through I think laws need strengthening for migrants, women etc in ways that Koch/tech/assholes/ai companies etc have no say in and which have bipartisan humanist support. You cannot throw away women’s rights and portray that as a girlboss vs a good guy thing.

Separation of church and state is important at a time of ubiquitous malicious influence that strains communities.

Say what you will about JD Vance, his anti-democratic instincts are really solid. He understood that the solitary Catlady is someone to kick out of society for this fascistic project to succeed.

and I turned out to be first and foremost, agnostic. Then, as I grew older, a Seeker. Finally, a Pagan... a Witch. Not for the "shock effect" but because the earth-centered belief structure fit my belief structure better. I truly always felt we made the gods in our image, rather than the other way around, anyway. My grandmother, whom I loved more than anyone and who basically raised me, was a traveling preacher and very devout throughout her life. She was a wonderful organist and often invited to play Sunday music at various churches in the area when we lived. My Mom often accompanied her to play piano with her. I played trumpet or sang with them. It gave me a good look at various churches and dogma. The closest I could come to feeling "at one" with a church was the AME church. But even it left me feeling lacking. My grandmother and I could talk religion and beliefs for hours on end... excellent talks... as long as we left off labels. We were talking about the same things. She'd have had a fit if I'd ever labeled things as I was seeing them (LOL). But to me it just showed me one of the truisms I'd found in my seeking days... all roads lead to the same path, some are just more meandering than others. Some take time to smell the roses. Some take time out to help others onto the path. But those who insist on there being one and only one path... the "one true way" lost me immediately. The arrogance in that belief always seemed to lead to hostility and violence, and that I couldn't abide. I'd rather take a detour than fall prey to the violence.

I'm 70 now. Lot's more years behind me than in front of me. My witchy ways give me comfort in these dark days, but they're also a source of frustration at times, too. My body doesn't want to cooperate in what I want to do. I'd love to walk in the woods and hex the beast from the earth, itself. But the legs don't work so well, anymore. And damn! Crutches and I seem to be at total odds with each other. Want to see funny? Watch me try to use a pair! (LOL) I DO still try to keep my sense of humor intact. One thing I will give myself over to funny is trump as anti-christ. That doesn't have to be as the Christians see it. Nostradamus saw many anti-christs. Hitler was one. Stalin was another. I think Putin is one. And I believe trump is another one. It's a class of person who exhibits sadistic, psychotic, anti-social behavior. One who has not one whit empathy within himself. Others may come close to this class of people, but very few actually fulfill the complete Dark Triad like Trump fulfills it. Give him his due... hell, give him a trophy for it! Maybe then he'd go away to actually polish it and leave us alone! (LOL)