Violence is probably innate - and in some evolutionary sense, was needed to protect oneself, one's tribe (family), and one's property. But that was limited to the people in the next valley who might come your way to do you harm.
There were no government contracts, obscene profits, academic studies, parades, medals, or movies celebrating it. How much easier those elements make it to slaughter strangers who have done no harm, or just live in the wrong place, or worship a different sky god.
Another movie worth remembering is Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. There is the haunting scene when William Munny tells the Schofield Kid about how terrible a thing it is to kill someone and take all they have and all they might have.
"There were no government contracts, obscene profits, academic studies, parades, medals, or movies celebrating it. How much easier those elements make it to slaughter strangers who have done no harm, or just live in the wrong place, or worship a different sky god."
Not to mention all the wonderful weapons we now have. We can now slaughter by the millions instead of just one at a time.
Yes, Munny's speech in "Unforgiven" sort of runs counter to Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" type of reputation/image. This speech from a guy who confessed he's killed just about anything and anyone he was paid to!! Was Clint in a temporary phase of SANITY?? (Later to be followed by the infamous "empty chair" speech at a GOP convention.) As to human evolution, yes of course it's been a bloody affair. But Homo sapiens CLAIMS to be superior to the other animal species, yes? [And you'll never even hear the typical human admit that we are a species of animal!] Should be able to rise above Darwin's "red in fang and claw" or however that phrase went. Mark Twain, in his tremendous wisdom, was all over such topics. If you (addressing anyone reading this) have never read his "The War Prayer," seek it immediately. It's not very long but quite to the point.
Witness is a powerful movie. Killing is so commonplace, not only in war but in our everyday lives. I was talking to my nephew about the Brown University shooting just before Christmas. He owns a store in our neighborhood (less than a mile from Brown), and he noticed that for 2 days after the shooting, the shops were empty, and once the shooter was found dead, things went back to "normal." Unfortunately "normal" just means more shootings daily, but just not in our neighborhood. How easily people forget the dead and injured. Our society is sick, as is our politics.
Cut to the chase and say the obvious. Trump maybe a super narcissist, but he is a typical American. This country has existed for just about two hundred years and was at peace for less than twenty according to my latest information. The USA tops the list of most war making countries in two centuries. The same applies to domestic killings. Wherever there are American boots on the ground there will be killing to protect “US interests.” Wasn’t that the justification for removing the original population of this beautiful continent? My recommendation for any peace spouting US service person is to listen to Ayn Rand’s remarkable (disgusting) speech to the West Point graduating class of March 6, 1974. She received a standing ovation for her bloody speech. The simple fact is that it makes no real difference who is president. It is the American people who need to experience an awakening to the true nature of this country. That, unfortunately, is a utopian dream.
I didn’t say all. When about 50% of Americans voted for this “gentleman” you have a national problem. Why don’t you ask your average American what he knows or thinks about the country. I do remember the days when most Americans approved what the US military did in Vietnam and in 2003 more than seventy percent approved Bush’s illegal attack on Iraq. I never said that Americans are not “pretty nice people.” Some of them are family and relatives. That is not the issue. The core problem is how this country through its elected officials conducts foreign policy. On the domestic front. Why are you pretty nice people tolerating human suffering caused by the lack of universal healthcare (that includes 75% of personal bankruptcies caused by insurmountable debt due to medical cost). I shall not enumerate all the other problems that are the result of tolerance by pretty nice people.
Actually, it's closer to 25% who actually voted for Trump as only 66% of the voting eligible population voted; and the voting eligible population excludes everyone not registered to vote (e.g., under 18 years of age, prison population, etc.)
Also, take into account the "against Harris" voters who had didn't want Harris more than they didn't want Trump.
Regarding our foreign policy, there is an incredibly large percentage of Americans who are blissfully ignorant about such matters. If you want to find them, all you have to do is travel through the great American Outback and ask anyone at a roadside gas station or restaurant. With 75% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and worried about healthcare, most are concerned for their own welfare and few seem to be aware that we have a foreign policy. Add to that the paucity of real news in the media and it's no wonder.
