William Lindsey :toad:

Interested in building a better world and standing in solidarity with others who share that goal. 

For biographical information, please see https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/109539508828689842 

"Writing is the way I fight."  ~ James Cone 

#solidarity #democracy #HumanRights #LGBTQ

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wdlindsy@toad-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfpulvah3fchewsqts9qpdfdyahzyp8ua38cunctcgck0dmsnye5gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qdrwgs2

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npub1jre7em0zn30jaqqhq2qz6j6fmwygz0emz03e8shs33v7mhpxfngs7q6weg

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Last Notes

2026-05-04 12:43:08 UTC

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@nprofile…yehq @nprofile…5p7w So it appears — scaring or roiling someone with enough clout to try to silence me, and the many voices I amplify here via excerpts.

2026-05-03 21:03:46 UTC

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@nprofile…5p7w I have not asked the moderator in today's case. With the two (I think) postings removed in the past, I did file an appeal and asked for a reason, and never heard anything back. That makes me less than sanguine about appealing right now.

2026-05-03 15:02:36 UTC

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@nprofile…sr4y I'm certainly going to give that very serious thought now. Seems as if I've been given a signal, and that signal is all the more appalling when I make a monthly donation, albeit a small one, to this instance. I definitely feel unappreciated and unwelcome now.

2026-05-03 14:44:16 UTC

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@nprofile…nq8f @nprofile…cqaz @nprofile…ap4w Thank you for this helpful feedback.

2026-05-03 14:33:51 UTC

I came to Mastodon's Toad Social on 1 December 2002 after deleting my Twitter account the day Elon Musk took over there.
Since that time unti today, I remember receiving notices of perhaps two posts being removed — for reasons never clear to me.
Today, I get a notice of multiple posts being removed all at once.
What's this about, I wonder? Why all at once?
What's behind actions like this?
I'd like to know.
Are others experiencing this?
#Mastodon #censorship
https://cdn.toad.social/media_attachments/files/116/511/120/642/083/400/original/e36c9479443c885a.png

2026-05-01 15:05:23 UTC

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@nprofile…rc7h A great comment. I echo your sentiments.

2026-05-01 14:53:13 UTC

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"The president, who promised to slash gas prices to $2 a gallon, only to cause them to almost double, has some suggestions for his fellow Americans. We should 'stay home, relax, enjoy some peace and quiet,' he wrote on social media."
~ Dan Rather
#Trump #MentalDecline #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #gas #oil #economy #inflation
/6
https://steady.substack.com/p/read-the-room-donald

2026-05-01 14:29:24 UTC

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"While the corrupt majority has consistently advanced and enforced an ideological vision of how the country should be run it has another, simpler brief: not allowing Democrats to govern when they are in power. When Republicans are in power, the powers of the presidency are almost limitless; when it’s Democrats, the office is enfeebled and hemmed in by a cobweb of invented doctrines."
~ Josh Marshall
#SupremeCourt #Callais #VotingRights #corruption #Republicans
/3
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/you-can-have-democratic-self-government-or-the-corrupt-court-not-both

2026-05-01 14:28:34 UTC

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"The all-out sprint to make the 2026 maps at once redder and whiter lays bare the real project of the Callais majority: The Republican justices are trying to help their fellow Republicans win more elections in more places. Every seat counts."
#SupremeCourt #Callais #VotingRights #democracy #EconomicElites #corruption #Republicans
/2

2026-05-01 14:28:06 UTC

"For all the effort that Supreme Court justices put into insisting they are not
'partisan hacks,' when the Court resolves awful democracy cases, elected Republicans have remarkably little trouble understanding what they are supposed to do, and how quickly they are supposed to act."
~ Jay Willis
#SupremeCourt #Callais #VotingRights #democracy #EconomicElites #corruption #Republicans
/1
https://ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/the-republican-justices-want-to-help

2026-05-01 14:24:36 UTC

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"The analysis also found billionaires were paid $2,500 a second in dividends in 2025, according to the investment portfolios of more than 1,000 billionaires. For every two hours in the 2025, the average billionaire received more in dividends than the average worker earned in annual pay."
~ Michael Sainato
#MayDay #EconomicElites #billionaires #workers #economy
/2
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/01/ceo-pay-workers-minimum-wages

2026-05-01 14:22:53 UTC

"According to a new Guardian report, CEO pay rose dramatically in 2025, increasing about 20 times faster than worker wages, highlighting growing income inequality. While executive compensation surged, real wages for workers declined by 12% since 2019 when adjusted for inflation. The wealth of billionaires also reached record highs, further widening the gap between top earners and average workers."
~ Aaron Parnas
#MayDay #EconomicElites #billionaires #workers
/1
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-mike-johnson-faces-major-republican

2026-04-30 14:55:42 UTC

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As a practical matter, this means that states with racially polarized electorates will almost always be immune from racial gerrymandering suits, because they can defend against those suits merely by proving that their state’s maps were drawn to benefit the Republican Party."
#SupremeCourt #VotingRights #discrimination #SamuelAlito #JohnRoberts #Callais #WhiteSupremacy
/19

