Monday, December 23, 2019

Dec, 23, 2019

Perhaps you can answer this question.

Why do liberals think Trump supporters are naive’?

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Terry McCann

6:35 PM (2 hours ago)
to me
Someone I know published this on his Facebook page. I thought you might want to read it.

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From an excellent comic book artist, Steve Lightle, comes this:
"LET US UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER "
An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are naive’?
The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don't...
That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, and his subcontractors, you said “Okay." That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you chirped, "He sure knows me." That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, "That's cool!" That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, ( except Hitler’s bio) you said, "Well, who has time?" That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." That’s when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." That you have watched him remove expertise including worker safety, consumer and environmental protection from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, (6 have died in custody) has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.”
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, including reducing taxes for the highest incomes and raised taxes on middle class by redefining the tax brackets, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise, via his narrative it’s ok to harm anyone that disagrees. That he suddenly abandons our allies, the Kurds, who have helped us fight terrorist groups for years, a withdrawal strategy contrary to the vehement opposition voiced by our Generals and you assume he knows best. That reliable mainstream news sources have documented over 14,000 of his lies in about 3 years and you rationalize it away by saying , “all politicians lie.” That you claim the President is supposed to be a role model for children and demand the ouster from office any Democrat who has been caught cheating on their spouse or has 1-2 sexual harassment claims made against them, yet totally ignore a “man” who brags about being able to “grab them by the pussy” and has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 23 women with an additional 43 allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump published in 2019 - and you say, "It's locker room talk. All men do it."
What you don't get, Trump supporters in 2019, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as ignorant may be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable. Because if you're NOT naive or ignorant, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.”
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Christmas blessings and Peace
Terry

some people, besides me, try to understand where the Trump supporters are coming from in light of what I take oto be "facts" that are known and recorded. Perhaps you can help me to understand. many thanks. and have a blblessed Christmas.


Dec. 23, 2019

Again, almost three weeks. Funerals cropped up 3 times so that we had to cancel something we had planned and the time before Christmas was just too short to be able to reorganize, so we just had to scrap the plans.
   Just quickly some of the things that happened in the meantime. A Christmas party for the deaf. They come here to one of the monastery buildings on several Sundays a month and one of our Mariannhill priests (who took over from an older priest who now passed away), who is learning sign language, invited us old timers to their party. It was vey quiet as you can imagine, but at the same time, very lively.
    I managed to get my Christmas letter out to most people (I always mange to miss a few, my apologies if one of them is you) and I also got my Christmas haircut. Ha.
  We (MIKE Pillay and I ) took communion to the sick who are housebound, before Christmas. They were happy that someone actually took notice.
I  had a visit from two comrades who now live in Pretoria, who survived the apartheid days, being underground activists and almost getting caught. One of those I took to the border to escape back in those days, I gave my roman collar to and told him that it just may help him if he was wearing it. I met him a couple of years later in Somafco, an ANC camp in Tanzania, where the ANC was trying to look after those kids who had to run away or be thrown in jail and be tortured or even killed. I spotted the one with the collar way in the back and we reconnected. I asked whatever happened that night. He laughed and said that he put the collar on and when they were trying to cross the border in a taxi, they were being searched by a big Afrikaans cop. Edwin knows Afrikaans so he began preaching at the cop, have you met jesus …have you turned your life over to him, etc. etc. etc. The cop got annoyed and stopped searching and just said, hayi, voetsack, hamba.  Just get out of here. Ha. So a collar can help in a pinch. We reminisced the whole evening at the Tre Fontane guest house, run , by our CPS SISTERS.
    I did a bit of Christmas shopping for our staff here and for the family that looks after the outstation I try to serve (now with the help of a priest friend who is presently not assigned to a place so helps us…we are a duet.
    I had a cup of coffee, informally, with my dentist (sr. Michael), who never asked about my teeth. She already knows the story. Ha.
I was hearing pre-Christmas confessions for old people (mostly) at 10 am  Last Saturday, 21st. Later that  morning and afternoon, A group of men from neighboring parishes had a braai vleis (cook out, barbecue) for us old timers, a chance to have a beer or a glass of wine, pre-christmas and to meet the generous laity.
    I say Mass on Monday evenings at the Srs. of Mother Theresa and that is always a joy. About 20-25 people in their care, some physically challenged others mentally challenged. I think that we love each other because we are on the same page. Hmmm.
   Tomorrow, Christmas eve, we have an evening Mass at 6pm. The midnight Mass is a think of the past here. To many drunks and thieves moving aaround  at night.
Well, that’s it for now. I am busy preparing for tomorrow night , expectant like a couple waiting for the water to break and the pains get closer together, indicating that the child is ready to be born any minute. Christmas almost here with its precious gift.
   I wish you all, again, a loving, peaceful, joyful Christmas and a not too exciting new year. Love and peace .     Cas