You make my point. America has (a)serious problem(s). As far as I know (I may not be 100% accurate) there has never been a president since I settled in this country 60 years ago who received a real democratic endorsement. They all were elected by a minority of eligible voters. That puts to rest the notion of American democracy that American politicians have been spouting about for a very long time. I can provide you with some nice quotes from A TIME FOR DECISION (1944) by FDR’s undersecretary of state Sumner Wells regarding America’s educational role to teach the Germans about democracy. Knowing real German or European history has never been a strength of American education. The American Outback is right close-by where I live in eastern Nebraska and for one who has taught thousands of students from these Outbacks this intellectual lacuna was a daily reality. That doesn’t excuse the lack of competent teaching of history and political science in the high schools - they are everywhere. Personally, I find the lack of teaching critical thinking an even more serious issue. The problem is not a current one! I encountered it the first months I had arrived. I will spare you some of the hilarious misconceptions that were considered history.
"They all were elected by a minority of eligible voters."
But they were nominated by a much, much smaller minority of party officials who left the voting electorate with only 2 miserable choices. So when your choices are tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, what do you do? You choose the least bad or you don't vote (which explains why so many people didn't vote).
Face it! Our elections are rigged - but they are rigged by the officials of the two party system which was bought and paid for by the ruling class and which gives us no choices except bad choices.
What you can fault the voters for is their reluctance to vote for an independent or third party candidate, but you can't fault them for the 2 bad choices they are given by the ruling party officials.
As for the education system, it's the ruling class that determines what is taught in our schools these days, and the last thing the ruling class wants is an educated electorate capable of critical thinking.
But you are absolutely right. America has some very serious problems, among them being our own survival as a species.
A long time ago ("in a Galaxy far, far away"?? sorry, couldn't resist!) Karl Marx observed that the ideas (make it ideology if you prefer) that dominate any society are those promulgated and perpetuated by the Ruling Elite.
Without the least doubt, yeah, critical thinking is not exactly a strength for the great unwashed masses of the USA! A huge systemic problem, by now beyond anyone's ability to fix it. Of course it's hardly unique for a populace to vote in politicians who will work tirelessly AGAINST the interests of those who elected them. One need only look at "the Labour Party" in the UK! I'm sure that scene over there is what inspired The Who's lyrics: "Meet the New Boss/Same as the Old Boss"!!
Yes, the warmongers have shiny new tools with which to help perpetuate the disinformation about our own history and what's going on in the rest of the world. No wonder Mark Twain applied the phrase "The Innocents Abroad" to a boatload of good American Christians bound for the Holy Land way back when.
IMO Trump DOES exhibit typical "American" ARROGANCE in dealings with the rest of the world, and Mr. Netanyahu has absorbed that attitude. [NOT to imply that the attempted eradication of Palestinians only started with his ascendancy, mind you.] An accurate national motto for USA would be "If it offends you, kill it!" And this has trickled down to common folk, with the Old West use of firearms to try to settle any grievance, real or imagined. Trump has all but officially (thus far!) repudiated and rescinded the concept of "E pluribus unum," hasn't he? The "many" no longer qualify for full citizenship status. You have to be a White Christian Nationalist for that status! White racist S. Africans get special promotion, of course, if they immigrate here!!
What bothers me most is the generalization that all Americans are boorish and arrogant. That is simply untrue.
I will grant you that the description is typical of our foreign policies which are arrogant, boorish, belligerent and exploitive, but those policies are determined by a privileged class of wealthy and powerful people who are arrogant, boorish and exploitive - and not by typical Americans.
Furthermore, if you consider yourself a "typical" American, then you are painting yourself with the same brush.
Oh, for sure! Trump is a truly exceptional POTUS in numerous ways, and campaigned "promising" to take a wrecking ball to the Evil Eastern Liberal Establishment. Well, he sure took that ball to the East Wing, huh? The Establishment will survive him and continue its arrogant, militaristic (now more than ever) approach to the rest of the planet. US foreign policy IS its MILITARY policy, period.
Your math is a little off, Karl. USA will "celebrate"--I won't be participating, especially because Trump will be putting his brand name on everything associated with this--250 years since declaring independence from the Crown of England come July 4. Mr. Trump is a creature of his own making and clearly quite insane. Not quite a typical US President, thank goodness.
I am very embarrassed about my serious mathematical error. Please forgive my inexactness. September 3, 1783, the day of signing the Treaty of Paris or September 17, 1787 when the signing of the US Constitution took place in Philadelphia. So, I admit to be not infallible. Leave that to the Pope.