2026-04-30 14:54:14 UTC

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"John Roberts’ career has been devoted to abolishing the race-based remedies in the Voting Rights Act."
#SupremeCourt #VotingRights #discrimination #SamuelAlito #JohnRoberts #Callais #WhiteSupremacy
/17

2026-04-30 14:53:52 UTC

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"On Wednesday, the Roberts Court destroyed the last vestiges of the Voting Rights Act. ...
The decision is an abomination. It seeks to repeal the voting protections of the 14th and 15th Amendments, which specifically prohibit denial of the right to vote based on 'race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'”
~ Robert B. Hubbell
#SupremeCourt #VotingRights #discrimination #SamuelAlito #JohnRoberts #Callais #WhiteSupremacy
/16
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-callais-decision-demonstrates

2026-04-30 14:53:12 UTC

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"I would not use the word modesty by any stretch of the imagination with Alito, Thomas, or Kavanaugh. Not even. And I did go so far as to say that for Chief Justice John Roberts, this is a huge asterisk on his legacy in such a bad way. I mean, he has had a series of really not good asterisks nest his name, but this I think is one of the biggest ones."
~ Katie Phang
#SupremeCourt #VotingRights #discrimination #SamuelAlito #JohnRoberts #Callais #WhiteSupremacy
/15

2026-04-30 14:51:20 UTC

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"Justice Alito basically declares racism is over. ... never, never buy into this narrative that the Republican appointees are just respecting the democratic processes, adopting a modest vision of the judicial role. That is not how they act, and that is certainly not how they acted in this case."
~ Leah Litman
#SupremeCourt #VotingRights #discrimination #SamuelAlito #JohnRoberts #Callais #WhiteSupremacy
/14
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/alito-pretends-racism-is-over-in

2026-04-29 22:32:27 UTC

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"Pete Hegseth suggested that U.S. service members may have lied when their accounts contradicted his statements about defenses during a drone attack on a military base. During a tense exchange, he pushed back against criticism, accusing his interviewer of spreading falsehoods. Rep. Pat Ryan responded by calling for Hegseth to resign, escalating the dispute into a broader political confrontation."
~ Aaron Parnas
#Iran #Trump #Hegseth #war #StraitofHormuz #oil #gas
/12
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-trump-claims-he-is-the-most

2026-04-29 14:07:46 UTC

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"It is the work of a deranged government led by a deranged man, and the filing itself is so deranged that it actually mentions 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' as if it has legal meaning and relevance that the court should consider. ...
I don’t know what’s going to happen to this country with this unstable, disturbed man as president until 2029. My head hurts."
#Trump #DOJ #ToddBlanche #ballroom
/9

2026-04-29 14:07:16 UTC

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"I thought my head hurt until I read a copy of the court filing submitted yesterday by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, he who used to be Donald Trump’s private lawyer, seeking to get the federal court to dissolve its injunction partially ceasing work on Trump’s almighty ballroom."
~ Lucian K. Truscott
#Trump #DOJ #ToddBlanche #ballroom
/8
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/my-head-hurts

2026-04-29 14:03:23 UTC

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"I know who it sounds like in my head. I can hear Donald Trump’s voice.
But in fact, it’s the lead paragraph in a motion filed by the Justice Department Tuesday morning, in the lawsuit over Trump’s unauthorized demolition of the White House’s East Wing so he could build his ballroom."
#Trump #DOJ #ToddBlanche #ballroom
/7

2026-04-29 14:02:50 UTC

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"'The National Trust for Historic Preservation’ is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words "in the United States" to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not. In fact, the United States refused to continue funding it in 2005 because they strongly disagreed with their mission and objectives. They are very bad for our Country.'”
~ Joyce Vance
#Trump #DOJ #ballroom
/5
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/big-tuesday

2026-04-27 15:24:44 UTC

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"Those who omit mention of Israel’s pernicious influence on US policy are not intentionally bad actors. Rather, I suspect the main reason they avoid criticizing Israel in this way is that they believe criticizing Israel is antisemitic, or at the very least foments antisemitism (or, more likely, they worry about being accused of antisemitism for criticizing Israel). But this is not a good justification. This very reasoning is antisemitic."
#Trump #Netanyahu #media #antisemitism
/2

2026-04-27 15:23:58 UTC

"The western media has been admirably clear that Putin has a closer relationship with Trump than any previous US president (and admirably critical of this relationship). But there has been no similar level of transparency in the media about Israel’s influence on US policy, even though Israel’s foreign influence on US policy now and over time is much more transparent than Russia’s (after all, Russia is an ally of Iran)."
~ Jason Stanley
#Trump #Netanyahu #media
/1
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/27/trump-israel-trump-war

2026-04-26 15:37:07 UTC

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"In the same way that America’s shambolic war on Iran has turned Donald Trump into the most effective EV salesman the world has ever seen, so his attempts to defend said war have produced another unlikely outcome: the rise of a genuine and global theological debate. Led by Pope Leo but extending across Christian denominations," (continued in /6)
~ Bill McKibben
#PopeLeo #Trump #Hegseth #WhiteChristianNationalism
/5
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/26/pope-leo-trump-hegseth-christianity

