It Just Gets Worse

... Those with moderate incomes and poor will just become poorer and poorer. I find the world to be a very disgusting place these days.

The pope has died. I am not catholic but am sure this only adds to the mess.

And stock market is crashing because two egotistical, arrogant, stubborn ruling leaders will not compromise on anything

hank goodness I don't look at it too closely

Something good may come out of it, who knows. Markets go down, then later they go up.

older people like myself don't have a lot of time for them to go back up

It's sad that he died. Maybe the next one will be really nice though.

I think Pope Francis was a great guy. When he came into the job, he said that maybe the church could cool it in the bashing gays and outlawing a medical procedure that would save 10s of thousands of lives were it available to women who need them, and ya know, maybe do some, like, helping the poor, giving sanctuary to strangers, and other things that the Jesus guy plastered all over the place commanded. This did not endear him to the status quo elites, to put it mildly.

He was criticized, I think rightly, for not condemning the invasion of Ukraine on the very first day of the “special military operation.”

I think there were other things that he slow-walked, but I am tired, aka too lazy to look things up. I say this as a non-Christian, and definitely not Catholic at any stage of my life. I did have a fascination with the lives of the saints, interestingly. I am, however an ex-Christian who grew up indoctrinated with hard-core fundamentalism stuff, like the Bible is literally history, and the flood and Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, etc, is historically factual.

Like a good little student, I thought that was great news, because if the Bible is the true and complete Word of God, then all I had to do was study it, and then I would know how to keep on good terms with the big guy. Little did I know that my study would lead me to become an atheist, and I was gay as it turned out, so I would be kicked out if I came out anyway. Also I wanted to practice music on Sunday afternoon.

Based on these studies, though, I feel pretty confident that I have a grasp on what the teachings are, once we strip away the thou shalt stone anyone you don’t like part. BTW, JC himself gave an object lesson about the holier than thou attitude when he said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

I think Pope Francis was on the right track. I do worry that the next pope will be like the previous one, who was complicit in covering up the CSA scandal when he was a bishop. I consider that pope a monster. I know how CSA f*cks with a child’s head, and it gets 10x worse when the abuser is a beloved authority figure who cows the victims into silence through threats and gaslighting. Ok, I gotta calm down.