It seems to me that it is a minority that ever gets the true and full Gospel – in any denomination. Most of us just keep worshiping Jesus and arguing over the right way to do it. The amazing thing is that Jesus never once says, “Worship me!” whereas he frequently says, “Follow me” (see, for example, Matthew 4:19).
Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, nonviolent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established religion (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain throughout most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s personal Lord and Savior or continue to receive the sacraments in good standing. The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on earth is too great.
Last Wednesday Butch was a guest on Sabrina Salvati’s podcast Sabby Sabs. Their 30-minute conversation is well worth checking out (below) as it includes Butch’s insightful analysis of the Democratic Party and why it cannot be relied upon to counter the authoritarianism of Donald Trump.
“The moment is ripe,” says Butch, “for a genuine populist progressive alternative . . . because we know that the corporate [Republican/Democrat] duopoly is not serving the people. So we’re going to have to build something that will.”
Continues Butch:
The Democrats are going the way of the Whig Party. . . . They are never going to get up from what they have done to themselves in this last election cycle and in the 30 years that preceeded that. The corporate sell-off of this party – from Bill Clinton to now Kamala Harris – has put the final nails in the coffin of this party. And if you look and zoom out objectively, you see a party that is in utter shambles. It has no capacity to reassemble the base that has departed it.
And so if we show strength and present a true oppositional alternative, you are going to watch people move to a new party. And that’s what I’m trying to facilitate.
. . . We are going to run to win in the state of California, yes. But we are also going to galvanize all of those forces that are disaffected with this corrupt corporate duopoly that comes in blue or red flavors. And we are going to build a [national] movement because you don’t have to be a resident of California to donate or to volunteer to help build this strength. And the more strength we show in this 2026 electoral cycle, the more damage we’re capable of inflicting [on the duopoly] in 2028 and 2032.
Above: With Butch Ware in Minneapolis – October 14, 2024.
For The Wild Reed’s coverage of Dr. Ware’s September 8, 2024
meet-and-greet event in Minneapolis, click here.
British journalist and activist Owen Jones posted a video commentary today that provides a timely and informed appraisal of the coup that’s currently taking place here in the U.S.
It’s being called an “administrative coup,” a “plutocratic coup,” and a “soft coup.” Regardless of the descriptor, it’s a coup – an illegal and overt attempt to subvert democracy and destroy government so that those orchestrating this subversion and destruction can enrich themselves and those loyal to them.
So if you need to get up to speed on how this is all playing out in the U.S., Jones’ 10-minute commentary is a good place to start.
Image 1: Donald Trump and Elon Musk at SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas – November 19, 2024 (Photo: Brandon Bell/AP) Image 2: Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán in New Jersey – August 2022. (Photo: Source)
If this story was taking place somewhere in Central Asia or in Africa [then] the United States media, the United States State Department, and international institutions would likely refer to it as a coup.
[Elon Musk] a billionaire industrialist who donated $300 million to [Trump’s presidential] campaign is installing his personal loyalists in key parts of the federal bureaucracy. This is essentially Viktor Orbán’s playbook.
And we need to know: Why does a billionaire industrialist, with millions in government contracts and military contracts for his private companies, need the Social Security numbers of every American, needs to know every single check that the U.S. government gives out to businesses and to charities? Why does this billionaire need to know this information?
He was not vetted or approved by the U.S. Senate. He has a history of corruption, for using public resources for private gain. He’s one of the wealthiest men in the world. In any other situation this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it. But in the United States we are not used to this kind of level of creeping authoritarianism, of plutocracy, of oligarchy so explicit.
. . . The Democratic Party in Washington is largely asleep at the wheel. They are acting as if they’re kind of a librarian shushing noise in a crowded room. They are still believing in the normal procedures, normal decorum; [still believing] that everything here is the normal transition of power. And they still believe that what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing is just a libertarian reform of the government, not an oligarchic, plutocratic takeover by a private billionaire who is potentially seeking to know what his competitors might be doing with government contracts. . . . But the Democratic Party is not able to put forward an opposition message right now, because they feel like this is normal.
