(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: What is "love" of your neighbors and strangers? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-13
We begin today with Christopher White of the National Catholic Reporter and Pope Francis’ direct response to JD Vance’s misuses of Catholic theology in order to defend the Trump Administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, invoked the ancient theological concept of ordo amoris to argue in a Fox News interview and later on social media platform X that "You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world." The pope didn't buy it. "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," Francis wrote in his letter to U.S. bishops. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'Good Samaritan' that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception." The Vatican-White House exchange is nearly unprecedented in modern history.
x MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
[image or embed] — Rich Raho (@richraho.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Just so y’all know, we’re about to go to church.
It’s nice that JD Vance has steeped himself in the works of Catholicism’s two best-known theologians, Augustine and Aquinas. but those words do not supersede the inerrant red-lettered words of Christ (at least not in the church that I once attended).
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
The Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible says the same thing.
The references to “the Law” in the text from Matthew refers to the fact that...it is the Law.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Leviticus 19:33-35
MAGA evangelicals have no problem wanting to enforce other laws in Leviticus, why not those laws regarding the treatment of neighbors and strangers?
What the texts actually say is pretty unambiguous in the translations. [I have to confess that I had never really noticed that the Matthew text rather strangely (to me) says “...with all your mind” (nous)] I mean, that’s what the scribe took down in dictation…or maybe he added it to what was being said...]
I need to add a small note here on what is meant by “love.”
Of course, the Koine Greek language utilizes six different words that translate to the word “love” and the Matthew text does not use a variation of the word “στοργή, storgē” ; it uses a variation of the noun agape, which I learned decades ago is a type of “unconditional” love.
The ancient Hebrew has only one word for “love” and that is ahavah; even Google’s “AI Overview” can’t fu*k up (yet) the wide-ranging meaning of that word, although it should include Issac’s love of “savory meat” (supposedly venison) as an example of ahavah’s usage as well.
I’m not going to blame JD Vance for his error; the fault there may lie with Augustine and Aquinas. But the uses that Vance puts in the service of the doctrine of ordo amoris are sinister. There are reasons why a secular government may want to enforce the civil laws against undocumented immigrants. It may even be necessary, at times.
But sending said immigrants to the prison at Guantanamo Bay and making sure that they don’t have lawyers doesn’t sound very “loving” to me.
I’m done.
Colby Smith of The New York Times reports on yesterday’s rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The Consumer Price Index jumped more than expected, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Wednesday, rising 0.5 percent from December in what was the fastest monthly increase since August 2023. Last month, the annual pace was 2.9 percent. “Core” C.P.I., which more closely reflects underlying inflation by removing volatile food and energy prices, also showed little improvement. It rose 0.4 percent from December or 3.3 percent on a year-over-year basis, both higher than economists expected. The monthly increase in core prices was the highest since April 2023. [...] Grocery prices climbed 0.5 percent compared with the previous month, or 1.9 percent on a yearly basis. That was driven in large part by a nationwide egg shortage caused by an outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu, which has pushed prices up 15.2 percent over the past four weeks. Since last year, egg prices are up 53 percent. It was the largest monthly increase in egg prices since June 2015, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the total increase in grocery prices since December. Gasoline prices also rose another 1.8 percent over the course of the month, although they are down 0.2 percent compared to the same time last year. Among other categories to increase were airline fares and hotel rates. Used cars and trucks as well as automobile insurance rose, with prices up about 2 percent from December. Economists said they do not expect many of those items to continue rising, however, suggesting the January pace may not be sustained.
We shall see...
Paul Krugman writes at his Substack about why the tacky shoe salesman’s tariffs on steel and aluminum are just plain...well, tacky and “ugly.”
Why do I say that these tariffs are ugly? Because this is a policy that gratuitously punishes allies who have done nothing wrong. Most steel and iron comes from nations that are or were American allies; imports of aluminum come almost entirely from Canada… [...] So what’s this all about? I don’t think we should waste time trying to come up with some rational explanation for Trump’s actions. What I see, instead, is a temper tantrum. At some level Trump is aware that while he may have claimed victory over last week’s tariff standoff, everyone who actually knows anything thinks he got rolled. So my best guess is that these tariffs are his way of saying “You think I backed down? Well, watch this!” while taking actions that look big to the uninformed but not so much to people who can crunch the numbers. It's also becoming hard to avoid the sense that Trump has developed a particular animus against Canada. I don’t know why he started floating the idea of annexing our neighbor, but the fierce pushback from the Canadians themselves and the ridicule he has received at home seems to have made him even more obsessive on the topic. And this may in part explain his decision to make Canada the biggest target of his mini trade war.
