Spiritual Quote of the Day (Brian McLaren, on Rediscovering ‘Our Identity as Children of God’)

“Will we give birth to new traditions from old traditions? There is a world waiting to be born with an identity in the divine community. We can rediscover our identity as children of God. May something new be born from our traditions. May something new be born.”— Rev. Brian McLaren quoted by Mary Lee Talbot, “Morning Worship: Present Darkness Could Bring Forth New Birth, New Traditions, Preaches McLaren,” The Chautauquan Daily, Aug. 22, 2025

The image accompanying this post, of Rev. Brian McLaren at the lecture “Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road?,” in the 2012 Wild Goose Festival, was taken June 22, 2012, by James Willamor.

Quote of the Day (Ian Frazier, on Putin and the Influence of Lenin’s Tactics at Home and in the U.S.)

“Unlike Marxism-Leninism, [Soviet dictator V.I.] Lenin’s tactics enjoy excellent health today. In a capitalist Russia, [Vladimir] Putin favors his friends, holds power closely and doesn’t compromise with rivals. In America, too, we’ve reached a point in our politics where the strictest partisanship rules. Steve Bannon, the head of the right-wing media organization Breitbart News, who went on to be an adviser to the president, told a reporter in 2013, ‘I’m a Leninist...I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy today’s establishment.’ Of course he didn’t mean he admired Lenin’s ideology—far from it—but Lenin’s methods have a powerfully modern appeal. Lenin showed the world how well not compromising can work. A response to that revolutionary innovation of his has yet to be figured out.”—American writer and humorist Ian Frazier, “What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2017

In the wake of the midterms, cries of “reaching across the aisle to work for the good of the country” sound a bit less tinny now than they have in the past decade.

Still, it’s unlikely that much will come of this sentiment. Changes in campaigning and governance—dating back not just to Donald Trump, but even to Newt Gingrich holding sway on Capitol Hill in the 1990s—militate against that.

If there is any hope for bipartisanship, that may come in how Congress forces a change in administration policy regarding Ukraine.

It remains highly suspicious why Donald Trump watered down a proposed plank in the 2016 Republican Party platform on military aid to that embattled country, let alone why he has been so autocrat-friendly towards Putin since then.

If the GOP is serious about entering a more chastened, post-Trump era, its members in the House and Senate can start by reversing the President’s rank appeasement of the Russian dictator.

Will they start singing “Kumbaya” with the victorious Democrats now? Hardly. But aiding Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be an excellent way to work for the common good abroad—and in a way that will enhance American security at home.

Joke of the Day (Bill Maher, on How To Tell If You’re in a ‘Too-Boozy Administration’)

“If everybody does a shot every time the Strait of Hormuz opens back up.”—American comedian Bill Maher, in an April appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, quoted by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, “Bill Maher Feuded With Trump. Did He Get the Last Laugh?”, The New York Times Magazine, July 21, 2026

Maher might want to amend that joke. This week, amid the midterm election debacle, everybody in the administration must have done a shot after every GOP seat lost in the Senate…in the House of Representatives…in governor’s mansions…and, maybe now, among White House staffers.

I’m sure these rounds were led by Pete Kegseth.

(The photo of Bill Maher accompanying this post was taken by David Shankbone, November 2007, at the PETA screening of I Am An Animal: The story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA.)

Quote of the Day (Joe Klein, on Voters Who View ‘Smart’ and ‘Stupid’ People)

“A smart guy, according to [Donald] Trump, is someone who is wise enough to cheat. Stupid people abide by the law and attend their refugee status hearings; smart ones abscond. Stupid people pay their debts; smart ones stiff their lenders and dare them to sue. Stupid people believe their elected officials; smart people know the game is rigged. The most distressing aspect of Trump’s enduring appeal, even in defeat, is how many Americans seem to agree with him.”—American journalist-novelist Joe Klein, “Honor Code” (review of James Comey’s Saving Justice), The New York Times Book Review, Jan. 17, 2021

Joe Klein’s note of caution following the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election is worth bearing in mind today, even as progressives sing “Happy Days Are Here Again” and celebrate what The Daily Show termed “The Bluebonic Plague” suffered by the President’s MAGA allies at all levels of government.