Friday, December 6, 2019


Dec. 6, 2019
   Not much to tell over the past 2 i/2 weeks. My recovery has been phenomenal, people say. I just heard a few people saying what they experienced when visiting me when I was sick and down and out. One said that I talked to her for a long time but she couldn’t understand a word I said. Another said that I didn’t recognize her and talked to her in either Zulu of Xhosa. Others said that when they saw me they thought that it was all over for me….that I would never get out of that bed. I am hearing more and more of these stories. I never felt that way at all. I knew that I was drugged (they brought my meals up to me as it was hard to get out of bed ) and I was pretty much confined to my room. No masses, no hospital, no Savannah Park. By the 20th I was almost back to my old self, except for the spasms that kept coming and continue to come even now. But it seems that I have told you some of this already.
   One of the highlights of this time was my birthday lunch. Some time back my friend Shirley asked where I would like to have lunch for my birthday. I thought this over for a few days and then got back to her and said Italian. I love Fetuccine Alfredo (it is a pasta with white sauce, not tomato sauce. I started taking it because when I eat tomato based pasta, I leave the menu on my shirt. White sauce doesn’t stain as badly.) She came with the parish priest of her parish (we are good friends and Shirley is already 85 yrs. Old and deserves to have someone drive her around.) They found a delightful Italian restaurant not too far away called LUPA ( a female wolf—you know the story of Romulus and Remus being reared by a mother wolf, the foundation of Rome). I ordered my dish and they brought it and I thought that I would have to ask for a doggy bag. But, ha,  I ATE THE WHOLE THING. So my appetite is back.
   I had to have some things done to the car like an oil change and it is very expensive. My friend who passed away used to do it for free and only now I realize what a gift he gave me,
I also went to the urologist for my annual prostate check up. No cancer. He said that my urological health is like that of a 40 yr. old. Nice to hear good news.
I blessed a car, had a home mass, and will be conducting a wedding soon. So I feel that I have improved greatly.
The only bad thing , and this is very bad, is that I doubt that I will be going back to the States (via Europe) any more because the flights are too long to be able to survive the spasms. When I went to Zambia in September, I noticed that the flight from Lusaka to Joburg was 2 hrs. I also noticed that I was very aware of the spasms that whole time because I had nothing else to do but sit and watch my legs and grit my teeth. Maybe (I pray for this) something will happen to take the spasms away. If I am busy doing something, I can ignore them and focus on what I am doing. So I can handle them. Thank God that they don’t interfere with my driving.
I also went to the bank today to have Br. Tendai, who is our bursar, be added to the sisgnatories on my bank account. The only two who are still on the account are Fr. Guy (long dead) and Fr. Winfried, now semi-retired and possibly going back to Austria in his old-er age.  
I found out that the sisgnatories cease having authority to use the account if I die. Everything is canceled. It is only the executer of my will who will be able to access my account. So now I have to start thinking of a will and including that in it. Mariannhill Congregation as the executor.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I feel much better and am getting active again and everyone says that I look  so much better. Thanks to the Lord and you and your many prayers.
I will catch you before Christmas. Stay well and don’t let the material preparations for Christmas over whelm you but think of your spirit as well, what Christmas means , more than Santa Claus
Love and Peace, Cas