With God on our side

 This is a big deal.

"In issuing this decree, I'm guided by the Church's mission to care for the spiritual welfare of all entrusted under my care, particularly those who face fear or hardship."  The decree from Bishop Alberto Rojas and Vicar General Gerard M. Lopez of San Bernardino allows parishioners to skip Sunday mass if they fear abduction by agents of ICE.  It follows a similar decree in May from the Diocese of Nashville.  Depending on your viewpoint, either the Roman Catholic Church is obstructing agents of the law or the federal government has violated the First Amendment's promise to not interfere with the free exercise of religion by raiding churches.  I have no doubt they cleared it with the pontiff.  In fact, it might have been his idea.

We have heard so much about prayer since the Texas flood that you might wonder what century this is.  If it comforts people who have no other hope, I won't complain.  The fact is, terrestrial efforts at alleviation were not quite as impressive as a burning bush.  According to CNN, FEMA officials (there still are some) tried to respond as they always did but ran into difficulties.  All expenditures over $100,000 must now be personally approved by Kristi Noem, who isn't always in the office with so many new concentration camps to oversee.  It took her three days to sign off on Urban Search and Rescue teams, who would have been among the first to deploy if we still had a government and not a protection racket.  By then there were few people to rescue.

Cowgirl Ilse Koch responded as she always does, with an attempt at distraction.  Last time it was the preposterous story of the self-cannibalizing deportee.  This time she offered titillation while slandering the Biden administration and the people of Hawaii.  Did you know that after the wildfires, supplies in Lahaina were so scarce because of FEMA ineptitude that "one in six survivors had to trade sexual favors for basics"?  Neither did they.  But the governor who refused to cancel the Sturgis motorcycle rally over a trivial pandemic is still above criticism and able to cause havoc in the other forty-nine states as well.

Prayers are over and Greg Abbott has moved on.  Ordered by the regime to increase its MAGA majority, he is working on re-districting Texas to make it redder still.  It sounds like someone is already panicking about the 2026 midterms.  His instructions come from Trump lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, now running the Bondi Department's "civil rights (and how to end them") division.

"I will support him until the day I die.  He's making America great again."  Who said it?  Arpineh Masihi, the "MAGA mom" currently in ICE detention.  The Iranian-born woman has lived here since she was three but she broke the law seventeen years ago and I guess she's preparing for her free trip to wherever they send her.  "Lots of these people don't deserve to be here," she told the BBC from prison.  I can't decide whether it's textbook brainwashing out of The Manchurian Candidate or the Python sketch about the Piranha Brothers.  ("He nailed your head to the floor?"  "He had to.  I had transgressed the unwritten law.")  Some days I laugh a little hysterically to keep from screaming.

This is Shawn Bolz, who runs his own ministry and has come forward to report a technological miracle.  He claims that ChatGPT can interpret the gibberish spouted by enthusiasts "speaking in tongues," in one instance Sumerian but definitely not demonic.  Someone should ask the Holy Spirit why it/he/they doesn't just convey the information in English, but who's going to send in love offerings for advice they could get from a magazine column?

"This man, his soul is lost.  He could be a son of Satan.  We don't need that but we need to be praying that God would break this stronghold.  This is a demonic spirit.  We have to come against this.  You will not have this.  Devil, you will not have New York."  Yep, another one.  Lorenzo Sewell, who prayed at the January inauguration and has joined the Mamdani-is-Satan bandwagon.  It's hard to tell whether he's more appalled by the free buses or the prospect of a Muslim mayor, but he's plenty appalled.  Plan on more of this.  

In other faith news, state senator Angela Paxton announced that she is divorcing attorney general Ken "on biblical grounds," which evidently means years of flagrant adultery.  Will this impede his quest to replace John Cornyn in the Senate?  A lot of Paxtonians seem to think so and have reminded the senator that as a Christian wife she is expected to shut up and take it.  "You're dishonoring God, your children and husband by this choice."  "What is your goal in doing this?  Surely your intentions are not good!"  "Marriage is indissoluble.  There is no such thing as Biblical grounds to separate what God has joined together...any subsequent marriage will be adultery."  Texas is no place for even MAGA feminism.  And what does she mean by "biblical grounds"?  Did Ken fail to beat their kids, or eat of an unclean animal (mmm, barbecued ribs)?  "Mental cruelty" will do.  No one would doubt it.  Look at that shirt.