Judd Legum of Popular Information reports that the National Institutes of Health will begin issuing grants again after acknowledging that its actions in stopping the grants was illegal.
On Wednesday morning, NIH leadership distributed a memo, obtained by Popular Information, acknowledging that its funding freeze was illegal and directing staff to resume issuing grants. The memo was written by Michael Lauer, the NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, and Michelle Bulls, the NIH Chief Grants Officer. It states that the NIH will "effectuate the administration's goals over time," but such considerations cannot factor "into funding decisions at this time." The memo acknowledges that NIH programs "fall under recently issued Temporary Restraining Orders" by federal courts. The new policy to comply with the temporary restraining orders (TROs) was issued today, February 12. The first TRO, however, was issued on January 31. The NIH memo reveals that the agency has been in violation of these orders for almost two weeks. During that time, the memo confirms that staff was not permitted to issue new or continuing grants.
David A. Graham of The Atlantic documents the commentaries of some of those Trump voters that have reached the “FO” phase.
If you’re surprised, you weren’t paying attention—and judging from recent examples, many people weren’t. When Trump announced his plan (I’m using the word generously) to occupy the Gaza Strip and convert it into an international real-estate development, the chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, which formed to back him during the election, expressed shock and betrayal, and announced that the group would rename itself Arab Americans for Peace. Some Arab American voters may have felt compelled to lodge a protest vote against Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, even if it meant contributing to Trump’s win, but no one should have been surprised that a guy who used Palestinian as an insult during the campaign was not a sincere champion for the people of Gaza. Some Venezuelan Americans in Florida are feeling similar outrage. Trump continued to make gains with Hispanic voters in 2024, but this month he ended Temporary Protected Status, a designation that allows noncitizens to stay in the country, for about 300,000 Venezuelans, with more TPS designees likely to lose their status later. “They used us,” the Venezuelan activist Adelys Ferro told NPR. “During the campaign, the elected officials from the Republican Party, they actually told us that he was not going to touch the documented people. They said, ‘No, it is with undocumented people.’” In fact, both Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance said they wanted to deport people legally allowed in the country, such as Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Some voters just convinced themselves that their own groups wouldn’t become targets. They’re not alone. Some Kentucky educators who voted for Trump are aghast that his administration is trying to cut off federal funding that they need to keep their schools functioning, despite his campaign-trail promises to abolish the Department of Education. “I did not vote for that,” one principal told CNN. “I voted for President Trump to make America first again and to improve our lives.” The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, endorsed Trump for president, then decried Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 rioters who attacked police officers—never mind that he had promised pardons while campaigning. CEOs and bankers who decided they liked Trump better because he favors low taxes and less regulation are suddenly chagrined to learn that he was serious about tariffs. A Missouri farmer who voted for Trump is horrified that the administration is freezing federal funding for conservation programs, even though Trump promised to eliminate environmental programs and slash government spending.
Madison J. Gray of The Emancipator writes about the growing trend of Black expatriates.
For an increasing number of Black Americans, the Jan. 6 insurrection was a menacing prelude to our current political climate. It foreshadowed when far-right fundamentalists will have a seemingly blank check to execute an extremist agenda. A growing number of Black Americans, seeking a respite from racism and toxic anti-Black American policies, are expatriating in a social movement known as “Blaxit.” It is difficult to track specific figures on the numbers of Black American expatriates. However, more broadly, an estimated 5.5 million Americans live abroad, according to figures from the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. A Monmouth University poll released last year shows a sharp uptick in the number of Americans who wish to make an exit over the past 50 years. The population of American expatriates was pretty low in the decades just after World War II. In 1974, roughly 10% of Americans expressed the desire to live abroad. However, over the next four decades that number steadily increased, according to analysts. In 2024, that number jumped to 34%. Some Black expatriates face racism and discrimination when they move abroad – especially in such places as Asia, with nations that tend to be more racially homogenous, and Europe, which is in the throes of its own political and cultural conservative retraction.
Jennifer Gerson of The 19th News explains some of the significance for Elon Musk having his 4-year old kid in the Oval Office during a presidential address.
Throughout Musk’s stop by the Oval Office, X knelt by the Resolute Desk, picked his nose and whispered to the president. In other words, he acted very much like a 4-year old child. But X’s presence also underscored the outsized presence that the unelected Musk is playing in American politics. The preschooler’s appearance in the Oval Office nods to the double standard faced by women in politics and reinforces the gender roles inherent in Musk’s beliefs about family. Musk, a father of 12, is an avowed pronatalist, or someone who believes declining population rates are a major concern and has committed to work to remedy this by having as many children as possible. He sees part of his life’s work as repopulating the planet with as many children — and exceptional children at that — as possible. Laura Lovett, a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh who researches women’s political action in the 20th century and is the author of the book “Conceiving the Future: Pronatalism, Reproduction, and the Family in the United States, 1890-1938,” said Musk and X’s appearance in the Oval Office was a throwback to the kind of language associated with the rise of the pronatalists movement at the turn of the last century.