And that’s why it’s so important for concerned citizens all across the country to twist the arm of your Senate Democrat. Go to their office. If you go to Indivisible.org today, you can find a way to join your local chapter all around the country, whether your senators are Republican or Democrat or independent. They need to hear from concerned citizens, because the Democratic Party doesn’t move on issues of oligarchy, of plutocracy, of taking action, unless their constituents show up in person and demand that they hold hearings . . . [and] grind the Senate to a halt until we know why Elon Musk, someone who was not elected, has this information.
Image 1: Donald Trump and Elon Musk at SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas – November 19, 2024 (Photo: Brandon Bell/AP) Image 2: Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán in New Jersey – August 2022. (Photo: Source)
The federal government has immense capacity and control over trillions of dollars. That power was a co-creation of the American people. It belongs to them. The oligarchs around Trump are working now to take it for themselves.
Theirs is a logic of destruction. It is very hard to create a large, legitimate, functioning government. The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.
. . . The gap between the oligarchs’ wealth and everyone else’s will grow. Knowing what they themselves will do and when, they will have bet against the stock market in advance of Trump’s deliberately destructive tariffs, and will be ready to tell everyone to buy the crypto they already own. But that is just tomorrow and the day after.
In general, the economic collapse they plan is more like a reverse flood from the Book of Genesis, in which the righteous will all be submerged while the very worst ride Satan’s ark. The self-chosen few will ride out the forty days and forty night. When the waters subside, they will be alone to dominate.
. . . In [this] logic of destruction, there is no need to rebuild afterwards. In this chaos, the oligarchs will tell us that there is no choice but to have a strong man in charge. It can be a befuddled Trump signing ever larger pieces of paper for the cameras, or a conniving Vance who, unlike Trump, has always known the plot. Or someone else.
. . . [T]the men currently pillaging the federal government . . . see themselves as the servants of the freedom of the chosen few, but in fact they are possessed, like millennia of tyrants before them, of fantastic dreams: they will live forever, they will go to Mars. None of that will happen; they will die here on Earth, with the rest of us, their only legacy, if we let it happen, one of ruins. . . . The attempt by the oligarchs to destroy our government is illegal, unconstitutional, and more than a little mad. The people in charge, though, are very intelligent politically, and have a plan. I describe it not because it must succeed but because it must be described so that we can make it fail. This will require clarity, and speed, and coalitions.
. . . The logic of “move fast and break things,” like the logic of all coups, is to gain quick dramatic successes that deter and demoralize and create the impression of inevitability. Nothing is inevitable. Do not be alone and do not be dismayed. Find someone who is doing something you admire and join them.
What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. Sometimes self-government just means elections. And sometimes it means recognizing the deeper dignity and meaning of what it means to be a people. That means speaking up, standing out, and protesting. We can only be free together.
Yesterday I joined with hundreds of others in taking to the streets of south Minneapolis to protest the Trump administration’s racist and inhumane immigration polices, including raids by ICE and immigrant deportations. Our core message was a simple one: Immigrants are welcome here.
Following are a few of my photographs from yesterday, accompanied by an excerpt from Feven Gerezgiher’s MPR Newsarticle about the event.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month, America hasn’t felt the same to Antonio Hernandez.
“I cannot believe it,” he said. “It feels very dystopian.”
Hernandez, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, joined the ranks of demonstrators in Minneapolis on Saturday to protest President Trump's immigration policies.
Trump, on entering office last month, signed scores of executive orders reversing Biden-era policies and reinstituting plans he set in place during his first term. At least 20 executive orders are aimed at blocking immigration, including directives to stop refugee arrivals, redefine who can become a U.S. citizen at birth, continue building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and bolstering the ranks of federal immigration officers.
Supporters rallied on Minneapolis’ East Lake Street – a vibrant corridor of Mexican, Somali and other immigrant-owned businesses – packing the area on a grey and cold winter afternoon. They carried signs reading “All are welcome here” and “Immigrants Make America Great.”