2026-04-26 15:35:25 UTC

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“'But even more worrisome is his infusion of his Christian beliefs as the basis for our war in Iran,' Beirich added. 'Our national security should not be based on fanatical holy war fantasies, but that is what Hegseth, and by extension Trump, have wrought.'”
#Hegseth #Trump #DouglasWilson #WhiteChristianNationalism #misogyny #homophobia #HolyWar
/3

2026-04-26 15:34:27 UTC

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"'Their anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and extremist views about women should give anyone pause, as well as his ‘biblical’ attacks on journalists, especially when Hegseth is sharing them with our soldiers and blasting away at the separation of church and state.'"
#Hegseth #Trump #DouglasWilson #WhiteChristianNationalism #misogyny #homophobia
/2

2026-04-25 22:48:44 UTC

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@nprofile…dfpn Thank you — yes, I read it at that link. I never know if it's a good or bad thing for me to share the archive links here, but appreciate that you've done so.

2026-04-24 19:58:41 UTC

In recent days here, I've been called a racist MF, an Adolf (same person threw both of those slurs at me), someone who spreads slop akin to Facebook postings on Mastodon.
And now — gasp! — an influencer!
I choose just to smile, shake my head, and go on doing what I've always intended to do here: share excerpts from commentary on important-seeming topics that I've just read and deem worth sharing. With no other grand agenda in mind: just sharing. And continuing to learn….
#SocialMedia

2026-04-23 14:44:43 UTC

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@nprofile…fsxn Thank you for clarifying. Yes, there's perfervid resistance to these insights and this kind of critique on the part of many men, who profess to find it overdone or silly or ungrounded or childish.
I intend to keep listening.

2026-04-23 14:35:57 UTC

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@nprofile…fsxn She?

2026-04-23 14:30:04 UTC

Noting that "Trump voters are mad about the consequences of their choices," John Stoehr revisits an interview he published last year with a BlueSky user named Angry Black Woman.
In the Interview, "Angry Black Woman touched on an essential truth about these United States and did so in plain English."
#Trump #MAGA #WhiteSupremacy #racism #blacklash
/1
https://www.editorialboard.com/if-theres-pain-theres-hope/

2026-04-22 22:16:08 UTC

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"Additionally, a 2023-24 Pew Research poll found that 70 percent of Catholics believe gay people should be allowed to marry, which was not only a lot higher than the 49 percent of Protestants who share that belief, but also higher than the 68 percent of Americans as a whole who did."
#Catholics #LGBTQ #discrimination #SupremeCourt #PopeLeo
/4

2026-04-22 22:15:38 UTC

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"Pope Leo XIV, while still unfortunately holding to the doctrine that homosexuality is a sin and saying that it is unlikely that the church will change their position on this in the near future, has welcomed LGBTQ+ Catholics (including several married couples) to the Vatican and has said that everyone should be welcome in the church and no one should be excluded."
#Catholics #LGBTQ #discrimination #SupremeCourt #PopeLeo
/3

2026-04-22 22:14:47 UTC

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"As anyone with sense might imagine, since the schools are funded by Colorado taxpayers of every religion, race, and sexual orientation, schools that participate in the program are not allowed to exclude enrollees on the basis of religion, race, or sexual orientation. It’s not that hard!
The schools and the Archdiocese claim that this amounts to discrimination against them for being Catholic. It’s not."
#Catholics #LGBTQ #discrimination #SupremeCourt #PopeLeo
/2

2026-04-22 22:13:45 UTC

"On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to take up a case from the [Catholic] Archdiocese of Denver and two Colorado Catholic preschools that want to be able to participate in UPK Colorado, the state’s Universal Pre-K program, but also refuse to admit kids who have LGBTQ+ parents."
~ Robyn Pennacchia
#Catholics #LGBTQ #discrimination #SupremeCourt #PopeLeo
/1
wonkette.com/p/colorado-catholic-preschools-hate

2026-04-22 14:26:36 UTC

"The damage President Trump has inflicted on the United States and the world is so enormous and wide-ranging that it is hard to grasp. ...Voters in this country twice elected a president with no ethics, no empathy and no end to his narcissism."
~ Thomas B. Edsall
#Trump #Iran #war #economy #destruction #narcissism #megalomania #instability
/1
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/trump-legacy-history-presidents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.clA.gJGK.v0d2cceYoEpO&smid=url-share

2026-04-22 13:57:21 UTC

"Feminist influencer Liz Plank opens her groundbreaking book For the Love of Men with a bold statement: 'There is no greater threat to humankind than our current definitions of masculinity.' She means it at several levels, from the most intimate:"
~ Andrew Boyd
#patriarchy #men #women #gender #violence #MaleEntitlement #environment #ClimateChange #FossilFuels #EarthDay
/1
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/22/masculinity-gender-climate-crisis