I am starting off the New Year on a hard edge, just as the Old One left me. Reason? All we are left with is hope, and to paraphrase Stalin, "How many divisions does hope have?" Context: I was watching a documentary on George Marshall the other night, which dealt in part with the decision to giving priority to the defeat of Nazism and Germany, one of three members of the Axis that FDR referred to as "the three renegade nations." The Nazis (correctly) seen as more of a world threat than the Japanese.
The challenge, the conundrum facing the world in 2026 is that there are two renegade nations running unchecked, this one and the illegitimate one with which it is joined at the hip, Israel. Is there any reason to expect a change in the behavior of the two, unless of course they happen to wipe out their real, manufactured, and imaginary adversaries? And even then they'd seek out others?
What's it gonna take to put an end to this? Who are the latter day Allies, the coalition of nations, to "oppose, and thus end them"? To quote Churchill almost verbatim, "But if we fail, then the whole world..., including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."
Hence the paraphrase from Stalin, as hope alone is far from being enough.
Like this reply XK, but I think Stalin said, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" But on the question of hope, Paul writes in 1Cor.13:13: And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Actually, and I've noted this before on this feed, it was MUSSOLINI after the then sitting Pope made a very mild public criticism of his regime. Something to effect of "How many legions [harkening back to the good old days of the Roman Empire!] can the Pope put in the field?" Or maybe it was "divisions." But it definitely was Mussolini.
Given how grossly political the Peace Prize process has become--I mean come on, this US puppet opposing Mr. Maduro merited the damned thing?!?--we should not rule out Trump receiving this "honor" at some point.
Reading this brings me back to Genesis 4, the 1st Biblical record of a Human killing a Human when Cain killed his brother and God says, 'What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.'
Cain was terrified of Capital Punishment as it's recorded, answering God, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear. You have driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from your face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that finds me shall SLAY me.
God is adamant! The killing of 1 Human is enough!
God put a Mark on Cain so no one would kill him, or it it would be 7 Times worse. Eventually someone else killed someone else, making it 77 times worse from the Genesis Beginning to the Revelation in our Time.
It's BIG MONEY and high paying JOBS to devise and produce more ways to kill more Humans at once, like with NUKES, and that Earthly system is accepted by the people without a peep as normal!
If my recall is correct, the root of this slaying lay in Jehovah favoring the offerings brought him by Abel over those of Cain, though the latter believed his were the superior offerings. Of course, moving forward thru history, Jehovah would sanction innumerable massacres to be committed in his name. The Bible contains literally hundreds of self-contradictions and IMO is about the WORST "guide to ethical conduct" ever published!! Sorry if you find this offensive. I deem it TRUTH.
Not offended at all, Gregory! My account concerns the moral history from the 1st Murder some 6000 years ago, to now and where this Material World is at in our Generations!
The OT Prophet Isaiah wrote this some 720 Years before Jesus walked the Earth during the Roman Occupation of Palestine. All these 2000 Years later, the Occupation of Palestine is still the most unresolved explosive situation in the Middle East and the World that sees the Israeli Genocide in Palestine-Gaza.
'I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.' Isaiah 45.
Christ Jesus had a hard time convincing the Jewish Religious Establishment God the Father is All Good, a Peacemaker, a Healer and Forgiver of Sins, guided by Truth, Justice, and Judgment.
I replied to the Pope and the Council of Thrones this am mentioning this article this way, @realDonaldTrump @netanyahu @_FriedrichMerz @EmmanuelMacron @Keir_Starmer @MarkJCarney
@washingtonpost @CBCNews
Reading this, 'Only the Bad Man' in BRACING VIEWS brings me back to Genesis 4, the 1st Biblical record of a Human killing a Human when Cain killed his brother and God says, 'What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.'
Anyone interested can see the whole exchange with the Pope and the others here. Someone has to do it!
Violence is probably innate - and in some evolutionary sense, was needed to protect oneself, one's tribe (family), and one's property. But that was limited to the people in the next valley who might come your way to do you harm.
There were no government contracts, obscene profits, academic studies, parades, medals, or movies celebrating it. How much easier those elements make it to slaughter strangers who have done no harm, or just live in the wrong place, or worship a different sky god.
Another movie worth remembering is Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. There is the haunting scene when William Munny tells the Schofield Kid about how terrible a thing it is to kill someone and take all they have and all they might have.