. . . While “sanctuary cities” like Minneapolis and St. Paul limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and have ordinances in place to prioritize local trust and safety, sanctuary cities have also been targeted by Trump. In January, the president signed an executive order denying federal funding to sanctuary cities and directing his administration to pursue action “to the maximum extent possible under the law.”
The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee organized the protest. “We want to show that we are in solidarity with our immigrant community . . . and tell Trump that we’re not going anywhere,” said Latifah Moss, a MIRAC spokesperson.
Moss said people now know what Trump is capable of and are more prepared to act.
She said MIRAC has ramped up its activism since Trump’s inauguration, offering more “Know Your Rights” trainings aimed at supporting immigrant communities and their neighbors.
Marisa Kabas is a Brooklyn-based independent writer and reporter. In June of 2022 she launched her blog The Handbasket “after watching the journalism infrastructure crumble over the last decade.”
Following (with added links) is an excerpt from her latest post, “Did You Hear About the Friday Coup?”
This week felt like the first battle of a long war — and that’s because it was. On Monday the White House Office of Management and Budget announced a freeze on all federal funding, and — aside from that order being blocked by a judge later in the week — it was all downhill from there. The enormity of the week culminated in a deluge of distressing developments on Friday that you may or may not have heard about.
Elon Musk has, for all intents and purposes, taken control of the inner-workings of the federal government. As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he’s been given a mandate by President Trump to severely cut the number of federal government workers by whatever means he sees fit, like pressuring them to retire early or accept a deferred resignation. He’s also been tasked with slashing spending — and if it benefits him personally as well, that’s fine, too.
Friday began with the news that the highest ranking nonpolitical staffer and acting director at the U.S. Department of Treasury was retiring after a dispute with Musk’s henchmen. They wanted access to the payment system that the government uses to disburse trillions of dollars, and David Lebryk, a career civil servant, was not having it.
Lebryk was the only thing standing between DOGE taking control of the system that pays out Social Security and Medicare benefits, federal salaries, tax refunds, among many other crucial systems. And on Saturday, we learned DOGE has, in fact, been handed full access to the nation’s wallet by newly-confirmed Department of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Mr. Musk, who has been given wide latitude by President Trump to find ways to slash government spending, has recently fixated on Treasury’s payment processes, criticizing the department in a social media post on Saturday for not rejecting more payments as fraudulent or improper,” the New York Times wrote. “It is not clear whether the team led by Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has blocked any payments since gaining access to the system.
“It’s like a bank heist and the bank is America,” a source in the federal government told me. “Not really being hyperbolic to say control of those systems would allow an extremely fast collapse of the economy. Imagine it’s a plumbing system and someone takes a sledgehammer to the central pipe.”
. . . It’s essential to reiterate that all of this is illegal. What remains to be seen is how broadly the legality of it will be challenged, and whether Trump-appointed judges will rubber stamp Musk’s actions anyway.
At the end of a historically hellish Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could only offer toothless posts on Bluesky. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told the New York Times, “If there is a middle of all of this hot mess of division, Americans want us to work together when we can and find common ground.”
The impotence is as staggering as the abdication is sickening. But the current message from elected Democrats is loud and clear: You’re on your own. And the message from the Musk/Trump administration is even clearer: You’re next.
As someone wrote to me today, “The first coup was violent insurrection. The second coup is administrative. We failed to ensure Donald Trump could never return to power again after the first coup; our job right now in this moment is to acknowledge reality and halt the second.”
Organizers are trying to get the wheels in motion for a real opposition. Sunday night at 8pm ET there will be a virtual call hosted by Indivisible, a group that rose to national prominence during the first Trump administration. RSVP here if you’d like to join.
. . . It’s not even two weeks into the second Trump administration, but the breadth of the destruction is clear. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say we’re witnessing a coup by an unelected billionaire propped up by a felonious president, and we must treat it as such. Even if, as some have reported, it wasn’t even featured on Friday’s nightly news.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
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"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
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