2026-04-21 21:12:55 UTC

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"There is no point in trying to predict Donald Trump's demise; he has proven adaptable and fluid, again and again. But his Iran adventure (coming as it does with a partnership with Netanyahu) has put him into a position where he must sacrifice the coalition that has kept him in power."
~ Dave Troy
#Trump #Iran #war #instability #MentalDecline #madman #MadKing #megalomania
/13
https://america2.news/the-unraveling-of-donald-trump/?ref=america-2-0-newsletter

2026-04-21 15:08:01 UTC

“'Superpower Suicide' is a concept to help understand the approach of the Trump regime to the rest of the world. We are fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda. This is bad enough on its own; but I think this performance is symptomatic of something deeper — a systematic undoing of American power by Americans."
~ Timothy Snyder
#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #NATO #Europe
/1
https://snyder.substack.com/p/superpower-suicide

2026-04-19 16:28:26 UTC

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"My bet is that Trump will end this war on terms that will be less good than either where we were on February 27 or than those we had as part of the prior Iran nuclear agreement that Trump tore up. He will try to do it as soon as he can although the path to that peace is likely, of course, as with everything Trump, as with everything to do with this misbegotten conflict, to be very messy at times."
~ David Rothkopf
#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz
/12
https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/trumps-five-big-unspoken-iran-war

2026-04-19 15:55:42 UTC

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"The Strait remains closed, 'talks' recommence, he and MAGA continue to melt down, and we are left with someone, it is increasingly clear, who is far more mad than King…."
#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #instability #narcissism #MentalDecline
/11

2026-04-19 15:55:25 UTC

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"Of course the way the Iranians, and the rest of the world are reading this completely unhinged behavior is that they are the pathetic, childish screams of an addled, old man who has badly fucked up and lost control of this ridiculous war."
~ Simon Rosenberg
#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #instability #narcissism #MentalDecline
/10
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/sunday-hopium-the-strait-remains

2026-04-19 13:02:37 UTC

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The cuckoo hatchlings then occupy the nest of the birds whose eggs they've pushed out and demand to be fed by the other parents birds.
This is how Trump and his movement have captured white Christians in the US, Brennan says. It's a question of brood parasitism. And it's why so many US Catholics will stick with their God-ordained man despite what the pope himself says:
#PopeLeo #Trump #Catholics #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism
/2

2026-04-19 13:01:25 UTC

Noting that 88% of weekly-attending white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2024 and 60% tell pollsters that God got Trump elected, and 58% of Catholics voted for Trump, Patrick Brennan talks about brood parasitism.
The cuckoo does not build its own nest, but lays eggs in the nests of other birds. When its chicks hatch, they push the eggs of the other birds from the nest.
#PopeLeo #Trump #Catholics #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism
/1
https://complexsimplicity.substack.com/p/ten-years-of-religious-hypocrisy

2026-04-18 19:56:25 UTC

Media coverage of violence against women and girls and misogynistic harassment is at a 'pitiful' low, despite a proliferation of high-profile cases of men abusing women and children, and a rise in AI-assisted violence against women and girls, new research shows."
~ Sarah Johnson
#misogyny #women #femicide #violence #ViolenceAgainstWomen #media
/1
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/apr/17/media-coverage-violence-against-women-low-report

2026-04-18 18:42:21 UTC

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"THE STRAIT STORY: For the love of God, when will the media stop reporting what Trump says, and start reporting the truth? …
The President of the United States is a serial liar, who can’t be trusted to tell the truth, and why this isn’t included in every single story about him completely escapes me, it really does."
~ D. Earl Stephens
#Trump #Iran #war #ceasefire #StraitofHormuz #media
/16
https://dearlstephens.substack.com/p/the-strait-story

2026-04-18 14:40:10 UTC

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(continued from /1)
"'that he’s a politically dangerous existentially threatening figure in America and the global scene. He is unbound. This is a reckless force moving through America with enormous global complications.'"
#Trump #ApprovalRating #MAGA #Iran #war #PopeLeo #DoctorTrump #economy
/2

2026-04-18 14:39:29 UTC

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"Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: 'Donald Trump is a wounded political animal. There’s no fading away for this guy. The more damaged he gets, the more reckless he gets and he is someone who is so consumed with a delusion of his grandeur'" (continued in /2)
~ David Smith
#Trump #ApprovalRating #MAGA #Iran #war #PopeLeo #DoctorTrump #economy
/1
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/18/donald-trump-popularity-iran-christianity-economy

2026-04-17 21:17:18 UTC

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"These days, a shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him. Some of Trump’s fanboys in the libertarian-leaning manosphere have spent the past year baffled by his actions on the Epstein files, immigration, and now Iran."
~ Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and
Elaine Godfrey
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism #MAGA
/12
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/trump-pope-leo-iran-gas-prices/686819/?gift=ZIT7NMCmIj_IC4HqpIXYJokWGMCo9CZ3SqHyNGznhyI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

2026-04-17 16:11:52 UTC

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@nprofile…v6vw Yes — and he did, after all, put a photo of a Methodist church on his forthcoming book about his Catholicism. I think more than anything, he's one of those "groomed" right-wing men the Catholic church in the US has taken into its fold in recent decades. They flocked to the Catholic church when it was a secure bastion for heterosexual males, who occupy the top of the heap in magisterial theology. Not that it's not still that way to a great extent, but things are shifting a bit now.