We are ruled by demonic monsters.
"There were no government contracts, obscene profits, academic studies, parades, medals, or movies celebrating it. How much easier those elements make it to slaughter strangers who have done no harm, or just live in the wrong place, or worship a different sky god."
Not to mention all the wonderful weapons we now have. We can now slaughter by the millions instead of just one at a time.
Yes, Munny's speech in "Unforgiven" sort of runs counter to Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" type of reputation/image. This speech from a guy who confessed he's killed just about anything and anyone he was paid to!! Was Clint in a temporary phase of SANITY?? (Later to be followed by the infamous "empty chair" speech at a GOP convention.) As to human evolution, yes of course it's been a bloody affair. But Homo sapiens CLAIMS to be superior to the other animal species, yes? [And you'll never even hear the typical human admit that we are a species of animal!] Should be able to rise above Darwin's "red in fang and claw" or however that phrase went. Mark Twain, in his tremendous wisdom, was all over such topics. If you (addressing anyone reading this) have never read his "The War Prayer," seek it immediately. It's not very long but quite to the point.
Forgot to add: Chris Hedges has a new interview with William Hartung on his book "The Trillion Dollar War Machine". It's time well spent viewing it.
Witness is a powerful movie. Killing is so commonplace, not only in war but in our everyday lives. I was talking to my nephew about the Brown University shooting just before Christmas. He owns a store in our neighborhood (less than a mile from Brown), and he noticed that for 2 days after the shooting, the shops were empty, and once the shooter was found dead, things went back to "normal." Unfortunately "normal" just means more shootings daily, but just not in our neighborhood. How easily people forget the dead and injured. Our society is sick, as is our politics.
Happy New Year, Bill!
Cut to the chase and say the obvious. Trump maybe a super narcissist, but he is a typical American. This country has existed for just about two hundred years and was at peace for less than twenty according to my latest information. The USA tops the list of most war making countries in two centuries. The same applies to domestic killings. Wherever there are American boots on the ground there will be killing to protect “US interests.” Wasn’t that the justification for removing the original population of this beautiful continent? My recommendation for any peace spouting US service person is to listen to Ayn Rand’s remarkable (disgusting) speech to the West Point graduating class of March 6, 1974. She received a standing ovation for her bloody speech. The simple fact is that it makes no real difference who is president. It is the American people who need to experience an awakening to the true nature of this country. That, unfortunately, is a utopian dream.
"Trump maybe a super narcissist, but he is a typical American."
No, he is not typical. I've known too many Americans and most of them are pretty nice people.
I didn’t say all. When about 50% of Americans voted for this “gentleman” you have a national problem. Why don’t you ask your average American what he knows or thinks about the country. I do remember the days when most Americans approved what the US military did in Vietnam and in 2003 more than seventy percent approved Bush’s illegal attack on Iraq. I never said that Americans are not “pretty nice people.” Some of them are family and relatives. That is not the issue. The core problem is how this country through its elected officials conducts foreign policy. On the domestic front. Why are you pretty nice people tolerating human suffering caused by the lack of universal healthcare (that includes 75% of personal bankruptcies caused by insurmountable debt due to medical cost). I shall not enumerate all the other problems that are the result of tolerance by pretty nice people.
Actually, it's closer to 25% who actually voted for Trump as only 66% of the voting eligible population voted; and the voting eligible population excludes everyone not registered to vote (e.g., under 18 years of age, prison population, etc.)
Also, take into account the "against Harris" voters who had didn't want Harris more than they didn't want Trump.
Regarding our foreign policy, there is an incredibly large percentage of Americans who are blissfully ignorant about such matters. If you want to find them, all you have to do is travel through the great American Outback and ask anyone at a roadside gas station or restaurant. With 75% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and worried about healthcare, most are concerned for their own welfare and few seem to be aware that we have a foreign policy. Add to that the paucity of real news in the media and it's no wonder.
