President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act.
The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
January 5, 2021
At 10:50 PST, ballots are being counted in Georgia. Jon Ossof leads David Purdue by 3500 votes. Raphael Warnock leads Sen. Kelly Loeffler by over 40,000 votes.
Tomorrow, Congress receives the Electoral Votes for the Presidential candidates.
On Wednesday, some of Trump’s GOP allies on Capitol Hill will attempt to block congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-to-232 victory in the electoral college—two weeks before Biden is set to take the oath of office.
Trump’s strategy represents a brazen attempt to overturn or “steal” the election, historians and political scientists agreed. Some said he is tiptoeing toward an “autogolpe,” a Spanish term popularized in Latin America to describe a “self-coup” attempted by leaders who came to power legally and acted outside the law to try to maintain it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-election-coup/2021/01/05/26afcfc0-4f6c-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
This is the America we live in for another two weeks. Meanwhile, 357,377 Americans are dead because the president refuses to do his duty to the country by leading a plan to fight CVirus. He does not know how. But it isn’t his fault or failure… For the first time in his 75 years, he has become what is commonly called, ‘a loser’.
By the time I finish this, it will Wednesday, January 6th; and it will also be the Feast of the Epiphany. The feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th of January in Western tradition. This celebrates the coming of the Magi to the newborn infant.
The word epiphany comes from the Greek ἐπιφάνεια (epiphaneia) meaning to make manifest, to show forth, to appear. This was associated with the appearance of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism and the voice of God making manifest the identity of Jesus as his Son (cf. Mark 1:11).
The gospel calls the men from the East who visited the Christ child μάγοι (magoi) meaning sage, wise or learned. They are first referred to as kings by the theologian Tertullian (160-220) who calls them fere reges (‘almost kings’ – because of their noble calling, representing the Gentiles paying homage to Christ and no doubt reflecting the Old Testament reference to kings in Psalm 71 (‘The kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring him gifts’) which is used at the Mass of the Epiphany). The gospel does not say how many Magi there were; this tradition seems to have started with the theologian Origen (185-254) who assumes there must have been three kings because there were three gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh).
http://jesuitinstitute.org/Pages/Liturgy/Epiphany.htm
Historically, this is when my wife and I give presents to our children. I grew tired of Christmas as celebrated in the US, long ago. Creator entering Time and Space as a single cell inside the womb of a teenaged girl, has ALWAYS been the gift.
“The letters of the name of God in Hebrew are infrequently pronounced Yahweh. But in truth they are unutterable. This word {YHWH} is the sound of breathing. The holiest name in the world, the Name of Creator, is the sound of your own breathing. That these letters are unpronounceable is no accident. Just as it is no accident that they are also the root letters of the Hebrew verb ‘to be’… God’s name is the name of Being itself.”
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
Your very existence, every breath, is an unceasing invitation to awaken to the reality of God. You inhale God and exhale God. Every breath is into and out of God. YHWH. Breathe, and your being calls out to the name of Being itself.
This also adds a whole new dimension to taking the name of God in vain. It’s about your life, your existence.
Jacob M. Wright
Historically, the three Magi are considered to be Kings. What better event for a Time Lord to attend…he is also a British Lord, in an investiture by Queen Victoria. Immediately followed by Victoria banishing The Doctor from Britain for consorting with that which should not be mentioned; and coinciding with the creation of the Torchwood Institute, dedicated to the protection of the Realm from Alien intrusion…
When life gets too crazy, I visit The Doctor.
Share this:
Tags: depression, faith, freelance illustration, hope, intolerance, material poverty, mental health, Nerve Pain, Neuropathy, pain, persistence, personal excellence, Polyneuropathy, self employment
Chronicles in Ordinary Time 