2026-04-17 15:38:44 UTC

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@nprofile…sk3m Ah, the personal invective and insults. Every time they give the game away, don't they? Not dialogue, not truth-seeking, not collaboration and solidarity — but the opposite. I'm sorry you allow yourself to behave that way and I wish you well.

2026-04-17 15:25:50 UTC

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@nprofile…sk3m This is the story you're recounting here, right?
"The Vatican’s top diplomat to the United Nations condemned modern and historical slavery — while countering what he called a “partial narrative” in a newly adopted U.N. resolution denouncing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.”
You can, if you wish, place Trump and Pope Leo side by side and serve Trump's interests.
I don't want to do that, myself.
https://nbccongress.org/vatican-unequivocally-condemns-slavery-counters-partial-narrative-in-un-resolution/

2026-04-17 15:07:47 UTC

"As much as most Americans may see the Iran war as a deadly dangerous & costly fiasco driven by a reckless madman, don’t doubt that Vance knows who stands to gain from it. Several days ago, The Guardian documented the windfall this war is providing to the top 100 oil and gas companies, which are making more than $30 million per hour and could pocket an estimated $234 billion in extra profits this year."
~ Beschloss
#Trump #JDVance #Iran #war #oil #gas #EconomicElites
https://www.americaamerica.news/p/why-should-jd-vance-worry

2026-04-17 15:00:07 UTC

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"To put it simply, I’m moved by Pope Leo’s consistent message of peace, and his stalwart courage in standing up to Donald Trump’s abusive rhetoric and lunatic behavior – including posting a meme of himself this week as a Jesus-like figure."
#Trump #Hegseth #JDVance #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/32

2026-04-17 14:59:53 UTC

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"In fact, because of my yoga practice and interest in eastern religion, I’ve even jokingly described myself as 'a lapsed Catholic and a half-assed Buddhist.'
But these days, I’m feeling more aligned with Catholicism than I have been since I wore a frilly white dress for my first communion in second grade.
Why?"
#Trump #Hegseth #JDVance #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/31

2026-04-17 14:58:52 UTC

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"I’ve had my ups and downs with the church of my childhood. ...
I’ve felt both incapable and unwilling, for decades, to hew to the letter of the Catholic laws – there are so many of them, after all! – and have been appalled at the sexual abuse of minors by priests and the coverups. These have indelibly stained Catholicism for many years and pulled me away from the faith."
~ Margaret Sullivan
#Trump #Hegseth #JDVance #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/30
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/17/pope-leo-trump-catholicism

2026-04-17 14:57:43 UTC

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"Which means we have to stop pretending we are still in a moment of uncertainty.
We are not. These are times of moral clarity."
#Trump #Hegseth #JDVance #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism #BlackChurch
/29

2026-04-17 14:47:59 UTC

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"Vance’s slap at Leo—including the pompous implication that he needs to go back and do some theology homework—illustrates the political and religious risks that Vance is willing to take not only with the Vatican, but with a country whose population is one-fifth Catholic, in order to demonstrate his utter fealty to Trump."
#Trump #JDVance #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/17

2026-04-17 14:47:18 UTC

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"The Trump administration doesn’t seem to have many rules, but one of them is that once the president picks a fight, his posse must show up to support him, no matter how ill-advised the conflict. And few senior officials are more eager to back up the boss in every embarrassing beef than Vice President Vance, who recently seems to have decided that he, and not Pope Leo XIV, is the true arbiter of Catholic doctrine."
~ Tom Nichols
#Trump #JDVance #PopeLeo
/16
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/pope-jd-vance-iran/686826/?gift=63Gh33MHIm6zIngFjhtdLTtu1AOOCnTs7L7hsVqp79A&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

2026-04-17 14:45:58 UTC

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"Most notably, there is a strong racial and ethnic divide among Catholics: six in ten white Catholics supporting Trump each time he has been on the ballot, but six in ten Latino Catholics have supported his Democratic opponents."
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism #Catholics #evangelicals
/15

2026-04-17 14:40:49 UTC

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"He is treated as if he speaks on behalf of all Americans. He is treated, apparently, as if he is just like Jesus or perhaps that he is actually Jesus.
No wonder he’s mad that the pope won’t sign on."
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/6

2026-04-17 14:40:32 UTC

- reply

"Trump and the people surrounding him have long pushed for a theocracy, an explicitly Christian nation. These folks are completely fine and happy when religious leaders weigh in … as long as they agree with what Trump is doing.
But that’s not religion. It’s a cult. Trump is treated as infallible. He is treated as wise."
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/5