You make my point. America has (a)serious problem(s). As far as I know (I may not be 100% accurate) there has never been a president since I settled in this country 60 years ago who received a real democratic endorsement. They all were elected by a minority of eligible voters. That puts to rest the notion of American democracy that American politicians have been spouting about for a very long time. I can provide you with some nice quotes from A TIME FOR DECISION (1944) by FDR’s undersecretary of state Sumner Wells regarding America’s educational role to teach the Germans about democracy. Knowing real German or European history has never been a strength of American education. The American Outback is right close-by where I live in eastern Nebraska and for one who has taught thousands of students from these Outbacks this intellectual lacuna was a daily reality. That doesn’t excuse the lack of competent teaching of history and political science in the high schools - they are everywhere. Personally, I find the lack of teaching critical thinking an even more serious issue. The problem is not a current one! I encountered it the first months I had arrived. I will spare you some of the hilarious misconceptions that were considered history.
"They all were elected by a minority of eligible voters."
But they were nominated by a much, much smaller minority of party officials who left the voting electorate with only 2 miserable choices. So when your choices are tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, what do you do? You choose the least bad or you don't vote (which explains why so many people didn't vote).
Face it! Our elections are rigged - but they are rigged by the officials of the two party system which was bought and paid for by the ruling class and which gives us no choices except bad choices.
What you can fault the voters for is their reluctance to vote for an independent or third party candidate, but you can't fault them for the 2 bad choices they are given by the ruling party officials.
As for the education system, it's the ruling class that determines what is taught in our schools these days, and the last thing the ruling class wants is an educated electorate capable of critical thinking.
But you are absolutely right. America has some very serious problems, among them being our own survival as a species.
A long time ago ("in a Galaxy far, far away"?? sorry, couldn't resist!) Karl Marx observed that the ideas (make it ideology if you prefer) that dominate any society are those promulgated and perpetuated by the Ruling Elite.
Without the least doubt, yeah, critical thinking is not exactly a strength for the great unwashed masses of the USA! A huge systemic problem, by now beyond anyone's ability to fix it. Of course it's hardly unique for a populace to vote in politicians who will work tirelessly AGAINST the interests of those who elected them. One need only look at "the Labour Party" in the UK! I'm sure that scene over there is what inspired The Who's lyrics: "Meet the New Boss/Same as the Old Boss"!!
Yes, the warmongers have shiny new tools with which to help perpetuate the disinformation about our own history and what's going on in the rest of the world. No wonder Mark Twain applied the phrase "The Innocents Abroad" to a boatload of good American Christians bound for the Holy Land way back when.
IMO Trump DOES exhibit typical "American" ARROGANCE in dealings with the rest of the world, and Mr. Netanyahu has absorbed that attitude. [NOT to imply that the attempted eradication of Palestinians only started with his ascendancy, mind you.] An accurate national motto for USA would be "If it offends you, kill it!" And this has trickled down to common folk, with the Old West use of firearms to try to settle any grievance, real or imagined. Trump has all but officially (thus far!) repudiated and rescinded the concept of "E pluribus unum," hasn't he? The "many" no longer qualify for full citizenship status. You have to be a White Christian Nationalist for that status! White racist S. Africans get special promotion, of course, if they immigrate here!!
What bothers me most is the generalization that all Americans are boorish and arrogant. That is simply untrue.
I will grant you that the description is typical of our foreign policies which are arrogant, boorish, belligerent and exploitive, but those policies are determined by a privileged class of wealthy and powerful people who are arrogant, boorish and exploitive - and not by typical Americans.
Furthermore, if you consider yourself a "typical" American, then you are painting yourself with the same brush.
Oh, for sure! Trump is a truly exceptional POTUS in numerous ways, and campaigned "promising" to take a wrecking ball to the Evil Eastern Liberal Establishment. Well, he sure took that ball to the East Wing, huh? The Establishment will survive him and continue its arrogant, militaristic (now more than ever) approach to the rest of the planet. US foreign policy IS its MILITARY policy, period.
Your math is a little off, Karl. USA will "celebrate"--I won't be participating, especially because Trump will be putting his brand name on everything associated with this--250 years since declaring independence from the Crown of England come July 4. Mr. Trump is a creature of his own making and clearly quite insane. Not quite a typical US President, thank goodness.
I am very embarrassed about my serious mathematical error. Please forgive my inexactness. September 3, 1783, the day of signing the Treaty of Paris or September 17, 1787 when the signing of the US Constitution took place in Philadelphia. So, I admit to be not infallible. Leave that to the Pope.
Don't feel bad! The dates you cited are very important, of course. See "American Creation" by Joseph J. Ellis. He touches on all that stuff.
