Amazon spent $14.2M on anti-union consultants in 2022.

That’s a lot of coin they’re laying out in an effort to make sure they don’t have to do the right thing by their workers. You know the workers. They’re the ones who do the work! It’s their work that generates the revenues Bezos stuffs into his pockets. Amazon is using the revenue generated by those workers to make sure they don’t have to do anything for the workers themselves.

I’ll tell you this: I hope they keep at it, the workers, I mean. Unions were one of the major components that made America great in the first place and they’re needed if we ever really want to do it again…

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Okay, weird. Or is it? It turns out the right-wing, amicus brief-writing, pseudo-“Justice” corrupting “friend” of Clarence Thomas admires fascists. It has come out Harlan Crow has a collection of Hitler memorabilia, including a couple of Hitler’s paintings. He has a garden of statues of dictators including Mussolini and Stalin but most of his collection centers on Hitler. You know, kind of typical, far-right conservative memorabilia.

After all this time, why might people be confused to find that the wealthy people trying to take over this once-great nation are Fascists – or, at least, Fascist-aligned? I’ve seen several theories that suggest that in order to be truly fascist there must be this or that characteristic but Mussolini, the reputed “Father of Fascism” described it only as the marriage between corporations and government. That’s the definition I’ve always used and it certainly seems to be the country we live in today. I don’t even think authoritarianism is necessarily part-and-parcel to Fascism. I think it occurs as a natural by-product because that’s how corporations work.

We KNOW that the richest people in this country tend toward fascism and have for a long, long time. Henry Ford was a Fascist, for example. I’d even say it’s logical. If you’re the one who gets to keep all the money and make all the rules, that system is probably going to be VERY attractive – to you. It’s everybody else, the vast majority of the population, that suffers.

But I’ll tell you this: “Finding out” that the stronghold of Fascism in this once-great nation is in the homes, halls, and offices of the top 10 percent of the wealth-holders? That’s really kind of ho-hum information these days. The real question is, what are We, the People going to do about it?

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The main protagonist in the Christian Bible is a guy named Jesus. He has more of a supporting role in Islam. (Religions do that. For example, Apollo, the leading god to the Romans, also existed as a god in ancient Greece. The Greek Apollo was just a bit further down the pecking order for the Greeks. So, Jesus being “re-ranked,” as it were, is just standard operating procedure for religions…) Oh, also, his name was more likely Joshua, with “Jesus” being something of a mistranslation but that’s just a digression…

Today is Easter, a big day for Christians. All my life, I’ve had questions about the religion so today seems a good day to mention one of them. I mean no disrespect to believers. I’m just asking the question, as Tucker Carlson might say…

Christians, as a group, are waiting for the end times, when Jesus/Joshua comes back and collects everybody and takes them off to a better place. Sure, you have to die first but still…better, right? (“Can’t get an even shake here on Earth? Just wait until you die. Things will be GREAT after that! That will be 10% of the gross, please…”)

If I may coin a mash-up, JeJosh, is quoted in Matthew 24 as describing the signs to look for and, without being too specific, when the return will take place. This is one of the more prominent places in the Bible where JeJosh warns believers (over and over) that there will be many pretenders and not to be fooled. In Matthew 24:4 (NIV) we get: “And JeJosh answered, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name claiming ‘I am the Messiah’ and will deceive many.” Then, in Matthew 24: 11, “…and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”

JeJosh really brings the point home in Matthew 24:23, when he says “At that time, if anyone says to you ‘Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he his!’ do not believe it.” AGAIN, in Matthew 24:24, “for false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” I guess JeJosh didn’t feel like his message was getting through so he repeated again in Matthew 24:26, “So if anyone tells you, ‘there he is, out in the wilderness’ do not go out; or ‘Here he is in the inner rooms’ do not believe it.” Or, finally, in Matthew 24:26.5, “No, I will NOT be a big, fat, orange blob of anger, whining, greed, self-pity, and self-interest hell-bent on seizing a once great nation for my own aggrandizement.” (Okay, I may have thrown that last one in on my own…)

I mean, my own edition aside, that’s still a LOT of “don’t be fooled” right there. All of that is really just a digression from my point, though. MY question is about the timing. In the same book where JeJosh repeats himself over and over, “don’t be fooled” (only to be HUGELY disappointed at the countless multitudes of the faithful fooled by false prophets) he also gave a time-frame.

Matthew 24:34 – and remember, this is JeJosh talking, here: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

Now, there are many different definitions of what constitutes a “generation,” depending upon the subject category and the speaker. I’ve heard it range from 20 years to 40. I have never, ever, in all my born days, heard a “generation” being described as anywhere near 2,000 years. So, without being specific, JeJosh was still pretty clear: “THIS generation…” (emphasis mine.) So, either there’s still some poor soul out there just trying to get to his 1,996th birthday or the “events” described already occurred – something like 2,000 years ago. Like a dad who goes out to “buy cigarettes” and never comes home, you can wait and wait, but he ain’t coming home. (I imagine there’s some Biblical scholar out there with lots and lots of words to explain why what the book says isn’t what the book means so remember, it’s just my own reading – and it’s just a question…)

So here’s my sermon for the day: Don’t be a good person because JeJosh might come back and punish the crap out of you if you’re not. Be a good person because it’s the right thing to do. It’s not that hard and, if it turns out he’s real, Jesus will probably notice even without the pageantry…

In the meantime, I hope you and yours have a lovely Easter…