2026-04-17 14:39:50 UTC

- reply

"They’ve spent years attempting to shove religion into the public sphere, but only their violent, Christian nationalist version. Thus far, that’s been a relatively successful project, even as it openly excludes any religion outside the Judeo-Christian tradition."
~ Lisa Needham
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/4
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-pope-vance-attacks

2026-04-17 14:39:02 UTC

- reply

"President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission had its final meeting on Monday, and you’ll be hyped to find out that everything you ever learned about the Founding Fathers and religion is incorrect, you fools.
Trump’s handpicked selection of zealots on the commission want you to know that the separation of church and state is a lie and has been all along."
~ Lisa Needham
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/3
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/16/800020208/news/religious-liberty-commission-separation-church-state-trump/

2026-04-17 14:38:29 UTC

- reply

"In Trump’s second term, both the White House and federal agencies have been bludgeoning federal employees, the press, and the public with religious pronouncements of moral superiority to perceived enemies."
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/2

2026-04-17 14:37:54 UTC

"From AI blasphemies to attacks on the papacy to prayers from the filmography of Quentin Tarantino, the Trump administration has managed to pack what feels like a year’s worth of breaking religion news into the past week. ...
The goal of the Christian nationalist project is to subvert democracy, human rights, and the rule of law."
~ Sarah Posner
#Trump #JDVance #Hegseth #PopeLeo #WhiteChristianNationalism
/1
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-feuding-little-christian-fiefdoms-of-the-trump-administration

2026-04-17 14:28:45 UTC

- reply

"ICE cannot legally detain or deport US citizens. It has done so anyway, in documented cases, multiple times. The people caught in this enforcement wave include an 86-year-old French widow of a US Army captain, a Canadian businesswoman with an approved work visa, a German engineer, a Puerto Rican military veteran, Native American tribal members who have been citizens since 1924, and a four-year-old child with cancer."
#ICE #immigrants #deportations #MarieThérèseRoss
/4

2026-04-17 14:28:22 UTC

- reply

"The Ross case is being followed closely in French press and by the French government not as an anomaly but as a data point in a pattern European governments have been watching for over a year: the detention of European nationals, military spouses, elderly visitors, and legal residents in enforcement operations that previously applied more selective judgment."
#ICE #immigrants #deportations #MarieThérèseRoss
/3

2026-04-17 14:27:50 UTC

- reply

"On April 1, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at the home of Marie-Thérèse Hélène Ross in Alabama. They handcuffed her at the wrists and ankles. She is 86 years old, a French citizen, and the widow of a former US Army captain. She is currently held in a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana. The French government is pressing for her release."
~ Rudy Martinez
#ICE #immigrants #deportations #MarieThérèseRoss
/2
https://restoftheworldreport.substack.com/p/the-rest-of-the-world-report-april-ca7

2026-04-17 14:24:56 UTC

"ICE has grown dramatically under Trump. Ten years ago, the agency had an annual budget that was less than $6 billion, making it one of the smaller agencies at DHS. In just one year under Trump, it has become the federal law enforcement agency with the biggest budget at $85 billion."
~ Joyce Vance
#ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #deportations #violence
/1
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/ice-and-the-absence-of-accountability

2026-04-17 14:19:35 UTC

- reply

A lesson Jennifer Rubin thinks progressive Americans would be well-advised to learn from Orbán's defeat:
"Broad coalitions are essential. Though certain issues are dealbreakers (e.g., reform, democracy), constituencies need not agree on everything. Purity tests are for losers."
Purity politics are the bane of left-wing groups in the US. They do the dirty work of fascism — dividing us — for the right.
#Orbán #Trump #Hungary #strongmen #corruption #PurityPolitics
/2
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/undaunted-in-hungary

2026-04-17 14:17:22 UTC

[Orbán's downfall] served as a reminder of how quickly the end can come for hubristic sociopaths hiding behind the title of 'leader.' Not that I was thinking of anyone specifically here."
~ Cliff Schecter
#Orbán #Trump #Hungary #strongmen #corruption
https://www.blueamp.co/p/orban-crushed-trumps-favorite-strongman

2026-04-17 00:06:02 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…50h6 I do understand your point, and I think the question of how religious institutions amass and use wealth deserves serious attention. My point is that I'm just not convinced that's the question I want to focus on right now, vis-a-vis this story.

2026-04-16 22:43:48 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…50h6 I think I may continue focusing on the "moral monster" part of the equation instead of the "blame the victim" part.

2026-04-16 22:25:52 UTC

- reply

"Yesterday, Donald Trump ended $11 million in federal funding for this group, as a move to spite Pope Leo XIV for having had the audacity to condemn Trump’s benighted war with Iran. The charity says it will run out of money and might have to close by year’s end."
~ Gene Weingarten
#PopeLeo #Trump #children #immigrants #Miami #CatholicCharities
/17
https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/a-story-about-two-very-different

2026-04-16 15:32:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v6vw Except his behavior as supreme ruler of the church exhibited the opposite of any pacifist traits: he and his orthodoxy rottweiler Ratzinger ruthlessly punished and silenced theologians, uppity women, anyone who showed a tendency to disagree with JPII's autocratic role.