I am starting off the New Year on a hard edge, just as the Old One left me. Reason? All we are left with is hope, and to paraphrase Stalin, "How many divisions does hope have?" Context: I was watching a documentary on George Marshall the other night, which dealt in part with the decision to giving priority to the defeat of Nazism and Germany, one of three members of the Axis that FDR referred to as "the three renegade nations." The Nazis (correctly) seen as more of a world threat than the Japanese.
The challenge, the conundrum facing the world in 2026 is that there are two renegade nations running unchecked, this one and the illegitimate one with which it is joined at the hip, Israel. Is there any reason to expect a change in the behavior of the two, unless of course they happen to wipe out their real, manufactured, and imaginary adversaries? And even then they'd seek out others?
What's it gonna take to put an end to this? Who are the latter day Allies, the coalition of nations, to "oppose, and thus end them"? To quote Churchill almost verbatim, "But if we fail, then the whole world..., including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."
Hence the paraphrase from Stalin, as hope alone is far from being enough.
Like this reply XK, but I think Stalin said, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" But on the question of hope, Paul writes in 1Cor.13:13: And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Actually, and I've noted this before on this feed, it was MUSSOLINI after the then sitting Pope made a very mild public criticism of his regime. Something to effect of "How many legions [harkening back to the good old days of the Roman Empire!] can the Pope put in the field?" Or maybe it was "divisions." But it definitely was Mussolini.
It was a paraphrase.
Yeah....bombing seven countries....kinda lowers his chances for the Peace Prize this year. Again.
But maybe after he got the one from FIFA, he forgot about the Nobel.
May 2026 be a BETTER new year for all.
Given how grossly political the Peace Prize process has become--I mean come on, this US puppet opposing Mr. Maduro merited the damned thing?!?--we should not rule out Trump receiving this "honor" at some point.
Reading this brings me back to Genesis 4, the 1st Biblical record of a Human killing a Human when Cain killed his brother and God says, 'What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.'
Cain was terrified of Capital Punishment as it's recorded, answering God, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear. You have driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from your face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that finds me shall SLAY me.
God is adamant! The killing of 1 Human is enough!
God put a Mark on Cain so no one would kill him, or it it would be 7 Times worse. Eventually someone else killed someone else, making it 77 times worse from the Genesis Beginning to the Revelation in our Time.
It's BIG MONEY and high paying JOBS to devise and produce more ways to kill more Humans at once, like with NUKES, and that Earthly system is accepted by the people without a peep as normal!
https://rayjc.com/2025/08/13/us-dollar-image-of-the-beast/
If my recall is correct, the root of this slaying lay in Jehovah favoring the offerings brought him by Abel over those of Cain, though the latter believed his were the superior offerings. Of course, moving forward thru history, Jehovah would sanction innumerable massacres to be committed in his name. The Bible contains literally hundreds of self-contradictions and IMO is about the WORST "guide to ethical conduct" ever published!! Sorry if you find this offensive. I deem it TRUTH.
Not offended at all, Gregory! My account concerns the moral history from the 1st Murder some 6000 years ago, to now and where this Material World is at in our Generations!
The OT Prophet Isaiah wrote this some 720 Years before Jesus walked the Earth during the Roman Occupation of Palestine. All these 2000 Years later, the Occupation of Palestine is still the most unresolved explosive situation in the Middle East and the World that sees the Israeli Genocide in Palestine-Gaza.
'I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.' Isaiah 45.
Christ Jesus had a hard time convincing the Jewish Religious Establishment God the Father is All Good, a Peacemaker, a Healer and Forgiver of Sins, guided by Truth, Justice, and Judgment.
Hope always dies last. Keep dreaming.
"Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s hoping for a lot less killing—and a lot more peace—in 2026."
Well, hope is a good start. But peace will require more than daydreaming about it. Sorry to suggest such a painful reality.
I replied to the Pope and the Council of Thrones this am mentioning this article this way, @realDonaldTrump @netanyahu @_FriedrichMerz @EmmanuelMacron @Keir_Starmer @MarkJCarney
@washingtonpost @CBCNews
Reading this, 'Only the Bad Man' in BRACING VIEWS brings me back to Genesis 4, the 1st Biblical record of a Human killing a Human when Cain killed his brother and God says, 'What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.'
Anyone interested can see the whole exchange with the Pope and the others here. Someone has to do it!
https://x.com/RayJC_Com/status/2006777644973531471