I think she's earned some swagger

Fun fact: the newly sworn-in Secretary of
Defense is covered in white nationalist tattoos.

Oh, but let's end on a more positive note. As you may have noticed, Reverend Budde has become an obsession of mine this week, despite my being a not particularly religious person. I think it's because of her very public defiance at a time when so many others are quick to capitulate in the face of the inexplicable success of the right. A success that comes despite being nakedly unqualified to govern, openly racist, and flatly opposed to everything we hold dear as a culture. I suppose I'm just looking for stories about people who stand up to them, you know?

Pictured: the photo in question.
Not pictured: the capacity for shame.

As I mentioned in that last post but didn't follow-up on, this isn't Budde's first brush with this President playing pious for the rubes. Durning the end of his previous reign, he had the Park Police and National Guard troops tear gas protestors who were demanding justice for George Floyd. He wanted the path clear so he could walk across the street, hold a Bible upside down and get his picture taken in front of St. John Episcopal Church. Something Budde, who, as the Bishop of Washington, should have been, you know, consulted about in advance? 

Unsurprisingly, she didn't take kindly to her Church being used as a prop in the President's pitch for the uninformed religious voters who, while self-identifying as Christians, would be hard pressed to quote anything they didn't read on wall decor sold at Hobby Lobby.

"Live, laugh, love."

-Jesus, I guess

Turns out they do do communion
wine. I looked it up. You're welcome!

Understandably outraged, Budde released a statement denouncing the President's actions and affirming the Church's support for George Floyd and other victims of police violence. She then went on to write a whole book about how we need to brave in the face of injustice, falsehoods, and former gameshow hosts with histories of sexual assault that somehow get to be President twice. But if that's not enough to paint Budde as five foot nothing of righteous badassery, hold my, uh, communion wine? 

I guess what I'm saying is, if you're voting
the same way these folks are voting, maybe
it's time to reevaluate. Everything.

If you're my age or older, you might recall the murder of Mathew Shepard, whose brutal murder in 1998 drew national attention to anti-gay hate crimes and to hate groups like the Westboro Baptist Church, an organization who routinely demonstrated against LGBTQIA+ rights at funerals and indeed tried to do just that at Shepard's. What I didn't know is that Shepard's ashes when unburied for years because his family feared vandalism. A fear back then, and outside the realm of possibility today given everything that's going on. Hate-groups are in, I guess.

Anyway, Bishop Budde was instrumental in inviting the Shepards to have their sons ashes interred in the National Cathedral, which--shut up, I'm not crying, you're crying--is the very same Cathedral she called the President out on for his hate-filled political agenda. So I'm not saying I'm ready to drink the communion wine, but I am saying that we need more people willing to speak truth to smug, undeserved power.

Pictured: the confident swagger of a women who
just humiliated the world's leading hypocrite.