2026-04-16 15:22:06 UTC

- reply

As Jill Filipovic notes, Republicans are concerned about "middle-aged highly-educated liberal women, who over the past decade have turned out in enormous numbers for the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter rallies, anti-ICE demonstrations, and most recently national No Kings protests."
Pushing girls into early childbearing heads that "problem" of uppity women off early on.
#BirthRates #TeenMothers #TeenPregnancy #GreatReplacement #pronatalism #women #patriarchy
/4
https://www.throughline.news/p/the-purpose-problem

2026-04-16 15:19:12 UTC

- reply

"We now must contend with a bunch of absolute freaks who are somehow upset about the teen birth rate going down."
~ Robyn Pennacchia
#BirthRates #TeenMothers #TeenPregnancy #GreatReplacement #pronatalism #women #patriarchy
/3
https://www.wonkette.com/p/republicansabsolute-freaks-want-to

2026-04-16 15:18:39 UTC

- reply

"Many on the right — the same crowd that has long extolled the virtues of abstinence-only sex education (the Alabama house just last week joined the state senate to pass a bill requiring it in lieu of comprehensive information) — jumped directly into the fray to publicly lament that teens are having fewer babies."
#BirthRates #TeenMothers #TeenPregnancy #GreatReplacement #pronatalism #women #patriarchy
/2

2026-04-16 15:18:16 UTC

"How on-brand for the federal government to announce that U.S. birth rates are falling — just as The Testaments, the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaids Tale, dropped on Hulu last week."
~ Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
#BirthRates #TeenMothers #TeenPregnancy #GreatReplacement #pronatalism #women #patriarchy
/1
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/fewer-teen-births-is-good-unless

2026-04-16 15:14:19 UTC

As Josh Kovensky reports, MAGA types who have flocked to Dallas-Fort Worth because they see these big Texas cities as Republican havens in a deep-red state are as made as hornets as they watch nearby Frisco, Texas, be revitalized by an increasing Indian presence. MAGA observers don't like what they're seeing one bit.
#Republicans #MAGA #Texas #Dallas #FortWorth #Frisco #Indians #immigrants #economy
/1
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/frisco-texas-great-replacement

2026-04-16 15:00:44 UTC

- reply

An email sent by Sinan Kanatsiz, an obscure but well-connected figure in Trump’s political orbit, offers its recipients a 'one-on-one meeting and private photo with President Donald Trump” in exchange for a “contribution of $500,000 to TPUSA PAC.'”
#PopeLeo #Trump #Republicans #Catholics #DoctorTrump #power
/16

2026-04-16 15:00:27 UTC

- reply

"It is an effort championed by Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, to secure victories for MAGA candidates in the 2026 and 2028 elections by increasing Republican support in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
The event is free for people who would like to listen to Trump’s speech from the pews at Dream City Church. But a more interactive experience is available — for a price."
#PopeLeo #Trump #Republicans #Catholics #DoctorTrump #power
/15

2026-04-15 20:22:03 UTC

- reply

"With Leo, that shortcut is closed. He is American, he speaks the language from the inside, he knows the reflexes, the liturgies, the temptations."
Again: Trump's attack on Leo "forces a clarification that the American Catholic community has postponed for decades."
The US Catholic bishops, the bulk of them appointed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have for decades provided abysmal pastoral and moral leadership.
#PopeLeo #Trump #war #morality #power
/6

2026-04-15 20:20:21 UTC

- reply

"Successive White Houses have known how to deal with popes who could be framed as 'foreign': the Argentine, the Polish, the German, the Pole who confronted communism, the Latin American who confronted capitalism. There was always a cultural distance that made it possible to describe papal criticism as an outside voice failing to understand America."
#PopeLeo #Trump #war #morality #power
/5

2026-04-15 17:47:32 UTC

Jay Kuo asks, "Is Trump losing Catholics?"
"It turns out that the answers are not only more concrete but more damaging than the GOP would like to admit publicly.
The drift was already underway [even before he mounted his attack on the pope and posed as Jesus]. By January of this year, weeks before Operation Epic Fury, and months before Trump’s Easter meltdown, Catholic support for Trump was already eroding."
~ Jay Kuo
#Trump #PopeLeo #Catholics #ApprovalRating
/1
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/is-trump-losing-the-catholics

2026-04-15 14:58:34 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v6vw It's not blasphemous to some evangelicals, obviously. Read Matt Labash's essay today focusing on Helgard Müller's book President Donald J. Trump, The Son of Man – THE CHRIST. Müller is a South African émigré, evangelical, who adored apartheid and thinks Trump is something like the incarnation of Jesus Christ — which is what not a few German pastors suggested about Hitler as he came to power.
https://mattlabash.substack.com/p/donald-h-christ

2026-04-14 22:11:52 UTC

- reply

:And it’s clear which side Trump has chosen, as he escalates his feud with the Vatican even as he amplifies an evangelical meme that likens himself to Jesus. ...
Trump has no real theological preference of his own, of course. He has largely sided with Hegseth’s vision because it mirrors his own hunger for unchecked power and divine justification."
#Trump #PopeLeo #JDVance #Hegseth #evangelicals #Catholics
/4

