Sunday Scribbles IIXXX

It seems appropriate, somehow, that I should be making the odd acid comment about the hypocrisy of our religious leaders today. It is, after all, the last Sunday before Easter, and they should be communing with their god, who will be telling them - if history is any sort of guide - to cover their arses. Unlike the arses of their child-victims. Those, apparently, they could violate with impunity.

We expect god-botherers to be Good People. After all, they would argue that it'simpossible to have a moral compass without a belief in their god. Hmmm.

The German Pope is a fraud. The Polish one wasn't much better, although he did have one advantage over the previous twenty or so wearers of Peter's ring. He wasn't Italian. The Papacy has been held be a succession of venal, self-serving, droolingly evil men for the past few centuries. Their was one who,it semed, might be OK, but he died very quickly: the first John Paul. I have no brief for the conspiracy theory that yatters on about the circumstances surrounding his death, but I will say that it's mighty convenient.

The Kraut has to resign. But that's only a beginning. What the Catholic Church.. and the Anglican / Episcopalean one - need to do is hand over all documentation regarding child "abuse" to the local constabulary, and let the non-relisious law take care of them.

Incidentally - why can't we call it rape? Because that's what these vicious self-serving bastards did.

Another example of the Catholic Church's lack of moral turpitude - something that nearly scraped under the radar. Their organisation is so weak in Eastern Europe that they've welcomed a sect in the Ukraine called the Eastern Catholic Church who have never really subscribed to the corruption that is the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope. The Eastern Catholic Church can marry: and I wouldn't be surprised to find they're actually attracting mostly sane people to their organisations - or at least people who don't find children's bodies to be sexually titillating. The main Church has welcomed this sect into their fold becauseit's the only way they can spread their money-making network into these eastern European lands. If it's OK for some catholic priests to be married, it must be OK for all of them. It may not proetct childrfen against the paedophiliac priests of today, but the future may be a little rosier.

Actually, as the whole system has been demonstrably shown to be a criminal organisation - and one that goes to any deperate length to protect its vicious, raping gang-members -why don't the secular powers move to close them down? If I were to run an organisation that supported child-rape, I'm sure the powers that be would be on me like flies on shit.

Listening to: the radio. They're banging on about the Destiny Church - another vile organisation, led by a venal and corrupt man.
Reading: "The Edge of Madness," Michael Dobbs. excellent.
Watching: "The Wire", season one. It is quite brilliant.
Word of the Day: Audition. Cross your fingers forme at 2 this afternoon.

New story: Paper Heroes

PROLOGUE
Chronology of Events

2014 to 2018
Democracy races through North Africa. Sadam Hussein’s overthrow in the United States of America’s so-called “War on Terror” and his subsequent suicide in 2007 leads directly to universal suffrage in Iraq. After bloody internal wars, democratic secular states are formed by the peoples of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt. The Palestinians are granted the West Bank as a separate homeland. Within months, the new Palestine is recognised by most nations at the U.N: notable exceptions are the USA, Australia, and Israel.
Hurricanes Marvin, Nigel, Oscar, Pedro, and Quentin hit Florida in a six-week period in June / July 2015. Tens of thousands die. President Condaleeza Rice imposes martial law that is never lifted.
In 2016 OPEC’s oil production is halved. The international oil trade is rocked further when OPEC adopts the Euro as their trading currency. Wall Street stumbles as trillions of dollars are wiped off the board. The resulting international recession stimulates a major shift in real-politik: the USA ceases to be the engine-room of the world’s economy. Now, the monetary muscle is in Brussels and Beijing.