Certainly Democrats can be glad that the President can no longer run amok with Cabinet and judicial appointments unhindered by spineless Capitol Hill operatives, and that their majorities are so sweeping that they are unlikely to be hindered by Democratic Socialists (far smaller than their GOP counterpart, the Freedom Caucus) or the defection of Pennsylvania’s answer to Lurch of The Addams Family, John Fetterman.

It’s also heartening to see how deflated (if still delusional) Trump has sounded following the resounding rebuke of the midterms.

Nevertheless, multiple obstacles remain if Democrats are to undo the devastation following Trump’s return to power in January 2025. Despite the catastrophes that inevitably befall administrations, he has proven, time and again, to be the Rasputin of modern American politics: a figure who can survive multiple wounds that would be fatal to normal mortals.

So much of that endurance derives from the unscrupulousness that Klein identified nearly six years ago. Learning all too well the lessons taught by his father and his longtime lawyer-mentor Roy Cohn, Trump has become masterful at dodging the law and projecting valid charges back onto accusers.

At the same time, he has administered a massive shot of cynicism that the American body politic, already enervated by this virus, will have enormous difficulty eradicating.

The barriers in overcoming Trump’s certain vetoes are only one example of why Democratic officeholders and the voters who put them in office will need to maintain patience and hard-headed realism before 2028.

Even one of their best potential tools—their investigative power as lawmakers—has its limitations, as expertly outlined in commentator and former GOP speechwriter David Frum in a podcast discussion with Dave Rapallo, former longtime staff director of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Yes, Trump is, by standard measures, a lame duck. But as with everything else with him, all tradition falls by the wayside.

The first assumption is that he will leave office on January 20, 2029. Often, his apologists claim that he doesn’t really mean some of his stunning breaks with precedent, then excuse his attempts to transform his free-floating speculations into actuality.

Nevertheless, it’s notable that in 2016, shortly after he said, “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Putin’s intelligence service “began targeting email accounts associated with Hillary Clinton for possible hacks,” observed special counsel Robert Mueller.

In that light, it’s disturbing that he has joked about running again, despite the 22^nd Amendment’s limits on Presidents to two terms. His defiance of a measure that his own party was instrumental in passing 75 years ago, in belated frustration over FDR’s four successful Presidential races, should not be lightly dismissed.

Or consider this: how can he prevent being indicted 2 1/2 years from now? Only two methods guarantee that outcome: supporting a bid to succeed him by Don Jr. (even if his only son is unaware that Ohio is already a state) or keeping the job himself.

A tenacious hold on the party faithful could complicate what seem like efforts by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice-President J.D. Vance to distance themselves from the Iran War. 

In the best of times, a President can wield tremendous, nearly unhindered power in foreign power, and that remains even more the case with a President who launched and continued with an invasion of Iran without even a by-your-leave consultation with Congress.

So pardon me if I part company with New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen who summarized the election results as meaning, “Decency won.”

A cornered rat remains dangerous, so it’s premature to think that Trump won’t inflict fresh damage. Don’t be surprised if so many of us turn on the evening news, after the current hallelujahs fade, and ask, a la Dorothy Parker, “What fresh hell is this?”

Quote of the Day (Mark Mazower, on ‘The Crisis of Democracy’)

“In fact if there is one good thing to come out of the current political uncertainty, it is that complacency about American democracy will be harder to sustain in future. Let us not worry overly about how to define a fascist: there are plenty of other nasty kinds of authoritarian regimes. It is the crisis of democracy that should concern us more. We know by now what can happen when the institutions of representative government become bitterly polarised, when large swathes of the electorate lose the capacity to compromise, when power and wealth pile up in the hands of elites and when those in charge of the state give up the challenge of responding to widespread economic hardship. History is not a one-way street and democracy has turned authoritarian before. Can it happen again? Why not?”— Columbia University historian Mark Mazower, “Fascism Revisited,” Financial Times, Apr. 14-15, 2018

I took this nighttime picture of the U.S. Capitol in November 2015, before the "crisis of democracy" of the last decade began in earnest. The aftermath of this midterm election will determine the next phase of that crisis.

Joke of the Day (Mae West, on Her Past)

“I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.”—American film and stage actress and screenwriter Mae West (1893-1980), to vaudeville audiences, quoted by Ed Sullivan, “Hollywood,” Augusta Chronicle, May 4, 1938

Spiritual Quote of the Day (C.S. Lewis, on the Saints)

"How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints." —British novelist and religious author C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity (1952)