2026-04-14 22:11:23 UTC

- reply

"Trump may be seeking to benefit from their religious bona fides, but in a deep irony, he also appears to have set off a holy war between two incompatible theories of religious power. ...
Now, as Hegseth is tasked with waging Trump’s holy war in Iran while Vance has been tasked with ending it, the conflict between these two faith traditions has come to a head."
#Trump #PopeLeo #JDVance #Hegseth #evangelicals #Catholics
/3

2026-04-14 22:08:50 UTC

- reply

As Atwood tells the story of this group's takeover of the nation, she says that the Calvinist theocrats ruling the US began martyring Catholic priests, who opposed the theocrats' cruelty and misuse of religion.
Todd Beeton writes,
#Trump #PopeLeo #JDVance #Hegseth #evangelicals #Catholics
/2
https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/trump-pope-leo-catholics-blasphemy

2026-04-14 20:11:03 UTC

- reply

"David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, noted that many lay Catholics have been standing by Trump in recent weeks and have been critical of their bishops who critique the president.
'If this attack on the pope does not shift that dynamic in a marked way it will truly be a watershed moment ... with American Catholics choosing a Catholic-baiting president over their own pope,' Gibson said."
#Trump #PopeLeo #Republicans #MAGA #Catholics #evangelicals
/13

2026-04-14 19:47:31 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…h6ph Christianitiy is from its foundations political, with its founding figure sentenced to death by the Roman rulers because the message he preached about the kingdom of God and his unusual behavior in crossing social boundary lines were seen as political and threatening revolution.

2026-04-14 17:16:06 UTC

- reply

"Bernie Moreno on Trump’s comments about the Pope: 'I was incensed to watch the Pope's comments. I think what the Pope is doing is a disgrace.'
'It's a shame that the Pope has made the Catholic Church political. Thank God my mom’s not alive to watch that'.”
~ Eric Michael Garcia
"It's a shame that the Pope has made the Catholic Church political": a line these folks never uttered when John Paul II was pope.
#Trump #PopeLeo #Republicans #MAGA
/6
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:e7gbntp2tzobn7cfi37viei3/post/3mjft2txrvs2q

2026-04-14 14:51:41 UTC

- reply

"As Rick [Wilson] noted, Trump 'is obviously not well. The world knows it. And everybody knows it.' Rick then added this poignant line, 'Clearly no one loves this man enough to say, Don, it’s time. You need help, professional help. We’re going to get it for you.'”
~ Dean Obeidallah
#PopeLeo #Trump #MentalInstability #MentalHealth #megalomania #narcissism #PopeLeo #DoctorTrump #DoorDash #Iran
/20
https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/rick-wilson-no-one-loves-trump-enough

2026-04-14 14:48:22 UTC

- reply

"The Iran blockade hasn’t noticeably shifted public opinion. Nor has the early effort this week to shift the topic to tax cuts…… the Door Dash delivery woman was supposed to champion the 'no tax on tips' initiative, but might be best remembered for dunking on Trump’s question about transgender athletes."
#PopeLeo #Trump #MentalInstability #MentalHealth #megalomania #narcissism #PopeLeo #DoctorTrump #DoorDash #Iran
/19

2026-04-14 14:47:36 UTC

- reply

"As the day begins, it’s worth watching how Trump tries to stop the spread of the political toxin he’s been spraying over the past 36 hours.
Monday’s photo-op with a door dash worker didn’t turn the tide. Nor did his claim that he thought the A.I.-generated 'religious' image of himself was intended to be a depiction of a
Red Cross' doctor."
~ Scott McFarlane
#PopeLeo #Trump #MentalInstability #MentalHealth #megalomania #narcissism #PopeLeo #DoctorTrump #DoorDash
/18
https://macfarlanenews.substack.com/p/day-ahead-my-daily-editorial-note-981

2026-04-14 14:03:16 UTC

- reply

"But there is no empirical evidence for a sustained Christian revival in the United States — among members of Gen Z or anyone else."
#fascism #Republicans #religion #ReligiousRevival #ChristianNationalism
/5

2026-04-14 14:02:40 UTC

- reply

As Sarah Jones says,
"Research has shown that millennials are less religious than their forebears, and Gen Z is less religious still. Now, headlines say otherwise. Young adults are rediscovering church and the value of faith in an unsettled world. Among them are young men who want families and masculine role models."
#fascism #Republicans #religion #ReligiousRevival #ChristianNationalism
/4

2026-04-14 14:02:03 UTC

- reply

Though the mainstream media love to pander to right-wing political groups and their funders by pushing claims that religious revival follows in the wake of these groups, and though such claims are being advanced in both the UK and US now, there are increasing questions about the empirical evidence supporting media accounts of religious revival.
#fascism #Republicans #religion #ReligiousRevival #ChristianNationalism
/3