Johana Bhuiyan reports a Guardian exclusive that Google executives have told its employees details of why the company is scrapping DEI efforts and is removing prohibitions against building AI for weapons and surveillance.
Melonie Parker, Google’s former head of diversity, said the company was doing away with its diversity and inclusion employee training programs and “updating” broader training programs that have “DEI content”. It was the first time company executives have addressed the whole staff since Googleannounced it would no longer follow hiring goals for diversity and took down its pledge not to build militarized AI. The chief legal officer, Kent Walker, said a lot had changed since Google first introduced its AI principles in 2018, which explicitly stated Google would not build AI for harmful purposes. He said it would be “good for society” for the company to be part of evolving geopolitical discussions in response to a question about why the company removed prohibitions against building AI for weapons and surveillance. [...] Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the company had always “deeply cared” about hiring a workforce that represents the diversity of its global users but that the firm had to comply with the rules and regulations of where it operates. [...] Pichai, who was speaking from Paris while attending an international AI summit, and other executives were responding to questions employees posted in an internal forum. Some of these questions were part of a coordinated effort among worker activist groups such as No Tech for Apartheid to force company executives to answer for the tech giant’s drastic move away from its previous core values.
Winona Xu of Just Security reports that the halting of most forms of foreign aid through USAID may be playing out with devastating consequences in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC is worsening not only due to armed violence but also because of a dramatic surge in gender-based violence. A rapid World Health Organization (WHO) assessment of health facilities in and around Goma revealed 45 cases of sexual violence among displaced persons and 21 gang rape survivors admitted to local hospitals in just a short timeframe. However, these cases only scratch the surface, as many survivors are unable to access medical care due to displacement, stigma, and ongoing insecurity. The U.N. has already warned that sexual violence is being strategically used as a weapon of war, and with limited medical supplies, survivors face high risks of untreated infections, unwanted pregnancies, and lifelong trauma. With nearly 70 percent of humanitarian funding for the DRC coming from the United States, USAID has been a vital force in sustaining medical care, food security, and emergency response efforts in Goma. Prior to the aid freeze, USAID-funded programs supportedemergency obstetric care, reproductive health services for sexual violence survivors, and disease prevention initiatives, including cholera and measles vaccination campaigns in displacement camps. However, with the aid suspension, many of these critical services have been forced to scale down or halt altogether, leaving thousands of women and children without life-saving medical and nutritional support at a time when humanitarian needs are imperative. The mounting crisis in Goma demands an immediate and robust response, including humanitarian access, accountability for sexual violence, and reconsideration of foreign aid restrictions already have dire repercussions for reproductive health and human security.
Manuel Ansede of El País in English reports that a group of Spanish scientists have found massive emissions of methane gas while exploring the Antarctic seabed.
A team of Spanish scientists exploring the Antarctic seabed has detected “massive emissions” of methane, a gas with a capacity to warm the planet around 30 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO₂). The researchers, on board the ship Sarmiento de Gamboa, have observed columns of methane in the ocean up to 700 meters long and 70 meters wide, according to the geologists Ricardo León and Roger Urgeles, leaders of the expedition, in statements to EL PAÍS. These previously unknown emissions could potentially represent an environmental bomb for the planet’s climate. What they have discovered is exactly what they feared. Scientists set sail on January 12 in search of these massive but at that point still hypothetical leaks. The compound accumulated on the seabed about 20,000 years ago through the decomposition of organic matter in the form of methane hydrates, a crystalline solid. “It is like ice that you could set on fire and it would burn,” explains Urgeles, of the Institute of Marine Sciences, based in Barcelona. The theory was that the thinning of the enormous Antarctic ice sheet, which began at the end of the last ice age, is causing a decrease in the weight on the land and a rise of the continent’s land mass; this phenomenon, known as post-glacial rebound, favors leaks of frozen methane hidden for millennia in the seabed.
Finally today, of course the question contained in the headline was also a 1993-94 international hit for Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway. Here’s Haddaway’s live version of the song “What is Love” performed in 2022 at the Arena Suzuki in (appropriately enough) Verona, Italy.
Have the best possible day everyone!
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/13/2303368/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-What-is-love-of-your-neighbors-and-strangers?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