2019
The Communist Party in China holds its first free and open elections. For the first time an active political opposition party is permitted to stand: the Communists retain power with a slender majority. Mainland China and Taiwan voluntarily re-unite, creating the world’s largest economy. The USA threatens war, embarrassing herself by calling China a rogue nation. Japan trembles and falls: unemployment hits 28%.
In gubernatorial elections, isolationist factions in the USA win power. Within months the deportation of all Spanish-speaking residents of California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to Mexico begins. This new diaspora strips California of nearly half of her population, and the resulting recession bites hard. Canada throws open her borders to any U.S citizen who wants refuge: millions move North, either adopting Canada as their new home, or using the country as a conduit to other lands.
A twenty-foot high concrete and electrified steel and razor wire wall is built along the Mexico / USA border. Millions of anti-personnel mines are sown; a hundred thousand lives are reaped. Anyone trying to cross into USA without authority is fired upon without warning. The ground between the two nations is littered with bones: shattered ribs, pelvises, skulls.

2023
The USA withdraws from NATO.

2033
Desperate for oil, a weakened United States of America invades Iraq for the third time. The Organisation of Arab Democratic States declares the United States of America to be a rogue nation, hostile to the democratic movement, and threatens to cut America’s oil supplies completely. President James T Fuller (Rep.), enjoying almost total Senate and Congressional support, proclaims a State of Emergency. The last two Democratic Senators and one Democratic Congresswoman resign in protest. They are not replaced.
The European Union, the developing Coalition of Free Balkan States, India, China, Japan, and most African nations ratify the OADS. declaration, and provide military and political support for Iraq. NATO and the OADS combine as a defence force.
The USA armed forces are routed, forced out of North Africa. The aging aircraft carrier Enterprise II is hit by 27 OADS missiles, five of which break through to two of the ship’s magazines. The resulting explosion tears the belly out of the giant ship, which sinks in minutes. President Fuller opens the nuclear football: the sands of Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, are turned to glass in the ensuing nuclear response. For good measure, missiles also strike Paris, London, Copenhagen, Brussels, Berlin, Moscow, Rome, Ankara, and a dozen other NATO and European Union capitals. NATO missiles – many ironically American-built – flash across the Atlantic and over the Arctic. The much-vaunted – but 40 year-old - Missile Defence System fails catastrophically. Most of the eastern seaboard is vapourised – the only cities to survive in any shape are Boston and New York
The resulting Nuclear Winter lasts five years. An unknown number die in the resulting storms, famines, floods, and mini-Ice Age. The sea level drops by more than a metre.
The United States of America is ejected from the United Nations: this once great country is now on her own. The crews of the six remaining United States of America aircraft carrier battle groups surrender their great war-ships to the United Nations authority, which promptly scraps all 784 vessels and their arms. The Security Council of the United Nations is reorganised and expanded to include China, Japan, Brazil, the E.U., and the OADS Britain, Russia, and France willingly retire their positions. In Asia, the old SEATO is revived, with most Asian nations coming together as a single trading and defence bloc. New Zealand, Australia, and the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian nations are invited to join. Japan’s economy is revived by a massive influx of investment from the increasingly wealthy African states.
The USA State of Emergency rapidly descends into an autocracy, as Fuller suspends the American Constitution and Bill of Rights, and is given the right to hold his office for a minimum of 16 years before elections are required. Senatorial and Congressional elections are suspended as the American economy winds down.

2034 to 2056
The United Nations relocates to Sri Lanka.
Hawaii secedes from the USA, and accepts Japanese protection. The USA invades Canada, with extreme loss of life. The great killing grounds claim over 40 million lives. Canada ceases to exist – as do Polar Bears. Only a few tens of thousands of Canadians escape, with France accepting the majority. The United Nations votes overwhelmingly (231 to 3) to censure the USA and to blockade her shores, using the combined NATO, SEATO, OADS, Central American, African, and South American navies. The Mexican wall is fortified from both sides, and a no-go zone of 50 miles on the USA side of the border is established by the Texas Klansmen, while Mexico states its willingness to accept all US refugees. Nearly 10 million USA citizens flee, and are absorbed by the rest of the world. How many die inside USA borders is unknown. China accepts over 6 million Americans. It is estimated that less than 10 million people are left in North America.